Disability advocates threaten to boycott royal commission over conflict of interest claims
The chair of the disability royal commission, Ronald Sackville, has said people will not have to make submissions to commissioners with whom they do not feel comfortable.
Mr Sackville opened the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability by reiterating that measures were in place to manage perceptions of conflicts of interest.
A growing number of advocates and people with disabilities had threatened to boycott the long-awaited inquiry, which held its first public sitting in Brisbane today.
Craig Wallace, the convener of the Disability Royal Commission Action Group, said he would boycott the inquiry unless two of the seven commissioners, John Ryan and Barbara Bennett, stood down because of a perceived conflict of interest.
