A nation that values fairness should expect accountability, says Shelley Loader. Photo / 123rf
Accountability is often imagined as a dramatic confrontation.
In reality, it more often looks like an empty toilet roll. Everyone walks past it, everyone denies it, and somehow the same person always replaces it.
A small act doesn’t break a household, but repetition can. When responsibility is avoided, the burden shifts to those already carrying invisible labour.
Over time, this erodes trust, fuels resentment, and quietly signals that some people’s time and wellbeing matter less than others.
A similar pattern plays out in communities. Avoidance of responsibility creates harm that accumulates.
Mistakes are human; what matters is what we do next.
Accountability strengthens emotional maturity and resilience, helping communities repair misunderstandings, acknowledge harm, and honour commitments.
It is a relational and structural practice grounded in honesty, courage, and the conditions that make responsibility possible.
Individually, accountability means personal ownership of our behaviour and its effects.
Collectively, it’s shared responsibility for the wellbeing of our communities.
Structurally, it’s about institutions upholding fairness, transparency, and the wellbeing of those they serve.
At its core, it involves acknowledging actions, understanding impact, and taking meaningful steps to repair harm and prevent recurrence.
True accountability is not punitive; it is relational repair.
Many people struggle with accountability because it triggers fear, shame, or emotional discomfort.
Avoidance, defensiveness, or withdrawal often arise from past experiences or a lack of modelling.
These patterns are reinforced in environments that minimise or punish honesty and protect people with status.
Power shapes who is held responsible, who avoids it, and how repair can occur.
For people with less power, taking responsibility can feel risky and overwhelming.
Accountability also isn’t straightforward. Sometimes accusations are unfair.
Sometimes the seriousness of harm limits what repair can achieve.
And sometimes institutions promote a narrow, individualised view of responsibility that ignores the social and structural conditions enabling harm.
This not only misdiagnoses the problem, it causes more harm by blaming individuals for what requires collective solutions.
In my work alongside communities, one of the most persistent challenges is a deepening lack of trust in the institutions people are expected to rely on.
At a recent event marking 25 years of the Restorative City Whanganui Trust, themes of courageous conversations, justice, and repair emerged clearly.
The honesty, passion and lived experience in the room were a reminder that communities can express truths that institutions, constrained by structure and risk, often struggle to live out.
Stats NZ data indicate declining trust in major public institutions since 2021, showing a broad trend rather than isolated incidents.
The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care showed how silence, power imbalances, and institutional self-protection can allow harm to continue for decades.
When institutions use non-independent reviews, offer apologies without change, or default to defensive communication, communities see containment rather than accountability.
Trust grows when leaders choose early repair over legal defensiveness. Real accountability requires openness, not risk management.
Each unresolved failure contributes to the sense that raising concerns is futile and that structural protection and bureaucratic systems that encourage defensiveness or rigid procedure outweigh fairness or safety.
Silence thrives in these conditions. When complaints processes are slow, unclear, and intimidating, it discourages people from raising concerns. If we fear dismissal, retaliation, and inaction, honesty becomes unsafe.
When people expect minimisation, dismissal or backlash, they stop raising concerns, and harm becomes less visible.
In a context where trust in institutions continues to decline, breaking this silence requires clear and trustworthy steps.
Repair is essential for healing, closure, and the prevention of repeated harm.
Breaking silence does not require forcing disclosure but creating environments where speaking up is supported and understood as a step toward repair.
Conditions that make accountability possible, such as safety, clarity, respect and trust, must be present.
Without these foundations, accountability becomes coercive, performative and superficial.
Communities thrive when accountability is a shared expectation supported by equitable structures and when leaders demonstrate transparency, listening, repair and reliable follow-through.
Harm creates ripple effects far beyond individuals. Community-led, restorative and transformative approaches offer pathways to deeper accountability.
Restorative practice strengthens relationships through communication, connection and trust.
Restorative justice brings together those harmed, those responsible, and their support networks to understand what happened and identify what is needed to repair harm.
This work is grounded in Māori and Pasifika principles of relationship, dignity and restoring balance.
Transformative justice expands the focus to examine the systems and conditions that contribute to harm, requiring attention to the structures that allow harm to persist.
These approaches are not quick or easy alternatives to punitive responses.
They require truth-telling, dialogue, rebuilding trust, and agreements for meaningful repair, supported by skilled facilitation that considers power imbalances and the risk of retraumatisation.
In my experience, they produce deeper accountability and more lasting repair than punishment alone.
At the same time, it is important to guard against performative accountability, such as apologies without change or statements without action.
Independent systems for concerns and whistleblowing are essential for rebuilding trust. Without these protections, silence becomes safer than honesty.
If we want something to change, something must change.
Courageous conversations reveal hidden issues and strengthen trust. Everyone deserves fair and respectful responses to harm.
No one should be pressured into forgiveness or expected to engage in accountability without regard for power and safety.
Accountability lets us put things right. In a nation that values fairness, we should expect nothing less.
Catch up on the debates that dominated the week by signing up to our Opinion newsletter - a weekly round-up of our best commentary.