Acknowledgement is vital to healing, key figures in Abuse in Care inquiry say

Survivors of abuse say it is vital that real change and accountability stem from the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care.

The final report will be made public on Wednesday - the product of nearly six years and $170 million worth of work.

Read more:

• The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care - what you need to know
• Why the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care has been delayed a third time

Government departments spent years sweeping claims under the rug, and many of the institutions at fault have since closed, and disappeared.

Former Chief Human Rights commissioner Rosslyn Noonan said accountability was needed from those who could make change: "The people who had the power to do something different, to stop abuse happening, to provide support, redress for those who have been very negatively affected."

This included the senior people in homes or schools, and the managers in relevant government agencies - social welfare, health, education.

She said in the early 2000s, senior government officials did everything in their power to "deny there was significant level of abuse, to denigrate the people who came forward", and when that was no longer possible, "to minimise what had happened".

For many survivors, that was "retraumatising in the extreme, and I think it's inexcusable, and those people have still not been held to account".

"And it wasn't just lack of knowledge or information - it was deliberate."

Former district court judge Carolyn Henwood was tasked with chairing the Confidential Listening and Assistance Service, which ran from 2008 to 2015, and according to the service's final report, more than 1100 people came forward.

She said the need for an independent tribunal to hear these stories was as strong as ever - and accountability was necessary for justice.

"If a process or a system is just allowed to roll on without anybody saying, 'Wait a minute here, this is wrong', or 'This is being done wrong', [then] we don't improve."

Cooper Legal lawyer Sonja Cooper and her team have taken on hundreds of historic abuse claims since 1995.

"So far, very few officials or staff members, the actual perpetrators of abuse or those who enabled it to be hidden or buried, have faced any form of accountability at all."

There became a trend of sweeping claims under the rug.

"There were meetings being held by Crown Law, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Social Development, the Ministry of Justice, Legal Aid - our funders - all of these big government agencies trying to strategise on how to manage these claims."

The Ministry of Social Development, Oranga Tamariki and Crown Law all declined to comment, saying they would rather wait for the report.

Meanwhile, abusers had died before facing consequences, including the former lead psychiatrist at Lake Alice psychiatric hospital, Selwyn Leeks, in 2022.

And it was not just the perpetrators.

Pearl Putaranui, a staunch advocate and a survivor herself, died in April last year.

Her daughter, Gala Baumfield (she/they), said the results of the inquiry would not bring their mum back, but the system needed to change.

"I think the thing with mum is that there was always so much more to fight for, and there was always this level that the inquiry could never fulfil, or infiltrate deep enough into the culture of it, as a government system."

They said watching their mum give testimony for the inquiry, they could see how much it taken from her.

Their mum was a product of her trauma - she was funny, sharp, and determined, but her past had taken a toll.

"When I first got my car, you know you go for the late night drives, and actually just sobbing in my car, and praying to the universe, just give her this beauty and this life that she deserves," Baumfield said.

Now, they wanted answers, and for their mum's mana to be preserved.