By Renju Jose
SYDNEY (Reuters) – The New Zealand government said on Friday it would spend NZ$774 million ($457 million) in its 2025 budget for redress and compensation for hundreds of thousands of children, young people and vulnerable adults who were abused in state care.
A public inquiry last year found some 200,000 children and vulnerable adults in state and faith-based care experienced some form of abuse from 1950 to 2019, forcing Prime Minister Christopher Luxon in November to offer an historic national apology to victims and their families.
“We know there is nothing we can do to take away the pain of survivors,” Erica Stanford, the lead coordination minister for the government’s response to the inquiry, said in a statement.
“But the government has committed a significant investment … to improve the redress system and strengthen the care system to prevent, identify, and respond to abuse in the future.”
The average compensation payment for new claims will be raised to NZ$30,000 ($17,703) from NZ$19,180, and more money will be provided for survivors who suffered extreme abuse, while processing of claims will be sped up from 2027 to cut wait times, the statement said.
The redress does not include claims that sit with school boards, faith-based organisations, or other non-state providers, it said, adding the government will be receiving further advice on those later in the year.
Those from the Indigenous Maori community in state and foster care institutions were especially vulnerable to abuse, findings in the public inquiry noted last year.
The inquiry commissioned in 2018 was expanded to include churches and other faith-based institutions, following calls from victims and others.
Pope Francis, who died last month, had met abuse victims in several parts of the world during his 12-year papacy and made addressing the issues a priority after historical revelations of abuse from Chile to New Zealand.
Francis created the Vatican’s first anti-abuse commission, became the first pope to expel a cardinal from the priesthood for sexual abuse and installed a global system for Catholics to report suspicions of abuse or cover-ups by bishops.
The Catholic church on Thursday elected Cardinal Robert Prevost, who has spent most of his career as a missionary in Peru, as a successor to Francis, becoming the first U.S. pope and taking the name Leo XIV.
In an interview with the Vatican News website in 2023,Prevost said the Church must be transparent and honest indealing with abuse allegations.
But SNAP, a US-based advocacy group for victims of clerical sex abuse, expressed “grave concern” about his election, renewing accusations that Prevost failed to take action against suspected predatory priests in the past in Chicago and in Peru.
($1 = 1.6946 New Zealand dollars)
(Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney; editing by Praveen Menon and Michael Perry)
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