August 19, 2022
State abuse inquiry lacking destination
One of the early contributors to the Royal Commission on Abuse in State Care says the inquiry doesn’t seem to know where it is going.
The inquiry has this week been hearing from some of the 14 agencies responsible for state care, including Police and Social Welfare.
Manukau Urban Māori Authority chair Bernie O’Donnell says after telling his story multiple times to first the earlier ‘listening panel’ and then in the preparatory stages, as well as trying to organise other survivors, he has stepped away from what has been a traumatic process.
“You just get tired of the looks when you tell them the horror stories you endured and it’s like you know when they are going to go ‘oh my gosh.’ Thank you very much for your empathy but there needs to be some sort of resolution and I don’t know what that is and if I had to send a message to the Royal Commission it would be ‘we don’t know where you are going,'” he says.
Mr O’Donnell doesn’t want to see the inquiry pushed into a Treaty of Waitangi space where the crown is not held accountable, and instead it needs to ensure there are consequences for abuse that was criminal and the criminal negligence by the crown.