Justice Minister's Office Investigates and Controls Fate of Human Rights Chief

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has commissioned an independent inquiry into Human Rights Commission chief commissioner Stephen Rainbow, led by King's Counsel Kristy McDonald. Yet the minister's office both runs the investigation and holds sole power to appoint or dismiss the commissioner under the Human Rights Act 1993. That structural overlap — investigator and decision-maker combined in one ministerial channel — creates a procedural conflict of interest at the heart of the process.