'Insulted' Dunedin survivor files UN complaint
A former Dunedin survivor of historical sexual abuse says he was so "insulted" by the government's compensation scheme he is taking it up with the United Nations.
A total investment of $774 million was announced by the government last week to improve the current redress system for survivors as part of this year's Budget.
These improvements included increasing the average redress payments for new claims from $19,180 to $30,000 and topping up previously settled claims by 50%, among others.
The $774m would also be invested in the wider care system over the next four years.
But funding the setup of a new and independent redress entity was not included, despite earlier assurances from the prime minister the government would have one up and running this year.
Erica Stanford, the minister in charge of the government's response to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care's findings, said last week they had made the "difficult choice" of prioritising improvement to the current system as quickly as possible.
Historical sexual abuse survivor and former Dunedin resident Darryl Smith, KSM, who now lives in Christchurch, said he was "totally shocked" and "insulted" by the announcement.
"I just couldn't believe it.
"I felt let down, I was depressed."
He had sent emails to the United Nations to file a "human rights complaint" against the government, and had made complaints to the NZ Human Rights and International Human Rights Commissions.
Mr Smith called the amount of money being offered to survivors a "low-life measure to save money" and said the $774m was going into a system which had already failed them.
In 2021, the Royal Commission made 95 recommendations for the establishment of an independent redress scheme, which was reiterated in its final report as an "immediate priority".
When Prime Minister Christopher Luxon delivered a national apology to survivors in Parliament in November last year, he announced the government would invest an additional $32m to increase the capacity in the current redress system while it worked on the new one.
"But I want to assure you it is our intention to have a new single redress system operating next year."
Mr Smith said he had spoken to Ms Stanford nearly two weeks before the Budget announcement during a special survivors-only New Year's Honours event at Government House, in April.
"She told me we're in for a good surprise. That was not a good surprise.
"I found it appalling how she was mingling with us and that she knew this was going to come out."
In a letter addressed to Mr Smith, dated March 20, Ms Stanford said the government remained committed to "carefully considering the Royal Commission's full set of recommendations, including those relating to redress".
She reiterated Mr Luxon had signalled the government's intention to progress work on a redress system this year.
"Until options have been developed and final decisions made, I cannot confirm when the improved redress system will be available to survivors."
Mr Smith said he thought he had misread the letter and it must be wrong, because Ms Stanford had told him in person in November the government would implement a new redress scheme.
Neither Ms Stanford nor Mr Luxon responded to a request for comment by deadline yesterday.
During an urgent debate in Parliament on Tuesday, Ms Stanford said the $774m announcement was the "single largest investment into redress in this country's history".
She had received advice that creating a new and complex system "would have taken an extraordinarily long period of time and would have been very expensive", she said.
tim.scott@odt.co.nz
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scoop
19 hours ago
- Scoop
Students Benefitting From Record Number Of New Teachers
Press Release – New Zealand Government Minister of Education The Government's ensuring more children learn from quality teachers by delivering the largest annual increase in the teaching workforce in two decades. 'We want to grow, promote and support the education workforce who every day deliver real change in the classroom. We are providing a world-leading education system with all the support teachers need to deliver it. It's really encouraging this is resulting in more people choosing to become teachers,' Education Minister Erica Stanford says. The schooling teacher workforce grew by 2.5% in 2024, delivering 1,864 new teachers, the largest year-on-year increase since records began in 2009 and slightly outpaced student roll growth. 1,128 new teachers were in primary, while secondary teachers grew by 736. 'We're seeing growth across the board. Every region has more teachers than it did a year ago, with particularly strong increases in South and West Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Wellington and Canterbury. That's a clear sign our reform of the education system is giving people the confidence to choose teaching as a career.' In 2024: First-time domestic enrolments in Initial Teacher Education rose by 6.3%, from 3,400 to 3,615. This includes increases across early childhood, primary, and secondary sectors, marking the highest entry rate into teaching since 2009. the average total pay for primary teachers was over $94,000 and around $101,000 for secondary teachers. on average, secondary principals were paid over $200,000 while primary principals were paid over $150,000. 'From scholarships and onsite training pathways to removing financial barriers like registration fees, we've made it easier for people to take that first step into the classroom, and it's working.' 'We know there's still more to do to ensure every student has a quality teacher in front of them. That's why Budget 2025 includes even more investment to grow and strengthen the profession' says Minister Stanford Budget 2025 includes $53 million to cover teacher registration fees through to 2028, alongside expanded training pathways for aspiring principals and support for returning and overseas-trained teachers. 'Great teachers are the single most important factor in a child's education. We're backing our education workforce — from training to registration to the classroom — because when we support teachers, we support better outcomes for every learner,' Ms Stanford says.
