Is Gloriavale too difficult for the Government?
Opinion piece: Liz Gregory.
(Thoughts, opinions and views expressed here belong to Liz Gregory and may or may not represent the views of all leavers, current members or the Trust).
Background
In 2022 the Government was suitably concerned about Gloriavale (finally!). A Public Services Commissioner was charged with overseeing the Multi-Agency response into Gloriavale. It was his job to make sure TEN Government Departments and a couple of unnamed NGO’s talked with each other, and wrote reports on their interactions with the community, and reported back to Cabinet every 6-8 weeks. That went on for around 18 months… until last week.
What were they talking about?
Cabinet imposed 5 Key Outcomes on Gloriavale (outlined in this blog post). It appeared to be a “Do this, or else…” scenario. (Or else WHAT?! We’ll never know)
5 key outcomes for Gloriavale
- Work at Gloriavale is undertaken by community members without the threat of penalty (For example, food being withheld, or members being berated at public meetings.)
- Gloriavale residents receive at least minimum legal entitlements for their work.
- Children have their rights upheld, including receiving an education and not being exploited for commerical gain
- There is no tolerance for any form of avoidable serious harm to anyone at Gloriavale, especially children, including physical and sexual abuse. And where it does occur it is reported and dealt with through the criminal justice system and other relevant agency responses
- Those who want to leave Gloriavale can do so freely, with appropriate support to help them (re) integrate into society
How did Gloriavale do?
In our opinion Gloriavale failed to meet most of the 5 key outcomes the Government set for them – and yet there seem to be no repercussions for this. Neither did I or many leavers believe for a moment that Gloriavale would or could meet those outcomes.
While I am sure it was beneficial for the various agencies to talk with each other (and I hope they continue to do so), I couldn’t help but wonder why they were so gracious to give Gloriavale 18 months to make these essential changes. It’s one thing to stand over a group and hope they comply, but it’s another thing to leave kids and adults in a system of servitude and modern-day slavery while you wait.
Let’s not forget around a year ago the Police announced Gloriavale was under active investigation for forced labour, servitude and slavery. They wouldn’t have made that decision lightly. And we all know where there is smoke there is fire.
This is serious business.
Tonight on One News, former MP Michael Wood charged with setting up the response, acknowledged the Government had, “Real concerns about the way in which people have been treated. Allegations of severe psychological abuse, of people being forced to stay in that place against their will.”
He said, “It gave us an ability as a Government to know whether things were on the right track, or whether it was, as has been the case for some years, a case of the leadership there just nodding their heads and as soon as no one was looking, going back to the old ways.”
Bingo. So they recognised that had been happening. But what were the consequences for them? They’re still a registered charity!!
Discussion Time
So how well has Gloriavale done in my opinion?
- Work at Gloriavale is undertaken by community members without the threat of penalty (For example, food being withheld, or members being berated at public meetings.)
Progress Opinion: 1/10 I believe they can’t get any points for progress here simply because there is no such thing as a penalty-free life in Gloriavale. The people instinctively know they have an expectation to work and serve or the community will suffer. If they don’t or can’t work they will at least condemn themselves, and they know the members will privately judge and criticize them for not pulling their weight,. There is a social penalty that can’t be quantified.
No, their food hasn’t been withheld in recent years (that was used as a scare tactic in the earlier years and didn’t need to be reintroduced). Members haven’t been getting berated at public meetings for spilling the salt (but they didn’t need to keep doing that either). Indoctrination is pretty heavy at Gloriavale, and the people punish themselves in their minds for failing to meet expectations.
An unbalanced approach to work is part of the fabric of this society. They literally have no other comparison and there is a lot of talk about “laziness”. Someone who gets up early to work, and works “willingly” will be respected, and given an opportunity to progress up the ladder of this hierarchical society. Failure to do that results in the penalty of staying at the bottom of the heap.
Finally, people at Gloriavale are not able to work penalty-free at jobs outside the community – unless it is sanctioned by the leadership and fits in with their plans. Additionally their income is still to be handed over their money to the Common Purse.
Like I said before, there is no penalty-free life at Gloriavale.
2. Gloriavale residents receive at least minimum legal entitlements for their work.
Progress Opinion: I give them 2/10 points for progress here. But I suggest any progress has been in a dishonest sort kind of way. Even after the two employment court losses, people in Gloriavale are NOT being paid as employees. NOT A PENNY! They have instead come up with plans to skirt around their need for this. Take the younger teenage boys. The system has set up a new system where the young men under 18 are apparently “self-employed contactors”. That’s fictional. What 16 year old boys can honestly be considered a fencing contractor? Or a “plumbing contractor”. It’s absurd. They don’t own their own tools, or direct their own work, or do many of the things a contactor does. Yes they are getting paid set amounts for certain jobs, and the community is offering it’s accounting services to help these “contractors” to sort out their tax payments etc. But it’s still fiction in my opinion. They aren’t receiving sick pay and holiday pay entitlements. On the bright side the young men are getting some freedom around whether they “choose” to do the jobs or not. But now some in the community are now concerned the young men are getting lazy…
As far as the young girls are concerned, just in the past two weeks they have finally abandoned their “teamwork” in the kitchen and laundry. But again, it’s kind of fictional. The simply put some BBQ’s, cookers and washing machines on the hostel floors and the girls work there now. There is still an expectation that the single girls are on one of the teams, and that they keep the community fed, even if it’s at a hostel-level. The families don’t have their own finances and do a grocery shop and cook for themselves. There is still someone “sharing out” the food ingredients. They might be having a slightly lower workload, and some extra time off here and there, but the truth be told, all that’s really happened is that the girls have simply moved where they do their work. Which is really quite amusing, because the argument in court wasn’t so much about where the work was being done, but more about the how. It looked and smelt like servitude from birth…
For the adults workers, Gloriavale seems to think the Partnership is a “Noah’s Ark” that protects them from the long arm of the law. Those members are working long days and aren’t getting anywhere near minimum entitlements. In fact they get to listen to sermons reminding them that they signed a Commitment and they need to hand over any money that might pass through their account, or they might be struck down like Ananias and Saphira in the Bible for “with-holding”. The coercive and controlling forces of the community keep them in check. Unless you’re planning to leave and are rebellious – and then you’ll sinfully keep some for a rainy day.
3. Children have their rights upheld, including receiving an education and not being exploited for commercial gain
Progress Opinion: 1/10 for the education side of it. 6/10 for exploitation for commercial gain. Regarding the school, I can’t be very generous here I’m sorry. Many leavers have called the school an indoctrination factory, and the quality of teachers and education fell through the floor over the past several years (as evidenced by the last ERO report). I accept they have one outside trained teacher, and I am sure she is doing her best to teach these children and prop the school up. That’s the only point I will concede.
Regarding exploitation of children for commercial gain – there has been progress. Keep in mind it was pretty bad for many, many years. For example young boys in work teams were being beaten while at work, so it’s not hard to make progress in light of that. As soon as Gloriavale lost the Boys Employment court case, they realised they had been behaving badly, so they quickly made some adjustments. It helped that one of the dairy companies threatened to boycott them. Money talks. That’s not to say there aren’t still children working, but there has been an improvement here, but there is still plenty of yelping about it.
4. There is no tolerance for any form of avoidable serious harm to anyone at Gloriavale, especially children, including physical and sexual abuse. And where it does occur it is reported and dealt with through the criminal justice system and other relevant agency responses
Progress Opinion: Mmmmm, this one is hard to quantify. Maybe it’s a 5/10? Maybe more? The Police and Oranga Tamariki and some other outside agencies had already done the hard yards on this one. They had built some trusting relationships and there was some essential education around harmful practices getting into the hands of parents prior to the implementation of this outcome. Remember that the Police had gone out to Gloriavale in 2020 and told them the level of abuse was some of the worst they had come across. Given that your average mum and dad in Gloriavale doesn’t want their child to be abused, there were some efforts made here to keep children safer. I am confident Gloriavale is safer physically and sexually currently than it was 5 years ago.
