But the debate on the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions was something different.
Anyone who watched South Dunedin’s favourite son Grant Robertson give his valedictory speech earlier this year would have noted that he asked every New Zealander to pay attention to the commission’s report when it was released.
"The abuse, bullying and cruelty experienced by young people who were supposed to be cared for by the state and churches is horrific beyond any measure", he said.
"It casts a dark shadow over our history."
And he was right.
Parliament is not a place which has usual work days, but after working there for a while you get used to days which are a little out of the ordinary.
But Wednesday was one of those special days when you can sense that something historic was occurring.
This is not one of those royal commission reports which will end up being used as a doorstop. This is a monumental piece of oral history as much as it is anything else, and it is a report which cries out to be heeded and acted upon.
And it is a report which impacts every New Zealander. Down here in the South reading reports of horrors at Lake Alice, Kimberley and at Van Asch College may seem very distant. But there are also terrible tales from St Joseph’s Orphanage, the Elliot Street Girls’ Home, the Lookout Point Boys’ Home, the Oamaru Family Home, Cherry Farm and Invercargill Borstal, to name just some.
Let one voice speak for hundreds: "he raped me about six or so times down there. No-one could hear me screaming. That didn’t just happen to me, he was also molesting my two sisters and other girls as well".
The perpetrator was quietly transferred to the North Island, where his reign of terror continued.
It is also a salient reminder to southern politicians that the decisions you make now can resound down the years. The report notes that successive senior ministers and public servants were culpable for permitting, or turning a blind eye to, ongoing abuse.
The Spinoff has compiled a list of all those relevant ministers and officials, which includes National Otago Central MP William Bodkin (Minister for Social Security 1950-54), Labour Dunedin Central MP Phil Connolly (briefly Minister for Social Security in 1959); Labour St Kilda MP Sir Michael Cullen (both as Minister of Health and Social Welfare), National Invercargill MP Ralph Hanan (Minister of Health 1954-57) and National Wallace MP Sir Brian Talboys (Minister of Education 1969-72).
Now that is not to say that any or all of those gentlemen have any culpability whatsoever for any atrocities carried out on their watch.
But it is to say that any such report or rumour that any future minister may have cross their desk must be taken seriously. This week proves that it may well be a genuine problem, that it has human consequences, and that it absolutely will not just go away.
The report also recommends that Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand moderator the Rt Rev Rose Luxford, of Oamaru, Presbyterian Support Otago chief executive Jo O’Neill, Presbyterian Support Southland chief executive Matt Russell and New Zealand Nurses Association Dunedin-based president Anne Daniels - among many other current church, government agency and professional organisation leaders - apologise for the sins of the past.
Whether they all do so remains to be seen. We can only hope that they do.
But after the apologising must come genuine attempts at compensation, reconciliation and genuine progress towards a model of care for the most vulnerable members of society which does not leave them at risk of falling foul of monsters the way all too many who went before them did.
All parties in the House committed to making lasting, meaningful change. This will be no easy task, but it is the benchmark against which this government - and the two or three to follow it - will be judged against, and which they cannot fail to achieve.
As an aside
Wednesday was, quite rightly, the survivor’s day. But it is worth noting, particularly as the news media struggles for survival, that many of these harrowing stories would never have come to light had they not been told to a journalist.
Reporters the length of the country have hacked out chinks of sunlight into some dark times and places - notable in our patch was the landmark ODT Marked by the Cross series.
And editors were brave enough to run those stories, often when faced with powerful forces who did not want the truth to get out.
Those who decry "legacy media" might do well to contemplate just how important stories like those in the report will be told in the future should there not be a news media to recognise their significance and hold people accountable for their actions.
