“It was terrible. It was so heartbreaking. It was wrong. And this should never have happened,” Luxon said, speaking to MPs and a public gallery full of abuse survivors.

“For many of you, this has changed the course of your lives, and the government needs to take responsibility for that,” Luxon said. He said he also apologized on behalf of previous governments.

He added that in state-run institutions, including hospitals and residential schools, as well as foster and church care, vulnerable people “must be safe and treated with respect, dignity and compassion.” “But instead you were subjected to horrific abuse and neglect, and in some cases torture.”

The investigation report said the findings of the six-year investigation, believed to be the most comprehensive of similar investigations worldwide, were a “national disgrace”. New Zealand’s investigation follows two decades of such investigations around the world, at a time when nations are trying to reckon with authorities’ abuses against children removed from their families and placed in care.