Stanford EricaHon ERICA STANFORD (Lead Coordination Minister for the Government's Response to the Royal Commission's Report into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions): E ngā mana e ngā reo e ngā morehu. Koutou kua haere ki tua koutou kei te noho mai he kanohi kitea tēnā koutou katoa. [To those with authority the representatives the survivors. You who have passed on and you who remain the faces who are seen greetings to all of you.]Today is historic as we table the royal commission report with an apology to follow on 12 November and we will work alongside and we are working alongside survivors to design how and where that apology takes place. Thousands of incredibly brave survivors many who have made the journey here today to Parliament have told their stories that are now permanently etched on the pages of history and the record in those pages is a dark stain on New Zealand's past. The stories contained in this report serve to all New Zealanders a very harsh jolt of reality because I think we believed that these sorts of unimaginable horrors and atrocities never happened here but that they happened in other places to other people. But because of you we know that they happened here they happened at scale and they destroyed so many lives.Today these stories are shared with all of New Zealand. As the lead Minister for the Crown response I have read all of your stories. The young people that were taken into care were disabled; they were neurodiverse; they may have had a traumatic upbringing. Some were put into care for hardly any reason at all. Many of you don't understand why you were put into care and protection at all. But all of those young people needed care and love and protection. They needed an education they needed specialist support they needed to be cared for they needed to be nurtured and they needed to be loved. Instead they were placed in facilities and in homes that they describe as hell holes". Reading the stories I was struck by the way that so many of your accounts were so disturbingly similar. There was little or no education. Violence was vicious and it was normalised. Beatings from carers were regular. Solitary confinement was used sometimes for weeks and weeks on end. Sexual abuse was rife and on children so very young. Food was restricted and racism was a constant. There were weak systems there were weak oversights and there was certainly weak accountability. At the boot camps on Great Barrier boys were forced to dig their own graves. They were made to lie face down in those holes while they were being shot at. They screamed and they were terrified. The staff were not vetted they were not trained in care and protection. They were tormentors.At so many boys' facilities the adults that were not dishing out the beatings themselves were encouraging those boys to viciously beat each other. At the psychiatric facilities patients were drugged they were sexually abused and they were beaten. They were given the ECT they were spent weeks in solitary confinement they were racially abused and they regressed. Many of the people in those institutions should never have been there. There was no reason for them to be there.In faith-based homes pregnant mothers were denied food so that they would have smaller babies and easier births and their babies were ripped away from them and adopted out without the chance for a mother to hold her newborn and say goodbye. There was often no medical follow up for the damage that was caused during birth. Young girls in faith-based care were given abortions without their knowledge and without their consent to cover up this abuse. These people—you—tried speaking out; it got you nowhere. Nobody believed you and it was safer just to stay silent. Many would attempt to run away from the horrors only to be picked up and taken back and be abused again. One particular account noted that "after particularly awful sexual abuse I ran away that morning but the police caught me within hours and when I got back he was still there. He was waiting for me." Story after story say the same thing. "Nobody ever asked us why we ran away. No one at the places we were sent to asked about our home lives asked why we behaved the way that we did. We were treated like prisoners." The result of these institutions and facilities were that young people were broken. They were separated from their whānau they were denied their reo their sign language their culture. Some recounted turning to substance abuse to numb the pain and years of violence in care was normalised and so often played a part of the rest of their lives. For so many survivors they spent stints in jail where they would meet—as we've heard—other survivors they had spent time with in the past. So many survivors found solace in gangs because gangs were the first place where they were cared about. To the survivors you repeatedly spoke truth to those who you thought were there to protect you and too often you were ignored. The abuse was covered up the investigations were botched or the investigations didn't happen at all. The Crown owed you all a duty of care and protection and we have utterly failed you. E kore e ea i te kupu taku aroha mō koutou. [My compassion for you could never be expressed with words.]While we have come so far in too many cases we have not come far enough. The stories of survivors are too often mirrored in what we hear today. Young boys in Oranga Tamariki care who are fighting each other in mixed martial arts - style fights and being filmed by the staff; the staff who were not vetted who were not trained who were not trained in care and protection—these stories may well have been in these reports but they're happening now. These are our most vulnerable and damaged tamariki and this report tells us today that we must do better. As a Government we are committed to delivering our response to the report with the respect and dignity it deserves. But today is about the survivors. Today we hear your stories. Today we acknowledge your bravery and your bravery will not only correct the historic record but it will determine our future. You are brave we acknowledge you and we thank you. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa."