(c) The Committee’s findings in favour of Mr Richards and Mr Zentveld apply to all survivors in
the Lake Alice.193
(d) The State has not properly acknowledged its responsibility and it has not held individual
perpetrators to account nor provided holistic redress in a timely manner.194
177.
The Royal Commission concluded:195
It is wrong that no one has ever been found accountable and that survivors are still waiting
for justice. The story of the Lake Alice Child and Adolescent unit is a shameful chapter in the
history of Aotearoa New Zealand, which must be faced head-on without excuses or
explanations, but with a determination to accept the injustice, make proper amends and
ensure this tragedy never happens again.
178.
The Government responded to the report saying that the children and young people were
“subject to terrible abuse and neglect.” It admitted the “systematic failure in the care of
patients at the unit” and the “unsatisfactory results” that a series of investigations into abuse
at the unit had delivered.196
Redress Hearing
179.
The executive summary to the redress hearing highlighted the systemic, widespread nature of
abuses inflicted against children in state and faith-based care, and the lack of accountability
and redress afforded to them:197
Neither State nor faith-based institutions were willing to accept the widespread abuse that
could have easily been uncovered. The scale of the abuse was simply too horrific to
acknowledge, the financial ramifications too huge to contemplate. So they told themselves
these cases were not symptomatic of any wider problem…
Many survivors suffered horrific physical and sexual violence, such as rape and violent
treatment of children. There was psychological and emotional abuse, discrimination
because of race or disability, isolation, improper use of medical procedures as punishment.
Much of this was criminal, and some of it was torture…
It is incomprehensible that human beings could behave like this towards another. What is
just as baffling is how those in authority failed in their responses to survivors’ requests
for redress. It was clear survivors had been deeply harmed by their time in the institutions
that were entrusted to care for them. How, in the face of this, could anyone not be shocked
and stirred into action?
180.
The Royal Commission issued a set of 95 recommendations in its Redress Report198, the first of
which is to establish a puretumu torowhānui (holistic redress) for survivors. Among the
recommendations are:
193
Ibid., at p. 334, [987].
Ibid., at Conclusions, p. 342, [991].
195 Ibid., at [993]. The Report did not include recommendations as these will be included in the final report for the Royal
Commission, which is due in March 2024.
196 Royal Commission Lake Alice report (15 December 2022) available at https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/royalcommission-lake-alice-report.
197 Abuse in Care “From Redress to Puretumu – Executive Summary”, available at: https://www.abuseincare.org.nz/ourprogress/reports/from-redress-to-puretumu/from-redress-to-puretumu-4/he-karakia-3/.
198 See above.
194
41