Newsroom
20 hours ago
- Newsroom
What's good for kids who need learning support is good for all kids
Analysis: The announcement of $646 million for learning support was reported as Budget 2025's good news story, but it would be more accurate to describe it as a mixed bag. There could be a lot less smoke and mirrors about what is being provided and what has been discontinued to pay for the 'new and improved' learning support. It was helpful the Government acknowledged long-standing under-funding, real gaps in the provision of learning support that have led to despair and disruption. They had to. Several reviews over recent years have made it clear the learning support needed a radical overhaul. There were two items of genuinely hopeful news announced in the Budget in relation to learning support: increased funding for the Ongoing Resourcing Scheme and continuation of early intervention services through to the end of Year 1. The Ongoing Resourcing Scheme is a strand of 'targeted funding' that came out of Special Education 2000, New Zealand's first systematic approach to inclusive education, aimed at children in primary and secondary schools assessed as high or very high needs. The problem has been that eligibility was applied for through a process called 'verification' for a contestable fund that was capped at one percent of children at any one time, regardless of the number of children who met the criteria. The result has been that some children who met the criteria were not 'verified' as eligible, and their school wouldn't get the funding. Which meant the schools were unable to meet the needs of the neurodivergent children and children with disabilities in their community, and consequently, their families. Urban legend and actual practice led to an understanding that the most effective way to secure any funding was to paint the worst picture possible of each child at the centre of the application; teachers and families find this process of 'deficit framing' traumatic and painful. The 'structural change to the ORS funding model' announced in Budget 2025 means every student who is verified as having extra learning needs will now be funded. Education Minister Erica Stanford estimated that another 1700 students would benefit from this change over the next four years. And the provision of early intervention services to the end of Year 1 should mean more services and give parents, families, teachers and schools greater confidence at the start of a child's primary education. Intervention services are crucial. They can include speech and language therapy, supporting families to better understand their child's behaviour, or visits from an education support worker to the child at school. Until now these services were only provided in early childhood education. The Government extending it to Year 1 is a much-needed step in the right direction. Hopefully the result of both changes in policy will mean more schools will be able to accept a neurodivergent or disabled child at the start of primary school. Less certain is what the Budget is actually promising in terms of increased funding for teacher aides in schools. It says: 'Key investments include substantial annual increases to teacher aide hours, building up to over two million additional teacher aide hours per year, from 2028.' But what does two million extra hours mean in the real world? Currently teacher aide funding is part of the Ongoing Resourcing Scheme. If a child meets the criteria for 'high needs' or 'very high needs', the school gets some additional support in the form of itinerant teachers, as well as teacher aide hours. The greatest amount of support is for those considered to have 'very high needs', funding for up to 20 hours from a teacher aide. If schools need teacher aide time in the classroom or other parts of the school, the school must fund those hours. Currently, teacher aides are usually part time. If they work full time, they might work up to 30 hours per week in a primary or secondary school, for up to 40 weeks a year. The maths suggests the Budget is promising an additional 1667 teacher aides. But New Zealand has 2,500 primary, intermediate and secondary schools. That means the Budget allows for fewer than one additional aide per school. This is far short of the primary teacher union's call for a teacher aide in every classroom. This is a profession dominated by women, and their average hourly pay is $28. It is more than ironic that the funding used for this meagre increase in the Budget likely comes from the changes to the Equal Pay Act announced immediately before the Budget's release. There have been a number of reviews of learning support particularly in high needs, which have come to similar conclusions. Research conducted by the New Zealand Council of Education Research found that the process of accessing funding was difficult, poor information was provided, and funding