Survivors of abuse in state care gathered outside Parliament on Wednesday to hand bouquets of flowers to ministers and opposition MPs, telling the government its lack of progress on the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care is "bordering on a crime" (RNZ).

Survivor Keith Wiffin handed a bouquet directly to Erica Stanford, the minister responsible for the government's response to the Royal Commission. He told Stanford the Royal Commission's work has a legacy and "it's not going away until justice is delivered." Wiffin described the government's lack of progress on the Commission's recommendations as "bordering on a crime."

The Royal Commission, which Wiffin noted was the biggest in New Zealand's history, made more than 100 recommendations. Wiffin said survivors and the Human Rights Commission had told politicians that only a fraction of those recommendations had been delivered, and some had been rejected.

Wiffin also criticised the government for two specific policy decisions: introducing youth boot camps and repealing Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act, which had bound Oranga Tamariki to the Treaty of Waitangi's principles.

Stanford said many of the Royal Commission's recommendations required funding and drastic changes to how government departments operated. She said the government had committed nearly three quarters of a billion dollars towards compensation and building systems to prevent further abuse. "We stand by our apology. We're listening. We're making changes," Stanford stated.

She also acknowledged the pace of implementation, saying the government's work on the recommendations would take time, but added: "things can move quite quickly if there's a will to do it."

Children's Minister Karen Chhour, herself a survivor of abuse, was moved to tears during the ceremony outside Parliament.

Labour MP Willow-Jean Prime and Green Party MP Marama Davidson spoke to survivors at the event, saying they would honour the promise to prevent further abuse and ensure survivors get justice and redress.

The Royal Commission's final report, titled "Whanaketia," was published on its official website at abuseincare.org.nz. Chapter 2 of the report, which addresses the implementation of the Puretumu Torowhānui (the system-wide redress framework), states the government has shown a "lack of progress to date on developing and establishing a new, universal redress scheme." Chapter 6 of the report found "evidence of gaps in abuse prevention and response training provided to religious leaders, including both a complete absence of training."

The gathering outside Parliament put the government's response to the Royal Commission squarely back into the political spotlight. For ministers, the event crystallised a tension that has been building since the Commission's final report: the gap between the scale of what was recommended and the pace of what has been delivered. Stanford's commitment of nearly $750 million and her pointed remark about political will are the government's main lines of defence against criticism from survivors, the Human Rights Commission and opposition MPs. Whether that funding and rhetorical commitment will satisfy survivors who have already waited decades for redress is the question now sitting with the Beehive.

Wiffin's criticism of boot camps and the repeal of Section 7AA connects the government's abuse-prevention obligations to its broader Oranga Tamariki reform agenda. Both policies have been politically contentious in their own right, but framing them against the Royal Commission's findings adds a specific dimension: survivors are not just measuring the government against the Commission's recommendations in isolation, but against its wider child welfare and youth justice decisions. The repeal of Section 7AA, in particular, places the government's approach to its Treaty obligations at the centre of the survivors' critique, linking abuse prevention to the constitutional relationship the Commission's work was always grounded in.

Karen Chhour's presence carried its own weight. As Children's Minister and a survivor, she occupies a position no one else in Cabinet shares, and her visible emotion outside Parliament underscored the personal dimension of what is otherwise a sprawling institutional reform programme. That a minister responsible for the system survivors were abused in was moved to tears at their gathering is something the Press Gallery will note, even if it does not shift policy on its own.

The opposition MPs who attended, Willow-Jean Prime and Marama Davidson, gave survivors the commitment the government is still working towards: honouring the promise to prevent further abuse and ensuring justice and redress. That promise is now part of the parliamentary record whether the government meets it or not.