Relating to reporting, clearly there have been some successful criminal prosecutions of late with numbers of men in prison. But they were historical cases. I still know numbers of abusers who have not yet been brought to justice, and I am still wondering whether they are being protected by the leaders and the members…. or whether it’s simply that the Police have such a backlog they can’t keep up. (Reports late last year said they had charged 17 men through the courts, and were investigating 18 others for sexual and physical abuse). Credit to the agencies for pushing through. No credit to the leader who spoke up in the Lord’s day meeting two weeks ago stating that there are “traitors amongst us… and even people who go to the Police”. Mmm. He was told to “Stick to the Word”, but he should be been told to sit down and NEVER speak again. They lost progress points because of this.
5. Those who want to leave Gloriavale can do so freely, with appropriate support to help them (re) integrate into society
Progress Opinion: Actually this isn’t an opinion. This is a FACT. It’s woeful progress on this one. I give them -1/10. Yes below zero.
The inclusion of that last key outcome showed the Government didn’t really know what kind of group they were dealing with. Gloriavale is a cult and a high-demand group. You can’t leave these kinds of groups freely. There are ALWAYS exit costs to be paid. And maybe the exit costs these days don’t involve the violence and old expulsion tactics, but they’re still high. Salvation, Shunning & Judgement are costs that still need to be paid.
Additionally it’s an oxymoron to expect that the same group that has systemically abused members over decades would now be able to provide support and reintegration into the society they have indoctrinated their people against, and deliberately kept them away from. In fact, what person living in Gloriavale has any concept of living in the outside world? They can’t be of much help at all.
I acknowledge in the past few years they increased their “gift to leavers” from zero to a few more dollars, but nothing noticeably different since cabinet started looking at them in 2022. They’ still ridiculously small sums (like $3,000 for a family and a promise of some more to come…). If Gloriavale was meeting this outcome, we would know, and yet everyone who leaves still needs to draw heavily on support from strangers.
No progress here so far, but there have been some promises it’s coming. It’s a pipe-dream they will let people leave “freely” and with “appropriate support“. The minute they do that, is the day “Gloriavale” as we know it, is over. Leavers state clearly that the only way to get organisational change is for Gloriavale’s deeply-held beliefs to change. And since they’ve tied their beliefs to the Bible, it’s not something the Government can assist with.
Summary
Gloriavale’s inability and lack of internal desire to meet these 5 keys outcomes should have been recognised long before the 18 months was up.
What other organisation in New Zealand has been placed under oversight of 10 Government Departments, plus NGO’s for 18 months, where their progress was discussed at weekly meetings and reported on every 6-weeks to cabinet? Sadly this group didn’t invite our organisation or other leavers to participate in the weekly meetings and so they missed swathes of current information. We could have saved them both time and money.
Does pulling out mean the Government thinks concerns no longer exist? Is the Government walking away from their responsibilities, or do they have a better plan in place? I think we have learned not to rely on Governments to create cultural changes in organisations who have no honest internal desire to change. But we can call them to be courageous and to use the law to the fullest extent.
The time for promises of change, and excuses for delay are over. All this does is lead to hopelessness for those who still feel entrapped, and this leads to despair. It’s been nine years since the Government agencies started their first multi-agency investigations into Gloriavale. It’s been more than 30 years since the Government knew about the kind of community Gloriavale was (Hopeful Christian’s trial plainly identified how it operated). How much longer do those children, teens and adults have to wait for their day of liberation?
I expect some in Gloriavale will be delighted to be off-the-hook. They will likely see this as a sign that if they can just wait out these periods of difficulty, God will eventually come through for them.