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Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox says a royal commission of inquiry into the abuse of children in care is the only way to ensure accountability and create the systemic change needed to keep tamariki safe.
An Australian Royal Commission has spent the past five years looking into abuse not just in state care but in schools and church institutions,.
Ms Fox says it has not just lifted the scab on the past, but is creating real change in the way Australian schools and workplaces deals with issues like family violence.
A lesser ministerial inquiry won't create the accountability needed for change.
"This is about not just the Government and what their response is but the nation and their understanding of the endemic abuse in this country, because there is a myth this is a Maori problem. Yes, we are over-represented in the statistics, but we are still only half the number of children. Maori children have been murdered in horrific circumstances, but Pakeha children have been as well," she says.
The Government says it doesn't need an inquiry because it has created the Ministry for Vulnerable Children, but Ms Fox says there are no guarantees the mistakes of the past won't be repeated, especially when no one is being held accountable for criminal negligence or abuse.
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