Why New Zealand’s PM has apologised to 200,000 abused in state care

New Zealand’s Indigenous Maori population, who make up a majority of the survivors of state care, are unhappy with PM Luxon’s apology.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on Tuesday made an unprecedented formal and “unreserved” apology to survivors of abuse in state and church care over seven decades, spanning almost the entirety of the country’s independent history.

The survivors included members of the Indigenous Maori and Pacific Islander communities that have been victims of racism and earlier, of colonisation, for nearly two centuries.

But what prompted Luxon’s apology, how widespread was the abuse, and is the apology – in the eyes of survivors and their communities – enough?

Luxon’s apology came after New Zealand’s Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care published the findings of an independent inquiry in July.

The inquiry found that about one in three people in state or religious care between 1950 and 2019 experienced abuse. In this duration, about 200,000 children, young people and vulnerable adults were subjected to physical and sexual abuse. More than 2,300 survivors gave evidence to the Royal Commission.