The full transcript of Oranga Tamariki’s response to the Commission after hearing from survivors can be found here - Day 1: 22 August 2022; Day 2: 23 August 2022; Day 3: 24 August 2022

On 24 August Paula Atrill, General Manager International Case Work and Adoption at Oranga Tamariki made the following statement as part of Oranga Tamariki’s response to the evidence submitted by people to the Commission:

MS ATTRILL:

Thank you, Judge Shaw. I appreciate time's running very tight and we're at end of a very long day, but I just wanted to acknowledge the experience of harm that many people who have been subject to an adoption or adoption proceedings have had. Their experience has not been unlike those in the care system, except that they have had to face the additional effects of the adoption legislation and, for some, the horrific impact that's had on their lives.

I'd particularly like to acknowledge the experience of birth mothers who experienced their babies being forcibly being removed or their being coerced into relinquishing them or those birth mothers who felt they had no choice in decisions being made about their babies.

Adopted people who had their whakapapa severed by law, the harm that they experienced at the hands of adoptive parents and also the life changing impact of living in the context of closed adoptions and learning later in life that their life story was not – was a fallacy, it wasn't based on the true birth experience.

And then the last group I just wanted to acknowledge is wider family, who, even these days, are searching for connections to put together the pieces of whakapapa for relatives who were adopted themselves and the limitations of the legislation in terms of enabling them access to critically important information.

The impact of the adoption legislation on the lives of survivors warrants a full day's hearing and discussions, in my view, and the last thing I would say is just to recognise that the Ministry of Justice are leading extensive reforms of our adoption legislation, which will address the issues that survivors have rightfully raised. And I just thought it was proper and right to mention their experience, as distinct from children in care today.

The CHAIR’s response was as follows:

It is absolutely proper and right and just – we do acknowledge adoptees and families of adopted people, as you have said, and just to let everybody know, that it's a subject that we have been dealing with. It's not been able to be fitted into our public hearing, but we are certainly consulting, talking, reading and watching the new legislation with much interest, so, but thank you so much for raiding that.

The Commission’s report is due at the end of June 2023