Cooper Legal welcomes the Royal Commission’s final report, Whanaketia – Through Pain and Trauma, from Darkness to Light (“Whanaketia”), which was tabled in Parliament today.

Cooper Legal commends the Royal Commission for the work it has done for survivors over the past six years.

Cooper Legal Principal Partner, Sonja Cooper says “we commend the Commission for exposing the harm and trauma that State and faith-based care has caused for countless survivors. This is something that for decades the State has failed to recognise.

“It is unfortunate that no Government to date has acknowledged the systemic nature of abuse in State care and delayed any meaningful response for survivors for years. We hope that Whanaketia will change this.

“The Royal Commission made clear and urgent recommendations to the Government back in December 2021 in its interim redress report.

“This included the prompt creation an independent redress scheme for survivors. It also recommends that agencies make advance payments to survivors in the meantime, and that the State stop relying on legal technicalities to avoid being held to account.

“The Commission's final report again urges the Government to finally implement its 95 previous recommendations. It has also made an additional 138 new recommendations.

“The Commission should not have had to repeat its earlier recommendations. We only find ourselves in the situation we are in today because the Government largely ignored the 2021 report.

“For example, three years after the release of the interim report, State agencies continue to rely on limitation defences to prevent survivors from obtaining the redress they are entitled to.

“We know that it can take many years for people to disclose traumatic childhood abuse, especially sexual abuse. This makes the reliance on limitation defences cynical and not survivor-focused.

“The Government has not yet announced whether the independent redress scheme, Puretumu Torowhānui, will be implemented and if so, how it will be implemented. We strongly urge this Government to implement the recommendations of that report, as well as the report that was tabled today.

“Christopher Luxon and his Government have the opportunity to do what no Government has done to date and provide the redress and support for survivors that they are entitled to”, Ms Cooper concluded.

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