15 Apr 2019

Survivor worried state care abuse inquiry on shaky ground

From Morning Report, 6:11 am on 15 April 2019

A state care abuse survivor is worried the government's historic inquiry is on shaky ground after questions about religious affiliations of lead members. last week, RNZ reported comments from Christopher Longhurst, who was abused at a Catholic school, who suggested the inquiry was shutting down questions about the religious affiliations of its commissioners. When the commission asked him to speak on a video for its website, he checked if any commissioners belonged to churches. Two are Catholics and a third is Presbyterian. A Central Otago man, Toni Jarvis, who's now 58, has been fighting for decades for an inquiry to heal from the past trauma while in state care. He says Mr Longhurst's comments could be damaging. Mr Jarvis says there should be two separate inquiries - one looking at state care abuse, and the other abuse within the religious sector.