July 16, 2013
Committee recommends compo for brothers
The Māori Affairs select committee has recommended two brothers injured in separate army incidents over two decades ago be given additional compensation.
George Nepata became tetraplegic when he was dropped from a stretcher during a training exercise in Singapore.
Damien Nepata received burns to 40 percent of his body when the Scorpion tank he was driving crashed, rolled and caught fire in Waiouru.
Committee Deputy Chair Te Ururoa Flavell says the Maori Party took up the brothers’ case because it saw it as an issue about access to justice.
He says the army has a duty of care to the brothers that the existing compensation system doesn’t reflect.
A similar recommendation in 2003 from the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee was rejected by the government of the day.
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