Date of national day to acknowledge abuse in care survivors announced with $1m fund for local events
This one-off national day is being held on the anniversary of the Prime Minister's historic official apology at Parliament to abuse
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RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Pacific news in brief for 30 July
Photo: Mark Rabago The state funeral for the late Northern Mariana Islands Governor Arnold Palācious is to be held Saturday morning, August 2nd, at the Pedro Multipurpose Center on Saipan. Elected leaders and visiting dignitaries from across the globe will be in attendance. The Governor's office says the general public will be able to pay their final respects during the memorial wake and funeral service at Mount Carmel Cathedral after the state funeral. A Mass of Christian burial and internment at the Marpi Public Cemetery will follow. An ocean-focused non-governmental organisation, the Waitte Institute, is contributing US$1 million for a fund to safely remove derelict fishing vessels from Fiji's Suva Harbour. The fund was named in honour of Captain Jonathan Smith, a mariner and ocean advocate, who died in 2021. In addition to the cleanup, the fund will work towards legal, policy, and institutional reforms. The Fiji government said Suva Harbour has become a graveyard for abandoned and sunken vessels. The Shefa Provincial Government Council must elect its new president and vice president on Wednesday or face possible intervention by the Minister of Internal Affairs. Since the council's first sitting on 24 July, the councillors have failed to agree on the province's leadership. The Vanuatu Daily Post reported the political deadlock has continued through several meetings, including the most recent one on Sunday. The deadlock stems from political divisions within the council, with opposing factions pushing for different leadership outcomes. Motu-Koita people in Papua New Guinea's National Capital District will have their own representative in Parliament in 2027. The National newspaper reported this is one of the six new electorates confirmed by Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai. Sinai said Motu-Koitabuans will have their own electorate, and it will be for the indigenous people to contest for the seat. Sinai, who is also the Electoral Boundaries Commission chairman, said this would take the total number of open seats in Parliament to 102. South Pentecost is celebrating the traditional circumcision of 14 boys using bamboo and the start of the yam harvest. More than 400 people from South Pentecost gathered at Lonesis village on Monday to mark the end of a traditional circumcision ceremony. Point Cross villager, Danstan Tate, told the Vanuatu Daily Post it is an annual custom that also marks the end of the Naghol season and the beginning of the yam harvest. Attendees brought yams and water taro as gifts for the boys to present to their aunties and uncles. South Pentecost is one of the few places in the country where traditional circumcision is still practised using bamboo.
RNZ News
4 hours ago
- RNZ News
Government to fund one-off national day of reflection for survivors of abuse in care
author:ellen_o'dwyer] Erica Stanford. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone The government has confirmed a one-off national day of reflection for survivors of abuse in care will take place on Wednesday, 12 November, 2025. Lead Coordination Minister for the government's response Erica Stanford said a $1 million fund had been set up for survivor-led groups to apply to hold local or regional events to mark the day. But a survivor says the day felt like "symbolic lip service" with many survivors still waiting for justice or fair redress. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon promised a National Remembrance Day in his apology to survivors in Parliament last year. A year on from the apology, Stanford said the day aimed to acknowledge survivors of abuse in care, raise awareness about a part of New Zealand's history, and remind people of government progress in responding to the recommendations of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. The final report from the Royal Commission found abuse was rife in state and faith-based care settings over decades, and the state failed to respond to signs of systemic abuse and neglect. The Commission made 138 reccommendations to the government to right past wrongs, and prevent abuse from occurring again. Stanford said survivors had indicated they would like to mark the one-off day of reflection in their own way - the day would consist of community-led events and activities, as well as activities organised by government agencies that demonstrated "progress, accountability and transparency". "Survivors have indicated they would like to mark the day in their own way and their preference is for survivor-focused groups and organisations to hold local, regional or national events." Up to $10,000 would be available for local events and up to $25,000 for regional events, and applications were open until 31 August. At the time, Luxon said the day would "provide us with an opportunity to stop and reflect on what you endured and ensure we are doing all we can to prevent future abuse". But survivor Tu Chapman, who is the spokesperson for Tikanga-based survivor movement He Kura Morehu, said many were expecting the national day of remembrance to be an enduring event, rather than a one-off day. "It's a little bit of a joke to be honest, one day doesn't acknowledge the decades of abuse, the decades of violence and harm that continues to plague survivors today, and impact us today." Tu Chapman is the spokesperson for Tikanga-based survivor movement He Kura Morehu. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly Chapman said the day felt like lip service when many survivors were still waiting for justice or fair redress. The announcement earlier this year from the government that no public servant would be held accountable for abuse against survivors meant justice had not been delivered, Chapman said. A lack of legislative change designed to prevent abuse in care from happening again was also unjust, Chapman said. Survivor groups applying for the fund for the day of reflection must have legal entity status to apply. Chapman said that would mean some groups would miss out on holding events, because with only four months to apply, there was limited time to set up a legal and governance structure and meet the criteria for funding from a government agency. That would impose barriers on many survivor groups, Chapman said. "We will miss out and other groups will miss out, because the rules aren't realistic for survivor groups." Chapman also questioned whether the $1m was coming out of $774m set aside for abuse in care redress, or another source of funding. The government earlier this year committed $774 million on its redress system, increasing average payments from about $19,000 to $30,000, and opening up an option to top up previously settled claims by up to 50 percent. But it did not follow through on a pledge made on the national day of apology to set up an entirely new redress and compensation scheme, recommended by the Royal Commission of Inquiry and survivors. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
