Anna-Marie Brennan: Waikato University Senior Law Lecturer on the Inquiry into the disappearance of Tom Phillips and his children

An inquiry into the disappearance of Tom Phillips and his children will analyse if New Zealand met its obligations under international law.  

The four year search for the group ended in a shootout last September, where Phillips severely injured a police officer before being shot dead. 

An inquiry into their disappearance will begin hearing evidence today, looking at whether agencies should have done more or acted faster to protect the children.  

Waikato University Senior Law Lecturer Anna-Marie Brennan told Andrew Dickens New Zealand has obligations to protect children under UN conventions.  

She says children deprived of their family environment must be given special protection and assistance. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here's a question. Did official agencies act fast enough to
save Tom phillips children from the mattercop of Bush? That
is the question a inquiry, and inquiry is starting today
aims to find out. And so Phillips said his children
successfully hid from police for four years, in which time
police say that no contact was ever made. That is
until a faithful shootout came the life of Tom Phillips

(00:21):
in September, with all his children found safe. So doctor
Anna Marie Brennan is a senior electorate at the University
of Waicato, enjoins me. Now, Anna Marie, good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
What are the questions for having it's a pleasure? What
are the questions that this inquiry needs to answer?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
There are three central questions here. Firstly, whether parenting orders
were properly enforced by our state agencies, whether police and
child protection services discharged their satary duties, was New Zealand's
obligations under international law observed here? And then whether interagency

(01:00):
coordination mess of those thresholds as well. So there's a
number of questions that this inquiry will be looking at,
and especially why it took so long to recover these children.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah, that's that's the basic question is it was international
law involved.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
New Zealand is a member of the United Nations Convention
and the Rights of the Child, and under that convention
the best interests of the child are at the center
of all decision making. So New Zealand is obliged to
protect children from harm, neglect and abuse. It must make
clear as well that children deprived of their family environment

(01:39):
must be given special protection in the systems. And the
case of Tom Phillips is absolutely unprecedented. And these are
bind emmitments. They are not aspirational goals.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Okay, I understand it. And so what agencies are accused
of abrogating their duties and letting this get away for
so long.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Well, first, there is a question about whether agencies like
the police and Arana Tamariki, whether the operations in isolation,
did they coordinate over this time period to try and
find these children. And essentially this inquiry is trying to
expose those systemic vulnerabilities so that in a case as

(02:21):
extraordinary and as unprecedent as this does not happen to
happen again.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
All right, good stuff, and I thank you so much.
That is doctor n Anna Maria brinnan and she is
a senior lecturer at the University of Wakata School of Law.
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