Gloriavale leaders say changes are happening

Gloriavale leaders say changes are happening

| The Press | Joanne Naish |

The son of Gloriavale founder Hopeful Christian is calling on the Government to work with the victims, not just the leadership.

The community’s leaders have issued a statement saying it is continuing to comply with key outcomes set by an all-of-Government taskforce which was disbanded in December.

Pilgrim Christian, who has left the community, spoke out along with multiple other former members in TVNZ docuseries Escaping Utopia which revealed concerns about the welfare and safety of children and women not just in the West Coast community but in an isolated branch in India where a leader’s comments indicated a rape culture was prevalent, and women and children lack access to passports.

A spokesperson for the leaders said they would continue to work closely with all appropriate agencies, particularly Police, WorkSafe and Oranga Tamariki.

“A leader has been assigned to each of the five outcomes to see that community members are aware of their rights under the law, and that the community is complying with all regulations,” he said.

Under the previous government mandate, each of these men gave a progress report to the Ministry of Social Development every six weeks.

“We are keen to see that the five outcomes are maintained. It would be foolish to neglect something that is a benefit to community members,” he said.

The community’s child protection policy was in full force and community Child Protection Leads met with Oranga Tamariki representatives regularly.

He said about 150 members who were working for Gloriavale businesses had their own bank accounts and were in control of their contributions to the community.

He said the leaders’ main priority was that the children were safe and well cared for.

“The Gloriavale Christian School is working with the Department of Education to ensure that our children are well educated. We even had the Police here for three days this week teaching the children about Road Safety and Safe Cycling,” he said.

Questions from The Press to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters have gone unanswered for a week.

West Coast National MP Maureen Pugh said she had not seen the documentary or heard what it contained.

“I don’t get much time to watch TV,” she said.

She said she had been briefed about the previous Government’s monitoring group and found it “quite reassuring” that the recommendations were being implemented.

Pilgrim Christian said the issues were not historic and the current leaders were the same leaders who knew and covered up sexual offending.

He said he had been told some members were publicly called out by the leaders if all their money did not go back to the community.

“The Government keeps saying it is working with the leaders to bring about change. What about working with the victims and the leavers. That leadership is very very very deceitful and they will say and do anything to wiggle out,” he said.

He said the Government, and not the traumatised leavers, should bring court action against the community and the Government’s Charities Services should immediately strip the cult’s charitable status.

Coalition Minister Brooke van Velden responded to questions in the House saying she did not believe added bureaucracy was necessary to ensure the safety of children within Gloriavale because each Minister responsible would be working within their own agencies on the issues.

A lawyer for a group of leavers Brian Henry said he had lodged papers against Government departments in the High Court, but it was a continuation of a jurisdictional issue that had arisen in the Employment Court case.

He wrote in December to Luxon, Peters, Act leader David Seymour, Attorney General Judith Collins, Minister of Social Development Louise Upston and Minister of Education Erica Stanford asking for immediate action to close what he described as a sex cult.

“On the previous Government’s watch, the Government and officials involved have enabled the continuation of the entrapment of those born into the community, a community that the police have now demonstrated has bred and will continue to breed males who commit serious sexual abuse, serious criminal offending against vulnerable young females.”

In August last year Winston Peters’ called for a full Commission of Enquiry into how government officials allowed Hopeful Christian, a convicted sex offender, to enslave young people, subjecting them to hard labour and sexual abuse.

A Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson said it was actively looking into the situation involving Gloriavale women and children in India and was considering what further actions should be taken.