was often made available too late and was too little. Work carried out by the NZ Educational Institute primary teacher union found that for every seven children who had some support, another three had unmet needs. We still don't have any idea of what the promised 'overview' of the system will look like, but we would reasonably expect that it will draw on previous work that had already been done on it. The minister and Ministry of Education still claim to be in support of developing an inclusive education system. We've yet to see how this year's Budget supports this aspiration. Another example of reprioritisation is $30m to be spent on enlarging specialist day schools. On June 5 the minister announced: 'We know many parents of children with high needs want the option of a specialist education setting … This investment is about giving families more choice and confidence their children can learn in the environment that best supports them.' At least some of this funding will come from the disestablishment of the teachers who support literacy development, which is estimated to save $39m. Our research, and research from the Education Review Office, has repeatedly shown that families with disabled children have not been given genuine access to the same schools available to children who don't have disabilities. There has been a constant undermining of an inclusive education system. Concerns have long been expressed the safety of students in segregated settings such as that reported in the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State Care which, as reported in Newsroom, includes case studies and comments relating to abuse suffered by people at specialist residential schools. Numerous evaluations of the three residential specialist schools in New Zealand have noted the schools were funded as if they were fully enrolled (84 students) not on the actual number of students (in the 30s). Every other school in New Zealand is funded on the actual enrolment figures. Our research has clearly demonstrated the value of inclusive education, for neurodiverse children and children with disabilities, and also in building an inclusive society. Inclusive education gives everyone the chance to get to know and be comfortable with the variety of members of our communities. What is good for those who need learning support is good for everyone going through our school system.
Scoop
a day ago
- Scoop
Students Benefitting From Record Number Of New Teachers
Minister of Education The Government's ensuring more children learn from quality teachers by delivering the largest annual increase in the teaching workforce in two decades. 'We want to grow, promote and support the education workforce who every day deliver real change in the classroom. We are providing a world-leading education system with all the support teachers need to deliver it. It's really encouraging this is resulting in more people choosing to become teachers,' Education Minister Erica Stanford says. The schooling teacher workforce grew by 2.5% in 2024, delivering 1,864 new teachers, the largest year-on-year increase since records began in 2009 and slightly outpaced student roll growth. 1,128 new teachers were in primary, while secondary teachers grew by 736. 'We're seeing growth across the board. Every region has more teachers than it did a year ago, with particularly strong increases in South and West Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Wellington and Canterbury. That's a clear sign our reform of the education system is giving people the confidence to choose teaching as a career.' In 2024: First-time domestic enrolments in Initial Teacher Education rose by 6.3%, from 3,400 to 3,615. This includes increases across early childhood, primary, and secondary sectors, marking the highest entry rate into teaching since 2009. the average total pay for primary teachers was over $94,000 and around $101,000 for secondary teachers. on average, secondary principals were paid over $200,000 while primary principals were paid over $150,000. 'From scholarships and onsite training pathways to removing financial barriers like registration fees, we've made it easier for people to take that first step into the classroom, and it's working.' 'We know there's still more to do to ensure every student has a quality teacher in front of them. That's why Budget 2025 includes even more investment to grow and strengthen the profession' says Minister Stanford Budget 2025 includes $53 million to cover teacher registration fees through to 2028, alongside expanded training pathways for aspiring principals and support for returning and overseas-trained teachers. 'Great teachers are the single most important factor in a child's education. We're backing our education workforce — from training to registration to the classroom — because when we support teachers, we support better outcomes for every learner,' Ms Stanford says.
