Waitangi Tribunal says Oranga Tamariki in breach of Treaty, Government needs to 'step back' from intruding into Māori communities
Friday, 30 April 2021
The Waitangi Tribunal has called on the Government to step back from intruding into Māori communities, ruling the care of Māori children by Oranga Tamariki has breached the Treaty of Waitangi.
The tribunal, which released its report after a two-year inquiry into Oranga Tamariki uplifts on Friday, has said an independent Māori Transition Authority should be created to reform the agency’s care and protection system for tamariki Māori.
“Māori must be given the right to chart their own path towards realisation in contemporary times of the Treaty promise of rangatiratanga over their kāinga,” the tribunal said in its decision.
However, the tribunal has not supported calls for the complete abolition of Oranga Tamariki or the direct transfer of the agency’s resources and responsibilities to a Māori authority.
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The tribunal instead said the temporary authority should be tasked with recommending what functions and responsibilities be transferred to Māori communities and organisations.
“It is important to understand that the need for change and the process of transformation we recommend has nothing to do with separatism and everything to do with realising the Treaty promise, that two peoples may coexist harmoniously,” the tribunal said.
Minister for Children Kelvin Davis said the tribunal’s findings were “in alignment” with how he had directed Oranga Tamariki, however he needed time to consider the report thoroughly.
'There have been mistakes made, no doubt, that have caused some harm and trauma to whānau.
“I think the Treaty has been breached. And that's why I'm in the role, to make sure that those breaches are fixed and that we can transfer and devolve decision-making and resources to Māori so that they can make the decisions for our Māori children.
“There also needs to be a true partnership … The partnership, in my opinion means that Oranga Tamariki needs to be more of an enabler, rather than a dictator.”
He would not commit to creating a transition authority, as the tribunal recommended.
“It needs to be done properly, and it needs to be done carefully … It is a priority for me personally, as a Māori, as well as a minister.”
Oranga Tamariki acting chief executive Sir Wira Gardiner said, in a statement, the tribunal’s recommendations were “serious and require significant consideration”.
“We acknowledged early on in the inquiry that disparities for Māori exist. Work to address these disparities within Oranga Tamariki is already well underway and this report will also inform our approach to addressing institutional bias.”
The tribunal set out on an urgency inquiry into Oranga Tamariki late in 2019, after the uplift of a baby from a Hastings mother was captured in a documentary published by Newsroom and caused a storm of controversy.
The tribunal sought to answer why there was a significant disparity between tamariki Māori and non-Māori children being taken into care, how the Government’s changes to legislation and practices could make this disparity better, and what policies might ensure the system was consistent with the Treaty of Waitangi.
It said that between 2000 and 2018, the incidence of Māori aged under 16 entering state care rose from one in 125 Māori children to one in 64 Māori children.
“The disparity we examine has arisen and persists in part due to the effects of alienation and dispossession, but also because of a failure by the Crown to honour the guarantee to Māori of the right of cultural continuity embodied in the guarantee of tino rangatiratanga over their kāinga,” the tribunal said.
“It is our conclusion that the systemic problems inherent in the current system are too powerful for truly transformational change to emerge.”
The tribunal said the Crown continued to breach the Treaty by operating a care system which failed Māori. Its primary recommendation was that “the Crown steps back from further intrusion into what was reserved to Māori under te Tiriti/the Treaty, and allow Māori to reclaim their space”.
It said it did not was to be “overly prescriptive” in its recommendations, instead wanting Māori to lead a transformation of the care and protection system.
A Māori Transition Authority should be created out of the governance group that was assembled for a Māori-led inquiry into Oranga Tamariki that had already reported its findings, the tribunal said.
The members of this group include Dame Rangimārie Naida Glavish, Sir Toby Curtis, Sir Mason Durie, Sir Pita Sharples and Dame Tariana Turia.
“We register a caution about the risk of replacing one bureaucracy with another. While we accept that a significant transformation is required, we do not see it as simply a case of calculating and transferring to a new Māori organisation proportionate responsibility and resource from Oranga Tamariki.
“There are also questions of capacity and access to specialised help in Māori communities that will need to be worked through. We note these matters because of the need to proceed with care so as to minimise the risk of further harm.”
Also considered by the tribunal was the “Hastings uplift” in 2019, which sparked numerous inquiries and led Oranga Tamariki to review its practices. The tribunal met the mother and her now two-year-old boy, and said he was health and happy.
“The single recommendation we make with regard to the ‘Hastings uplift’ is that all ministers who carry the responsibility to decide what happens next, first make time to watch the Newsroom documentary of the attempted uplift in Hastings in May 2019 (if they have not already done so).
“We say this because we believe this short documentary makes a case for substantial reform in ways more eloquent and direct than we can convey in words.”
Davis said he had seen parts of the documentary and was happy to watch the video in its entirety.
'They've recommended that, I'm happy to watch it.”
‘Child rescue’ model has failed
The tribunal’s call has been supported by claimants who argued for the care of Māori children to be placed with whānau, hapū and iwi collectives.
“We agree that the transformation needs to happen as soon as possible. This is because the removal of Māori children continues and there are whānau experiencing trauma,” claimants Dr Jane Alison Green, Paora Crawford Moyle, Dr Rawiri Waretini-Karena, and Kerri Nuku said in a statement.
Lady Tureiti Moxon, chair of the National Urban Māori Authority, said she was “mind blown” by the tribunal’s findings, as it validated the push for a “by Māori, for Māori” approach.
“In the end the minister has to be prepared to pass over power to others – to share that power and the resources with Māori,” Moxon said in a statement.
The Children's Commissioner said the tribunal had presented the Government with 'a once in a generation opportunity to get it right for mokopuna and whānau Māori”.
“The ‘child rescue’ model inherited by Oranga Tamariki has for decades failed to work for mokopuna Māori, and it never will,” the commissioner, Judge Andrew Becroft, said in a statement.