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Cabinet has rejected a recommendation from the Maori affairs select committee that compensation be paid to two brothers injured while serving in the New Zealand Army.
George Nepata was paralysed in a training accident in Singapore in 1979 when he was dropped head-first by the soldiers carrying him up a slope on a stretcher.
His brother Damien Nepata was badly burned when the Scorpion tank he was driving crashed, rolled and caught fire during training at Waiouru army camp in July 1994.
Defence Force Minister Jonathan Coleman says the paid had already received full ACC payouts and Defence Force benefits, and any extra payment could set a precedent.
United Future leader Peter Dunne, who backed the bid, says the committee had stressed the brothers’ situations were unique, so there would be no precedent.
He says they fell between the cracks for adequate compensation for their injuries at the time, which created the original injustice.
Committee chair Tau Henare says he was shattered by the decision.
Copyright © 2013, UMA Broadcasting Ltd
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