Erica Stanford: ‘Apologies can be hollow without actions’

On November 12, the Prime Minister, alongside his ministers and a selection of public service heads, will offer a national apology for the abuse and torture that tens of thousands of children suffered at the hands of the state

But as so many survivors have said since the Government tabled the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, words without action are hollow.

The minister in charge of the Government’s response to the landmark inquiry is acutely aware of this, and as such, Erica Stanford will also be introducing a so-called omnibus bill that puts forward a raft of legislative changes across different areas aimed at improving the state care system.

“A lot of survivors have said to me their number one concern is that they don’t want to have what happened to them happen to anyone else,” Stanford tells Newsroom.

So, Stanford, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and other ministers across portfolios like mental health, social welfare, disability, and children have looked at what changes can be made to legislation right now to try to make the state care system safer.

Stanford did not say what specific laws will be changed through the bill, which will be introduced on the same day Luxon stands in the House to acknowledge and apologise for the abuse, torture and trauma survivors have endured.

But among the 230 recommendations contained in the redress report and the final report, there are calls to amend at least 10 laws, as well as introducing entirely new pieces of legislation to govern a new care system.

These recommendations include things like changing the Human Right Act to provide statutory protection of the rights of Māori and disabled people to be free from abuse and neglect in care, and reviewing the Legal Services Act to remove barriers to civil proceedings regarding abuse and neglect in care, including means-testing criteria, charges over property, and repayments.

The commission also calls for a new Care Safety Act and Care Safe Agency to regulate the state and faith-based care systems – something unlikely to be addressed next month through an omnibus bill.

The report from the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care is heavy, Stanford says.

It’s true in the literal sense – printed, it weighs about 14kg. But it also lays out the harrowing accounts of what survivors endured during their time in state and faith-based care, and the abusive and re-traumatising cover-up and denial that the Crown has subjected them to ever since.

This is the “sanitised version” of what was done to these survivors, Stanford says. And she’s “hugely grateful” some of these people have put their trust in her – both to share their stories, but also to offer their suggestions and solutions for how to do things better.

“It’s important that I think about it every day, because I’m the one who’s meeting with survivors … I’m the person who has that direct link and the understanding of exactly what happened to them.”

She also understands there are “lots of different perspectives, but the most important perspective is their perspective”. So, when survivors say the Government needs to make changes to improve the care system, Stanford listens.

And survivors are right to be concerned about the current state of the country’s care system.

This week, a group of young people at Korowai Manaaki protested on the roof of the youth justice facility; two months ago a young person sustained minor injuries in an alleged assault at the hands of a staff member; and in July the Office of the Children’s Commissioner released reports that detailed staff physically assaulting the young people, supplying them with contraband and engaging in “inappropriate relationships”.

Last year, 519 children in care experienced at least one recorded incident of harm.

Many of the commission’s recommendations will take longer to progress, but on November 12, Stanford will reveal the low-hanging fruit the Government has been able to move on – both in the space of legislative changes and other recommendations around redress and compensation.

“The apologies are massively significant,” Stanford tells Newsroom.

The first step is to say ‘We acknowledge you and we believe you’ – a big shift from a state that has worked for decades to deny, cover up and minimise the abuse people suffered while in state and faith-based care.

“But … it can be hollow without actions,” she says.

Separate to what will be announced on November 12, Stanford will be able to give survivors an update on other work her Government is undertaking in response to the report and to survivors’ personal recommendations.

Last month, Stanford announced the Crown Response Unit, which sits inside the Public Service Commission, has been bolstered to become a separate office within the commission. This office has been given additional funding and now has a new chief executive: Rajesh Chhana. 

Meanwhile, Deputy Public Service Commissioner Rebecca Kitteridge is in charge of the group of relevant Crown bosses who are responding to the commission’s inquiry, including the heads of education, social development, health, Crown Law, and Whaikaha.

Separately, the Government has set up a rapid payment system for terminally ill Lake Alice Survivors to be able to access $20,000 as an immediate measure.

And next week, Stanford will make a further announcement relating to support available to some of those abused at Lake Alice.

Stanford says when the boss asked her to take on this job she was surprised. But only for about five minutes.

It quickly became clear to her that the role needed to be held by a senior Cabinet minister, and – frankly – a woman.

While Stanford is both these things, pulling the coalition Government and the mighty public service along with her on this journey will be no easy feat.

She has been handed a massive, complex piece of work, but the job doesn’t come with any special powers. Stanford can’t compel her Cabinet colleagues, or those in the public service, to do her bidding.

While she can make her expectations clear and impress upon them the importance of the work, she has, and will continue to, come up against competing priorities and an embedded culture in the public service that is slow to change.

One of the biggest question marks hanging over the Government’s response is compensation.

Estimations in the commission’s report suggest the Government could be on the hook for $217 billion in redress payouts.

The figure is a best guess, based on unverified information, including the number of people thought to have been abused while in care. While the commission estimates 200,000 people may have been abused in care in New Zealand, a former chief statistician says the figure lacks scientific rigour.

Stanford says she is working with Treasury and others to get a clearer idea of how much the Government might expect to pay in compensation, while acknowledging “no amount of money is ever, ever going to make up for what happened to them”.

And the Government has promised to prioritise Lake Alice victims.

Now that the Prime Minister and his Government have formally, finally, acknowledged that what happened to children at Lake Alice was torture, there is an expectation those people will be offered something significant towards the pain and suffering they and their families have endured.

On July 24, when the report was publicly released, Luxon seemingly accepted financial compensation would cost the Government billions, and committed to doing “the right thing”.

These comments have raised survivors’ hopes, and all eyes are on Stanford – as their champion within Government – to deliver.

But that doesn’t take into account the state of the Crown accounts, a difficult economic climate, competing Government priorities, and coalition dynamics.

While both Act and NZ First have made comments in support of the commission’s findings and the Government’s acknowledgement and apology, neither would clearly state their positions on redress for Lake Alice survivors.

“All I’d say is that it is exceedingly delicate and difficult given the terrible trauma that has occurred. And the best thing to do is give a person a job and back them, which is what we’re doing,” Act leader David Seymour says.

While NZ First leader Winston Peters would only say: “You’ll have to wait ‘til the minister makes that announcement.”

About 1200 survivors, their support people and guests will attend apology events at Parliament and in the three main centres on November 12.

Stanford hasn’t met with all these survivors, but she’s spoken to enough of them and heard enough of their stories that this work is never far from mind.

“It’s important that it weighs heavily on me,” she says.

“One of them said to me: ‘When we leave here, we take what happened to us and we live it every single day. You only have to live it right here in this meeting, and you’ll go off and live your life’.”

Stanford says she thinks about that comment every day. She knows how difficult it is for survivors to put their trust in her, especially after what the state has put them through.

“The thing I worry about is that as much as I want to right every wrong, I’m never going to be able to, and I’m never going to be able to meet expectations. And there will be some survivors who are happy with what we’ve done and there’ll be others that won’t be. And that will rest on me.”

Despite the enormity of the task before her, Stanford says she’s “really pretty proud” to be leading this work.

“It’s such a massively important piece of work to tens of thousands of people, and it will change the course of how we do things in the future.”