Survivors of abuse in state care have a right to feel disappointed and sidelined by the Government.

“The Royal Commission was very clear, survivors needed to be involved in designing and implementing a new, independent system for redress. The Government has completely ignored that,” Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said.

“Putting more money into an existing redress system that so many of the survivors have already said they have no confidence in just isn’t good enough.

“We offered to take politics off the table and work with the Government to make sure we lived up to the words in our formal apologies last year. The Government chose not to take up this offer.

“I want to be clear the Labour Party has not been involved in today’s announcement. We think it misses the mark and fails to live up to the Prime Minister’s lofty talk in the formal apology he delivered last year.

“The Government promised not to repeat the mistakes of the past. Today’s announcement shows those were hollow words,” Chris Hipkins said.