Survivors left devastated by unjust and retraumatising church responses to their pleas for justice said the government must act quickly to set up the new single redress system. “Survivors are dying and justice delayed is justice denied,” said Christopher Longhurst, national leader of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) Aotearoa New Zealand.

SNAP recalled the Abuse In Care Royal Commission of Inquiry’s first recommendation was to “Implement the new puretumu torowhānui system and scheme as an immediate priority.”

SNAP was a core participant in the Abuse In Care Inquiry. Its leadership has stressed how all survivors must be treated fairly prescinding state or faith-based care settings. “The government mustn’t discriminate amongst survivors based on place or kind of abuse, all other things being equal,” stated Longhurst.

SNAP is concerned that by awarding only Lake Alice survivors a 150K payout, the government may be experimenting with how to condition survivors.

The government promised a national redress framework by the end of 2024. It was expected to be operating sometime in 2025. However, that still hasn’t happened.

According to the Abuse in Care Inquiry, the total economic toll on society is estimated at over $200bn with an $857K lifetime cost per survivor ($1.05M in 2023 adjusted for inflation).

“Though none of this would have been necessary had the right laws been in place from the outset,” said Longhurst, “and nothing will change until new legislation is enacted to protect our tamariki and rangitangi in the future and hold abusers and those who shield them to account."

According to SNAP, delaying justice has been a common practice used by church leaders. “Church officials have avoided fair redress for decades by their age-old strategy of ‘delay, deny, and defend’,” reported Donald McLeish, a SNAP Aotearoa trustee. “We have numerous members who reached out to church leaders for redress but were met with only empty words and deceptive practices,” McLeish stated.

SNAP reports that survivors who seek redress from New Zealand’s Catholic Church authorities routinely have their complaints dismissed without any admission of wrongdoing. “NZ Catholic Church officials stymie investigations and refuse to follow their own redress procedure, Te Houhanga Rongo/A PATH TO HEALING,” reported McLeish.

This fact is a major reason why survivors and advocates are keen for the government to set up the promised redress system without delay and even go beyond the Inquiry’s recommendations.

SNAP hopes the government will act on the eleven steps proposed in their Open Letter to the Prime Minister on 25 October 2024, especially removing fiscal benefits and taxation concessions from religious institutions that fail to adequately support survivors and the new redress system.

SNAP thanks Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Government Response Minister Erica Stanford for acknowledging their letter.

“Let’s put survivors first and heal our nation,” said Dr. Longhurst. “In healing our nation, we improve the quality of our own lives and make the world a safer place.”

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