State abuse compensation 'band-aids for bullet wounds', government told
Photo:
VNP / Phil Smith
The government has been told its compensation scheme for survivors of state abuse offers "band-aids for bullet wounds".
In an urgent debate in parliament, Labour called on the coalition government to reconsider its contentious decision not to set up a new independent redress system.
The government acknowledges it may not have come up with a perfect solution, but says its allocated an historically significant amount of money.
Labour's Willow-Jean Prime requested the debate, which the Speaker allowed because it was a "significant issue".
Prime kicked off the debate by quoting a survivor who said the government's redress announcement on Friday was "shameful."
The government has
decided against setting up a new system
, which the Royal Commission of Inquiry recommended, instead deciding to put more money into the current system.
The decision was also at odds with the prime minister's assurances last year that a new system would be set up.
But Prime told Parliament on Tuesday the final report from the Royal Commission was clear that "survivors wanted an independent system".
"Funnelling more money into systems that have harmed them in the past, is, without question, the wrong call."
Erica Stanford - the minister in charge of the government's redress process - responded by saying the coalition was still allocating a significant and historic amount of money.
"More than three quarters of a billion dollars, $774 million dollars as a pre-budget announcement - the single largest investment into redress in this country's history."
She said it was about moving quickly for those who have been waiting for years.
"The advice that I have received around creating something new and complex would have taken an extraordinarily long period of time, and would have been very expensive on the one hand."
Stanford said Cabinet had to "make a call" on whether or not it went with something "highly complex, very expensive, take a long time and may not get us the outcomes that we expect".
The Green Party's Kahurangi Carter dismissed that, saying survivors deserve what was promised and calling the amount of money they are getting "woefully insignificant".
"It is tokenistic, it is disrespectful and it is not enough to make up for the trauma and suffering that these survivors experienced, and the generational trauma that continues today."
ACT's Karen Chourr said compensation was not just about money.
"It's also about knowing that our voices are being heard, that the hurt and harm that has been brought to this House, and put in black and white in a report of what has happened, that their voice mattered and counted toward making sure that governments in the future, and agencies in the future, are doing everything they possibly can to prevent that harm from happening again."
NZ First's Casey Costello said the issue should not be treated as a political football.
"The perfect solution does not exist because every single individual that has been harmed, that has been damaged, has their own individual story, their own individual expectations.
"Is it the perfect solution? We will not know. But what we do know - rather than heckling in this house - is that we have invested $774 million dollars."
But Mariameno Kapa-Kingi of Te Pāti Māori accused the coalition of continuing the legacy of abuse.
"This government has offered band-aids for bullet wounds, and the minister should be ashamed. Deeply ashamed.
"Just as every other complicit member of parliament in the coalition government should be to, because to reject the findings - let me just say that again - to reject the findings of the commission is to reject the truth."
A Ministerial Advisory Group made up of survivors and advocates will be established in the coming months. It will provide relevant ministers with advice on the government's response, including implementing the changes.
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