The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care


The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care is a royal commission established in 2018 by the New Zealand government pursuant to the Inquiries Act 2013 to inquire into and report upon responses by institutions to instances and allegations of historical abuse in state care and faith based institutions between 1950 and 2000.
On 4 December 2017, Cabinet agreed to establish an inquiry into abuse in state care under the Inquiries Act 2013. It also agreed that a Ministerial Working Group be set up to consider the potential scope and implementation of the Inquiry, led by the Minister for Children/of Internal Affairs supported by the Minister for Social Development. The terms of the inquiry were announced in November 2018, and at that time the scope was widened from covering abuse in state care to include abuse in faith based institutions.
The Department of Internal Affairs is now responsible for administering the independent Inquiry. The Rt Hon Sir Anand Satyanand was appointed as the Inquiry Chair and member of the Inquiry. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister for Children Tracey Martin gave details of the inquiry which was formally established on 1 February 2018.
In August 2019, Satyanand announced his resignation from the Commission. In a surprise announcement, he cited the growing workload, which was higher than predicted, and his age of 75. He left the Commission in November 2019 and became the chancellor of Waikato University. Coral Shaw took over as chair, and Julia Steenson joined the Commission in June 2020.
The work of the Commission was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand, with reduced sessions from March through June 2020.

Commissioners

Simon Mount QC is the Commission’s Counsel Assist.

Criticisms

The inquiry faced criticism for appointing a gang member into a key role. Mongrel Mob member Harry Tam was employed as the inquiry's head of policy and research.
An abuse survivor accused the Commission of shutting down questions into conflicts of interest, saying that when he asked about commissioners' involvement with religious organisations, commissioners intervened to prevent further questions. The survivor received two letters of apology over the incident.
It was also criticised after some survivors were unclear on whether interviews they had done were part of the official hearings or were 'mock' sessions. Some survivors where concerned that evidence from those sessions would not be used and that they would need to repeat traumatising sessions. Commissioner Sandra Alofivae said that the interviews were official and evidence from them would be used, describing the sessions as "soft pilots".
A child sex offender was allowed to attend meetings with sexual violence survivors. The man, who is on the child sex offender register, was a partner of a person attending a panel. The Commission took three months after learning that the man had convictions to determine what they were. Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin said that her confidence in the commissioner "had been shaken" but later expressed confidence in the Commission. Senior Commissioner Paul Gibson faced calls to resign but refused to do so.