The government has acknowledged that what happened at Lake Alice was torture, as the much broader 3000-page report on abuse in care is made public.
Both the prime minister and the leader of the opposition have also committed to working together on meaningful redress, while warning this could take some time.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and lead coordination minister for the government's response to the inquiry, Erica Stanford, spoke to reporters in the Beehive where they both acknowledged the enormity of the day.
"I cannot take away your pain, but I can tell you this: today you are heard and you are believed," Luxon said. "The state was supposed to care for you, to protect you, but instead it subjected you to unimaginable physical, emotional, mental and sexual abuse."
He said he "absolutely" committed to making the changes required to prevent abuse in care from continuing. It would require "massive amounts of bipartisanship" and it was important to ensure all political leaders play a role.
"You have to make sure that our most vulnerable kids in state care are incredibly well looked after and cared for."
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and lead coordination minister for the government's response to the inquiry Erica Stanford. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
He also confirmed the government was at last acknowledging the Lake Alice experiences amounted to torture, and apologised for the delay in doing so.
Luxon said the response to the report needed to be approached with "respect and with care, it cannot be rushed", pointing ahead to the formal apology set down for 12 November. He did not give a date for when redress would become available, saying the government was working on that.
"Finally, to survivors, thank you: we will never lose sight of what you have endured to bring the truth to light."
Stanford said she had read the full report and spoke of it serving as a "jolt of reality" which underlines "unimaginable, despicable horrors and abuse and neglect in care that we always thought happened in other countries, happened here.
"They happened at scale and they destroyed lives," she said. "The pages of those stories tell us that they were young, they were vulnerable and they were terrified. They repeatedly spoke truth to those who they thought were there to protect them ... the abuse was covered up and the investigations were botched or entirely absent."
The report from the Royal Commission. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
She grew notably emotional as she spoke of young unwed mothers in homes having been deliberately underfed "because [the care providers] wanted to have easy births and small babies and then they drugged them up and they took their babies, they never got to hold them. That is confronting".
She said Cabinet would consider the findings and the 138 recommendations, but the government would prioritise redress because many of the survivors were older, sick or had already died and "we know that time is of the essence".
"We are taking a number of Cabinet papers, we've already taken a couple of high-level Cabinet papers, there'll be a number of Cabinet papers taken before the end of the year, what we've done with the redress is taken it in parts because it's very big and very broad."
Asked if he expected the redress to cost billions, Luxon said "we're gonna do it right ... we'll work with survivor groups along that process but I haven't given thought to the dollars, it's not about the dollars".
They would engage with the report and recommendations in good faith, with careful consideration, and would provide more clarity on the response by November, they promised.
"I have heard the survivors loud and clear, they must be at the heart of all of the work that we do," Stanford said.
One of the core volumes from the nearly 3000-page report links the effects of abuse in care with gang membership, but Luxon - asked what he would tell gang members - said: "I understand many gang members came from very dysfunctional upbringings ... but also we can't have gang members causing pain and suffering."
He said it may well be that gangs would end up accessing some funding and supports provided through the redress process, but "gangs today cause pain and suffering to their fellow citizens".
But he also said the government was determined to solve the problems identified "at the top of the cliff, rather than at the bottom of the cliff".
Hipkins commits to bipartisan approach to redress
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said he "absolutely and without question" was committed to working in a bipartisan way on redress.
"The abuse in state care has happened over generations, it's happened over successive governments of all different persuasions, it's vitally important that Parliament comes together, that we rise above politics, that we focus on properly addressing the underlying causes of the abuse in state care and that we put things right."
He also said it would take time, and the next steps would also span multiple governments.
"This should not be about politics in any way, this must be about doing the right thing."
He said immediate changes to the setup of the redress system was set up in 2021, "with the intention that a fully revamped redress system would be put in place after the Royal Commission had delivered its final report".
