Ms Leoni Mclnroe, KSO, for services to survivors of abuse in care
Leoni Mclnroe's (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāi Tahu) tireless advocacy across 30 years culminated in a formal acknowledgement by the government of the abuse and torture of children and young people at the Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital Child and Adolescent Unit (Lake Alice Unit). Since the mid-1990s, Ms McInroe has been challenging the response to the abuse and torture she experienced at the Lake Alice Unit. She has used her personal experience to advocate for recognition of events that occurred at the unit and redress for survivors. In 1993, she filed the first legal proceedings against the Crown for abuse at the Lake Alice Unit. Her advocacy since then brought national attention to the torture and abuse experienced by approximately 360 children and vulnerable young people between 1972 and 1978 at the Lake Alice Unit. Her evidence was central to the Lake Alice Unit case study of the report by the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions. Ms Mclnroe was actively involved in the inquiry, particularly through engagement with diverse survivor groups, Members of Parliament, government officials and independent agencies.