On Tuesday the Prime Minister, the leader of the opposition, and public sector leaders formally apologised to survivors of abuse in care. They spoke with sincerity and an understanding of what these victims had been through, but the most powerful words of the day belonged to survivors.   

The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry took six years. The final report is 3000 pages long and features 130 recommendations. Tuesday was the first step in addressing this horrific abuse of vulnerable people - acknowledging it through a formal apology.   

This might not sound like much, but many a leader in opposition has spoken out about this issue only to shy away and protect the Crown from liability when in power. So it was something.   

But as we all know, as sincere and empathetic as those words were, it’s what happens next that matters - the actions taken that will make a difference to survivors' lives. It is the responsibility of this government, and those to come, to support survivors of abuse, hold those responsible accountable, and prevent it happening again.   

This is a difficult task. There are many individual circumstances, over an extensive period of time, committed by a variety of institutions. It is going to take time to structure a system through which people are fairly compensated.   

But they must be compensated.   

Money does not make up for what happened. But for those who have been abused, ignored, lived lives filled with trauma and shame —some unable to live their lives to the full, hold down jobs, have fulfilling relationships— then compensation is a form of validation, and goes some way to helping with the pain.   

When asked about what some have termed the ‘can of worms’ the inquiry and apology has opened - I was impressed with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s resolve to deal with it, while acknowledging it will be messy and hard and that the government will not satisfy everyone’s expectations.  

But just because something is hard doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. If you’re in politics and avoid doing something which is so fundamentally right and moral because it's hard, then please pack up and go home.   

For victims waiting up to 70 years for redress; I can understand the scepticism around what comes next. Something tells me though that Erica Stanford, the Lead Coordination Minister for the Government’s response to the report, can do hard things.   

The Prime Minister, who has read all 3000 pages of the Royal Commission’s report, said if you want to understand the gravity of what has happened go and read a few of the survivor’s accounts. I took his advice.   

And this is what I got from it: this is not redress we want to do half-heartedly. Equally, it needs to be done with some urgency.   

While the Government is hoping to have a structure and process in place for better financial redress in the first half of next year, there is also the challenge of making sure this does not happen again. How far the Government will go to legislate against abuse in care will show us how committed they are to taking responsibility.   

Let’s do this once. Let’s do this right. Let’s do all we can to make sure it never happens again.