"It was horrific. It was heartbreaking. It was wrong. And it should never have happened," Luxon said on Tuesday, as he spoke to politicians and a public gallery packed with survivors of the abuse.
An estimated 200,000 people in state, foster and faith-based care suffered "unimaginable" abuse over a period of seven decades, a blistering report released in July said at the end of the largest inquiry ever undertaken in New Zealand.
Luxon made the apology in parliament to politicians and a packed public gallery. (Mark Coote/AAP PHOTOS)
"For many of you it changed the course of your life, and for that, the government must take responsibility," Luxon said.
"Words do matter and I say these words with sincerity: I have read your stories, and I believe you."
The prime minister said he was apologising on behalf of previous governments.
The results were a "national disgrace," the inquiry's report said, after a six-year investigation believed to be the widest-ranging of comparable probes worldwide.
Of 650,000 children and vulnerable adults in state, foster, and church care between 1950 and 2019 - in a country that has a population of five million - nearly a third endured physical, sexual, verbal or psychological abuse. Many more were exploited or neglected.
They were disproportionately M�ori, New Zealand's Indigenous people.
In response to the findings, New Zealand's government agreed for the first time that historical treatment of some children in a notorious state-run hospital amounted to torture, and pledged an apology to all those abused in state, foster and religious care since 1950.
Luxon's government was decried by some survivors and advocates earlier on Tuesday ahead of the apology for not yet having divulged plans for the financial compensation of those abused.
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National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
