Survivors of abuse in state care gathered outside Parliament on Wednesday to hand bouquets of flowers to ministers and opposition MPs. They told the government its lack of progress on a major inquiry into abuse in care is "bordering on a crime" (RNZ).

The inquiry, called a Royal Commission, is the most powerful type of investigation a government can set up in New Zealand. This one looked into the abuse of children and vulnerable adults who were placed in state or church-run care over many decades.

Survivor Keith Wiffin handed a bouquet directly to Erica Stanford, the minister responsible for the government's response to the inquiry. He told Stanford the inquiry's work has a legacy and "it's not going away until justice is delivered." Wiffin described the government's lack of progress 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 two specific government decisions: introducing youth boot camps, and removing a part of the law called Section 7AA. That section had required Oranga Tamariki — the government's children's agency — to follow the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi in its work.

Stanford said many of the recommendations required funding and big changes to how government departments worked. 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 said.

She also said the work would take time, but added: "things can move quite quickly if there's a will to do it."

Children's Minister Karen Chhour, who is 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. They said they would honour the promise to prevent further abuse and make sure survivors get justice and compensation.

The Royal Commission's final report, titled "Whanaketia," was published on its website at abuseincare.org.nz. One chapter says the government has shown a "lack of progress" on creating a new, universal scheme for survivors to get compensation and acknowledgment. Another chapter found "evidence of gaps in abuse prevention and response training provided to religious leaders, including both a complete absence of training."

The gathering put the government's response back into the political spotlight. There is a growing gap between the scale of what the Commission recommended and the pace of what has been delivered. Stanford's commitment of nearly $750 million and her comment about political will are the government's main defence against criticism from survivors, the Human Rights Commission and opposition MPs. Whether that funding and those words will satisfy survivors who have already waited decades is the question now sitting with the Beehive.

The wider picture is that Wiffin's criticism of boot camps and the removal of Section 7AA links the government's abuse-prevention duties to its broader changes at Oranga Tamariki. Both policies have been controversial on their own. But survivors are not just checking the government against the inquiry's recommendations alone — they are measuring it against its wider child welfare decisions too. The removal of Section 7AA puts the government's approach to its Treaty obligations at the centre of the survivors' criticism.

Karen Chhour's presence mattered in its own way. As Children's Minister and a survivor, she holds a position no one else in Cabinet does. Her visible emotion outside Parliament was a reminder that behind what is a large and complex reform programme, there are real people. 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 change policy on its own.

The opposition MPs who attended gave survivors a clear commitment: to prevent further abuse and ensure justice and compensation. That promise is now part of the parliamentary record whether the government meets it or not.