Posted By

Tags

Labour demands inquiry into child abuse

Jessica Ardern

Wellington, April 9, 2017

The Prime Minister must show humanitarian leadership and launch an independent inquiry into historic claims of abuse of children who were in State care.

The Hui’s investigation into ‘Nga Morehu – The Survivors’ provides a timely reminder that the government continues to fail the people they were supposed to be looking after while in State care.

Horrific claims

Gut wrenching images of grown Maori men breaking down while revealing horrific claims of child abuse is a sharp wakeup call that the impact of child abuse is long-lasting and the Government must help address the ongoing problems.

I commend the bravery of those men, Nga Morehu, for speaking out.

I condemn the National government for denying the survivors of alleged State abuse to consider the wrongs that were committed and offer a better healing process.

Human Rights breach

Bill English is failing to address what has been described as the worst human rights breach in our country’s history.

Minister Anne Tolley has spent more money on a Queen’s Counsel hired by the government to fight victims claims while refusing to hold a proper inquiry.

She is the Minister for vulnerable children and dismissing any form of inquiry is heartless and wrong.

Labour supports the Human Rights Commission’s call for an inquiry because potentially hundreds of children suffered mental, physical and sexual abuse while the State turned a blind eye and continues to do so.

I will meet with Nga Morehu and discuss how I can help them convince the Government to do something to help them find some resolution.

Jacinda Ardern is Member of Parliament elected from the Mt Albert Constituency. She is the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and its Spokesperson for children.

Editor’s Note:

In our report titled, ‘Apology sought for abuse of Maori children’ published on March 2, 2017, we had quoted Race Relations Commissioner Dame Susan Devoy as saying that New Zealand children were more likely to be taken off their families and put into state homes because they were Maori.

“Once there, many youngsters were subsequently physically and sexually abused. The uplifting of Maori children from their families for trivial reasons or no reason at all is the very definition of institutional racism but without an inquiry into the abuse suffered by children in our state-run homes we will never know its true extent,” she said.

Apology demanded

The Human Rights Commission officials and other prominent New Zealanders called on Prime Minister Bill English to agree to an inquiry into the abuse of children and vulnerable adults held in state institutions over forty years.

They also called on the government to apologise.

“Those children deserve justice and all New Zealanders deserve to know what went on. This is the right thing to do and we need to urge our Government to do the right thing. By the seventies almost half of all kids in state care were Maori children and a generation later more than half of our prison population are Maori adults: many of whom are former wards of the state,” Dame Susan said.

*

Share this story

Related Stories

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Indian Newslink

Previous slide
Next slide

Advertisement

Previous slide
Next slide

Advertisement

Previous slide
Next slide

Advertisement

Previous slide
Next slide

Advertisement

Previous slide
Next slide

Advertisement

Advertisement

Previous slide
Next slide

Advertisement

Previous slide
Next slide

Advertisement

Previous slide
Next slide

Advertisement