Let's direct our anger to the real cause of child abuse, not the social workers

Saturday, 10 August 2019

OPINION: The social workers at Oranga Tamariki are taking a beating.

In recent weeks, they've been labelled 'baby snatchers' and 'kidnappers', and accused of creating a new 'stolen generation'.

These hard-working Kiwis – who risk their lives to protect our most vulnerable children – have been demonised.

It began in June, with the video of Hawke's Bay social workers trying to take a newborn baby into state care.

Protesters take to the streets of Wellington earlier this month to protest against Oranga Tamariki.

* Social workers embedded in families worth our support

* Social workers could be living in at-risk homes

* Oranga Tamariki confident about reforms**

Distressing? Of course. Brutal? Perhaps. A genuine attempt to save that baby's life? Oranga Tamariki thought so.

The agency will intervene, with a court order, when it believes the immediate safety of a child is at risk, and other family members cannot be found – or trusted.

Moko Rangitoheriri became the face of a nation's shameful record of child neglect and abuse.

The practice is not new, but the video was upsetting. It sparked a nationwide movement, calling for the state to stop 'stealing' Māori children.

It's an important conversation, but those on the frontline are caught in the middle of it.

Last week, I watched protesters yelling outside the Oranga Tamariki office in Tauranga. Social workers were locked inside their building, having reported an increase in death threats and abuse.

Jehan Casinader asks those up in arms about baby uplifts: do you remember Moko?

As I watched the protesters demanding that the state takes its 'hands off' their tamariki, I wondered out loud: 'But what about Moko?'

Moko Rangitoheriri. Remember him? The three-year-old boy bludgeoned to death by a family friend and her partner in 2015. Four years ago this weekend.

Moko's killers had kicked him, punched him and stomped on his head – until he took his last breath.

Outraged at the little boy's plight, thousands of Kiwis marched for Moko. He became yet another symbol of New Zealand's child abuse rate – 'our national shame', as the media call it.

We had spent a decade reporting on child deaths. We interviewed countless experts who said that our child protection laws were weak.

Oranga Tamariki, led by chief executive Grainne Moss, is making positive strides in their relationship with iwi.

Grieving families shed tears on TV, hoping that other families could be spared the same pain.

And every time a child was killed, we turned up the heat on Child, Youth and Family.

Where were they, we demanded? Why did they ignore red flags? Why didn't they step in?

Child, Youth and Family was dysfunctional, outdated and underfunded. In 2017, it was scrapped.

A new ministry, Oranga Tamariki, would focus on early intervention, and helping people to become better parents. When necessary, it would remove children from dangerous homes, rather than waiting to send an ambulance – or a hearse.

Now, social workers are being slammed for doing exactly what they were told to do.

They have been accused of racism, because Māori children are over represented in the state care system.

But we also know that Māori kids are more at risk of harm. Between 2009 and 2015, Māori children were three times more likely than non-Māori to be killed by abuse or neglect.

Oranga Tamariki has been accused of severing the link between Māori children and their whakapapa. But the truth is, 79 per cent of Māori children in state care have been placed within their own whānau or iwi, or with Māori caregivers.

The state care system is still failing Māori. Institutional racism, and the dark legacy of colonisation, are woven through it.

But it's incredibly pessimistic to suggest that the state will never be able to do right by tangata whenua.

Last week, I interviewed Māori social workers who are proud to work for Oranga Tamariki.

They are developing new models of care, built on tikanga Māori , to support vulnerable children and reunite them – safely – with their whanau.

The ministry has partnered with iwi, including Ngāi Tahu and Waikato-Tainui, to allow children from those iwi to be diverted away from the state-run system.

Tūhoe will sign a landmark agreement with Oranga Tamariki next week – a strong sign that some iwi leaders believe there is a way forward.

Four reviews are underway into Oranga Tamariki. If the agency has been breaking up families without very good reasons, it must be held accountable.

But progress also deserves media coverage. The ministry's leaders should be given a chance to deliver on their promises – especially to Māori .

Let's redirect our anger towards the real causes of child abuse. As one community worker told me, 'the three Ps: poverty, piss and P'.

Marching is not enough. Moko deserves so much more.

* Jehan Casinader reports on Sunday, tonight at 7.30pm on TVNZ1.