5 hours ago
- RNZ News
When it's worth waiting for democracy
Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon Undemocratic and a breach of human rights. That is what most experts and officials think of the government's proposed changes to the electoral law. Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith last week announced a suite of changes around who can vote and how they do so. Those include more opportunity for digital enrolment methods and introduce automatic enrolment updates. But the big one is the moving of the enrolment deadline. At the last election, you could rock up on election day, enrol and cast your vote at the same time. But under this bill New Zealanders would have to enrol 13 days before election day to be eligible to vote. Goldsmith says it is to ensure a final election result is achieved sooner, but he is being met with fierce critics, including from some within his own party, who think the change takes things a step too far. While entities like the Ministry of Justice can - and do - offer advice in the form of policy papers and regulatory impact statements, electoral law expert Graeme Edgeler says the final decision falls on the shoulders of who New Zealanders have elected to represent them - the politicians. "The government and the MPs are the ones that are elected, so they get to make the policy calls and argue for them and the opposition, if they want to, gets to argue against them," he says. Edgeler says the Ministry of Justice had its own suggestions for reducing the number of special votes, for example, automatic enrolment updates. "So if you tell MSD, 'here's my new address,' they'll tell the Electoral Commission, 'hey, this person has updated their address with us'; the Electoral Commission will see person's already enrolled ... and so your enrolment should be updated automatically now," he says. The government took this suggestion on board, but Edgeler says stopping enrolment 13 days before election day takes things a step further. Goldsmith told RNZ that people do not start coalition negotiations until they know the final outcome . But while it might be a political preference to wait until the special votes are counted, Edgeler says there is nothing legally stopping politicians from starting negotiations as soon as election day finishes. "The John Key-led National government, when it was first elected, it had its coalition negotiations complete and John Key was sworn in as prime minister before the special votes were announced," he says. Edgeler says that is because the initial count on election night made the result clear, and he thinks that was the case with the last election as well. "Prime Minister Chris Hipkins came out on election night and said, 'we've lost, we're not going to be the next government'," he says. National, Act and NZ First could have started coalition negotiations that same day if they had wanted to, so Edgeler does not think special votes delaying coalition negotiations is a good enough reason to push the enrollment deadline out to 13 days. Newsroom political editor Laura Walters confirms that waiting until the final result is announced before starting negotiations is the preference of some political leaders. "Winston Peters, the New Zealand First leader, he doesn't like to actually start negotiations proper, if you will, until they have that final result back," she says. Walters says Peters told her advanced enrollment also benefited political parties. "He said if people don't enroll ahead of that voting period how do they know who they're campaigning to, who their message should be pushed towards," she says. David Seymour was more blunt in his support of the change, saying only "dropkicks" enroll on election day. But Walters says those "dropkicks" include quite a broad sector of society. "What we do know from Electoral Commission data is that these people tend to be younger, we've also seen a higher proportion of Māori and Pasifika and Asian, but especially Māori," she says. Walters adds renters and people who move around a lot and forget to update their enrollment details as people who might also be caught out by these changes. Exactly how many people will be impacted by this change is unclear, but if last election is anything to go by, Walters expects the number of people impacted is in the hundreds of thousands. "There were 450,000 people who registered or enrolled to vote during that advanced voting period and 110,000 people did that on election day," she says. It is these figures which the Attorney General Judith Collins referenced in her report examining whether or not there was enough justified reason behind the changes to the election law. She ruled that denying voters the political franchise is a "heavy price" to pay just to have the election result a week or two sooner. Aside from the automatic enrollment update, Walters says reaction to the bill has been mostly negative. "Essentially people are saying nothing should ever be done to suppress or reduce the number of people who are able to vote. Anyone who is eligible to vote, eligible to register to vote, should be given every opportunity to exercise that right. "Is this worth it? Should the government and the Electoral Commission be bearing a little bit more administrative cost, a little bit more administrative burden, maybe waiting a little bit longer after the election to get the results, isn't that just the cost of democracy?" Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here . You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter .
