Seymour DavidHon DAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): I start by acknowledging those of the 200000 that we know about who were abused who did not get to see this day because they passed before it came because it took too long; those who were put in dark places where the last people that they thought they could trust turned out to abuse them further—physically psychologically sexually medically educationally culturally. In every way that a person could be abused they were and yet they never lived to see this acknowledgement today. This is their day and the day of all survivors. For those who are here today those who participated in this commission this is the day that many perhaps thought would never come because the thing that bullies and abusers do that they all have in common no matter what form they take is that they try to deny your reality to stop you seeing and saying and asserting your truth and what has happened to you.This report finally puts on the Table of this House of Parliament—your Parliament—a formal acknowledgement of what has happened. It was hideous. Some people who have spoken today have made apologies and some haven't. I want to be clear that people on this side with the Government have not apologised today because we believe it is so important that we make sure that this report and its recommendations are properly considered and the form of apology and anything else that goes with it is not done to those survivors but actually created with them so that it is genuine.I think the spirit we've heard today that people from all political stripes will put down their political perspectives and work together in order to have that sincere apology and redress is not just welcome it's the only way that it should be. In that process we all have to learn. All of us have beliefs. There are some who have already tried to bring politics into today. We should not do that. There are things that we need to learn and acknowledge that yes the State failed.The State failed in three ways. It failed to run safe institutions of its own. Anyone who has lived in a place where you are on a site that you may not be allowed or able to leave with a select group of people perhaps with walls and people who are put in charge you can see whether or not abuse happened at the place you lived. If you've lived at a place like that you can see how strong the potential is.The second thing that the State failed to do was to have the accountability and the oversight and the protection given that very obvious danger in any kind of residential facility or institution not only in its own facilities but in facilities run by faith-based and other organisations.The third way that the State failed is that even when people pointed out what was wrong—and someone says failing". That's fair but for the purpose of this report the way that it failed is that it covered up. When people thought that they might be listened to it was covered up.I acknowledge that there have been some of the worst human prejudices against people of a different gender people of a different sexuality people of a different race people of living with a disability. Those prejudices came out in these horrible places. But one of the things that we have to accept beside the fact that the State is not always essentially good and that sometimes it's the god that failed is that if we hate in ourselves that prejudice that has come out in these places then we must recommit ourselves to a State that upholds the inherent human dignity of each and every human being no matter the hue or creed from whence they come. That is the lesson we should take and should recommit ourselves to as we work through the process of apology and redress as a result of this report.It is for all New Zealand finally not only to acknowledge that the State failed but all of us have to look at the country that we thought was above these bad things that it could never happen on such a scale so grotesquely that we were good people and bad things happened elsewhere. Actually it did happen here. It is not only the State that failed; it is on all of us to be better parents to be more caring to listen to people when we think that they're being ignored. Government and State and Government alone cannot fix this problem; it actually rests on all New Zealanders.This is the day for those survivors and especially to remember those who survived but could not see this report published today. The days to come are the days that we must commit to doing better in every way available to us. Thank you."