NEW ZEALAND
Radio NZ

February 1, 2018

By Aaron Smale

Opinion – I don’t often write this: the government has got it right.

The announcement that there will be a Royal Commission of Inquiry into abuse suffered by wards of the state is a massive step in the right direction. It comes after years – nay – decades of denial, obfuscation, and outright vicious treatment of survivors who have summoned the courage to confront the state.

This approach, sustained by successive governments and generations of bureaucrats, has added further layers of victimisation on people who have already been subjected to abuse that warrants comparison with Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.

Furthermore, these experiences happened to them when they were children.

Finally, the state that carried out these injustices will be in the dock and subjected to scrutiny and judgement it has dodged by using its own powers.

Although Prime Minister…