The Government will invest $774 million in Budget 2025 to improve the redress system for the survivors of abuse in state care, with action on increasing the average payment for new claims and providing top-ups to those who have already settled claims.
Erica Stanford, the minister in charge, said ministers had decided to focus on improving the current system, rather than introducing a new entity, to assist survivors more quickly.
A new entity was one of the recommendations of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions, set up by the Government in 2018.
The improvements announced today are expected to take place over the rest of this year. They do not include decisions relating to faith-based institutions, which needed more consideration, Stanford.
“I acknowledge this will be disappointing for so many survivors of abuse in faith-based care.”
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said there were issues with setting up a new system.
“It costs a lot of money and you’ve got to be able to guarantee that you can get a better result from what you’re doing right now.
“When we look at the number of survivors, who’ve actually waited a tremendous amount and a long period of time, we actually feel moving quickly in order to get the redress to them is actually really important.”
The Government will increase the average redress payment for new claims from $19,180 to $30,000 and provide top-up payments of 50% to survivors who have already settled claims to ensure consistency with the increased payments for new claims.
A framework will be introduced so that survivors receive the same financial redress for similar experiences of abuse, regardless of where it occurred, while the survivors who experienced the most egregious abuse will receive higher payments.
The system’s capacity to process claims will also be increased from 1350 claims a year to 2150 from 2027, cutting down on wait times. Survivors who have claims with multiple agencies will soon have one point of contact to assist them.
An independent review will be introduced for people unhappy with their redress offer, while funding is also being put aside for agencies to provide survivors with support and services.
The investment announced today follows the Government’s apology late last year to the survivors of abuse in state and faith-based care.
“The Government was faced with a difficult choice: do we spend more time and money on setting up a new scheme, or do we provide more to survivors now through the current redress process?” Stanford said.
“For Budget 25, we have prioritised improving the current system as quickly as possible for survivors and investing in changes that have a direct impact for them.”
She told reporters that, with the new single point of contact, “it will feel like a single entity”.
“We did need to prioritise speed and making sure that we’re able to give clarity and certainty to survivors, because we could have spent many years and many millions - up to $33 million [is] what they were predicting - setting up something big and complex and then having to merge it with the big and complex thing we already have.”
She also highlighted investments in the wider care system over the next four years, including:
“There is also funding for the continuation of the Survivor Experiences Service, who provide an important survivor-led service, better record keeping and access to records, and for an independent review of the changes to the redress system in 2027,” a statement said.
The Cabinet has agreed that, for new claims from survivors who are also serious sexual and/or violent offenders sentenced to five years or more in prison, a new process will apply.
“Modelled on similar approaches in Australia and Scotland, this will involve an independent decision-maker who will need to assure themselves that a redress payment would not bring the scheme into disrepute. Legislation establishing this will be introduced later this year.”
Stanford acknowledged that the abuse people suffered “did send many of those on a certain trajectory in life into gangs and into a life of crime”.
She said it would be a very small number who would have an independent reviewer consider their case. In Australia, it has applied to about 4%-5% of survivors, and the vast majority still receive their payments.
A ministerial advisory group of survivors and advocates will be established in the coming months to provide additional advice to ministers on the Government’s response.
“Redress decisions, at this point, do not include claims that currently sit with school boards, faith-based organisations or other non-state providers. The Government will be receiving further advice on this later this year.”
Stanford said wider work was continuing on the response to the Royal Commission recommendations. A full response plan is expected to be released soon.
Labour said survivors had a right to feel disappointed and sidelined.
“The Royal Commission was very clear: survivors needed to be involved in designing and implementing a new, independent system for redress. The Government has completely ignored that,” Labour leader Chris Hipkins said.
“Putting more money into an existing redress system that so many of the survivors have already said they have no confidence in just isn’t good enough.
“We offered to take politics off the table and work with the Government to make sure we lived up to the words in our formal apologies last year. The Government chose not to take up this offer.”
The Green Party was also critical of today’s announcement, saying the Government had underfunded financial compensation for survivors. However, it didn’t say how much should be allocated.
“The Government has now offered survivors well below what they deserve in this redress announcement,” co-leader Marama Davidson said.
“The Government is not only failing to heal the wounds of our past but is risking opening up new ones without real redress and a repeat of old mistakes.”
Earlier this week, Malcolm Richards, a survivor of torture at the notorious Lake Alice psychiatric facility, revealed he was taking the Government to court over its redress scheme.
Richards, who was tortured with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) as a 15-year-old, is seeking a judicial review.
The scheme includes either an expedited payment of $150,000 or a request for an arbiter to complete an individualised assessment.
The Government has set aside $22.68 million for redress payments, including operating costs.
Richards has rejected the $150,000 payment out of principle, saying he wants to see through his legal challenge in the hope of changing the current redress system.
Stanford said $7m had been paid in expedited payments (of $150,000 each) to 47 survivors. There were a further 29 fast-track payments in progress.
Forty-four survivors had chosen the individualised pathway, she said.
Stanford has previously said the redress served “as an expression of our regret as to the many ways in which they [survivors] were failed”.
In February, she said the Government wanted to ensure people had a choice in the redress process.
“A number of survivors of the Lake Alice unit have made clear to me the importance of choice. For some, certainty and pace are a priority, for others an individualised process is more important.”
The current approach provided flexibility for survivors and was more responsive to the different experiences of torture, she said.
Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald’s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland.
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