A Royal Commission on historic abuse in state care will ``fail'' survivors - including those still suffering in Otago - unless faith-based institutions are included, a campaigner says. The call came from Liz Tonks, the head of a support network for survivors of abuse in faith-based institutions, as consultation on the draft terms of reference for the Royal Commission into Abuse in State Care entered its final week. That also worried Dugal Armour, the Otago branch manager for the Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse group, who said Australia's wide-ranging Royal Commission into institutional abuse should be the example. The group had also written to Sir Anand, calling for the Royal Commission to be expanded to include faith-based institutions, he said. Survivors of abuse in state care needed an independent Royal Commission because they would not trust a lesser inquiry run by a ministry under whose care they had been abused, she said.

Source: Otago Daily Times April 23, 2018 16:52 UTC