The say they're losing faith that the Inquiry will uncover the extent of what happened to children in state and church care.

Some of them hope Sir Anand isn't the only commissioner to step down.

Controversy has followed the Commission since it was set up early last year.

That includes appointing a gang member to a key role, using survivors for trial or pilot interviews, claims Sir Anand fell asleep while a survivor told their story and accusations commissioners shut down questions about potential conflicts of interest.

Sir Anand's resignation is worrying, says social worker state care abuse survivor Paora Crawford Moyle.

It "makes [me] and probably my brothers ... really wonder what's going on in there and what else is to come," she says.

"Are the cracks starting to appear?"

Moyle says she is concerned the work the Inquiry should be doing won't get done because the Commission was having to spend so much time on damage control.

Another survivor, Anne Hill, says she has found it "re-traumatising and at times very frustrating because the issue of child abuse gets lost in issues about who has the power to speak now".

Liz Tonks from the network of survivors of abuse in faith-based institutions wants the problem fixed quickly.

"Any issue that needs to be resolved and isn't straightforward and just doesn't let them get on with the job is a setback. Survivors have been waiting for this for years," she says.

Just who who will take over when Sir Anand leaves the Inquiry in November is of concern.

Dr Christopher Longhurst, a Catholic and national leader of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, is concerned Judge Coral Shaw, whom he has already found "dismissive", might take Sir Anand's place.

He will be telling other survivors to stay away if she takes over Sir Anand's job, he says.

Moyle agrees, saying there are "scores of people already who won't come forward ... because of how the commissioners are treating survivors".

A lawyer and youth advocate, Sonja Cooper, who will be providing expert evidence to the Commission disagrees with Moyle and Longhurst.

Cooper says in her view Shaw is eminently capable and would have learnt from past criticisms.

Source

• RNZ
• Scoop
• Image: Suff

Yes.

To disqualify chairman Sir Anand Satyanand simply on the basis of his own faith, rather than any deeds, would be to indulge intolerance.

The church has far too often been a place of abuse and scandalously sustained cover-ups of it. But we are not entitled to assume that corruption is so profound, so inherent, that no Catholic could be relied upon to confront it.

Of course Catholicism or religion aren't the only sort of faith that is relevant here.

It matters hugely that abuse survivors have faith as well - faith that in stepping forward with their so-often harrowing accounts of betrayal and denial, they will be given a decent hearing.

Yet we go too far if we decide that to be able to accept this inquiry is being conducted with integrity, it's best to assume that Sir Anand doesn't have any.

These are painful times when most of the nation is acutely aware of the harm that can be done making generalised assumptions carelessly linking people of any faith to the worst behaviours of those who profess to share that religion, but in truth debase it.

It has emerged that when his Catholicism became an issue Sir Anand, who is a former Governor General and before that a judge, tendered his resignation from the commission.

But Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin didn't accept it. She has a fair point that when he was appointed, the inquiry was to focus only on state care. He was the one who recommended it be widened also to include faith-based institutions.

While this was hardly a bolt-from-the-blue idea that hadn't occurred to anyone else, it was a good, necessary extension.

Martin gets a little point-scorey when she adds, rhetorically, that any atheist on the commission could be said to be compromised too - presumably on the assumption that they would be biased in the other direction and have it in for the churches.

It's perhaps unsurprising that she resisted the fatuous line that since the inquiry also deals with abuses of those under state care, there could hardly be a more compromised chairman than the man who as Governor General personally represented our head of state, the Queen. Continue reading

• Image: Wikipedia

Some have expressed concern about a perceived conflict of interest because of his Catholic faith.

Documents obtained by Stuff show Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin rejected his offer.

Instead, she asked Satyanand for a plan to combat any risk to the integrity of the Royal Commission.

Some child abuse survivors and their advocates are calling for Satyanand's resignation offer to be accepted.

They say his position risks tainting the inquiry's credibility.

On Friday, Martin said she had full confidence in Satyanand and the commission's conflict of interest policy.

"Sir Anand was appointed when the Royal Commission's terms were only about abuse in state care. He conducted the consultation process and recommended to the Government that the inquiry also cover faith-based institutions," she said.

"He thought that his Catholic upbringing and background were well-known, but made a point of raising this matter as he wanted to be transparent."

She said he did "the right thing" raising it, and an atheist chair "would be a potential conflict too".

Satyanand first outlined concerns in a September letter to Martin.

"I ... think it's appropriate to establish that you know I am a practising Catholic by religion. I was brought up in a Catholic household and went to Sacred Heart College in Auckland.

I have kept up associations with that school and have attended a number of its public occasions there through the years."

He was involved in a patron's group which helped raise $9m to rebuild Wellington's St Mary of the Angels church.

Satyanand is a former lawyer, judge and ombudsman. He was the 19th Governor-General of New Zealand, from 2006 to 2011.

After returning to civilian life, Satyanand chaired the Commonwealth Foundation for two two-year terms, ending December 2016.

He led the Commonwealth team observing the national elections of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea.

Satyanand also chaired a commission set up by the Anglican church to develop options on the ordination and blessing of people in same-sex relationships.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• rotaryoceania.zone
• nzherald.co.nz
• Image.