Māori Party says 'rotten to the core' Oranga Tamariki should have been disbanded

Wednesday, 29 September 2021

Children’s Minister Kelvin Davis has accepted the recommendations of a ministerial advisory board that inspected Oranga Tamariki. (First published September 29, 2021)

Māori Party MP Debbie Ngarewa-Packer says the Government’s changes to Oranga Tamariki will fail to fix a “rotten” agency which needs to be disestablished.

“We’ve got to remember this is an institution whose entire system was rotten to the core, and it required immediate dismantling.

“They’ve had 19 reviews but what they’ve come back with is more of the same.”

Māori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer says Māori want to wear their trauma without shame.

The Government has directed Oranga Tamariki to devolve some of its decision-making and resources to community and Māori organisations, to clarify its purpose , to rebuild the mana of social work, and to establish a national governance board to oversee change.

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Children's Minister Kelvin Davis on Wednesday made public a report from a ministerial advisory board that in February he asked to inspect Oranga Tamariki's relationships, practices and organisational culture.

The report criticises the agency for being “weak, disconnected and unfit”, and the advisory board said Oranga Tamariki was “self-centred and constantly looks to itself for answers”, and made a series of recommendations that have been accepted wholesale by Davis.

Ihorangi Reweti-Peters spoke about his experience of living under the care of Oranga Tamariki at a post-Budget breakfast hosted by Child Poverty Action Group in May.

He separately directed Oranga Tamariki to only uplift children under “without notice orders” as a last resort, when there is evidence of “no workable safety plan” for a child in place.

Ngarewa-Packer, of Ngāti Ruanui and the Māori Party’s co-leader, said the move was not the transformative change the party and her iwi had hoped for.

She said while there was acceptance of the need to work with Māori and communities by the Government, there was “no clarity on devolving”.

Ihorangi Reweti-Peters, a Christchurch teenager in Oranga Tamariki care, said he supported the changes and hoped they would benefit tamariki, but questioned who would ensure they went ahead.

“With iwi and community placements, my concern is who is going to be overseeing this?

Michelle Turrall, Manawhenua Ki Waitaha chair says the group is very concerned about the state of the health system.

“How is it going to operate, and is it going to be beneficial for some of our most vulnerable young people?”

Social workers, GPs and the Children’s Commissioner have backed the report recommendations but say more funding will be needed to ensure tangible improvements for tamariki in care.

Just under 6000 children were under the care and protection of Oranga Tamariki – which reported to Davis – with 58 per cent of them Māori, according to the agency’s 2019/20 annual report.

Manawhenua Ki Waitaha, which represents Māori and Ngāi Tahu health interests in Canterbury, said changes would help further strengthen the iwi’s existing strategic partnership between the South Island iwi and Oranga Tamariki.

Assistant Māori Commissioner Glenis Philip-Barbara said the Government’s announcement was a “good first step that can’t come soon enough”.

Chairwoman Michelle Turrall, who is also a senior adviser at Oranga Tamariki, said the partnership had already enabled Ngāi Tahu to fulfil “our aspirations for our tamariki and our whānau”.

“It’s about us influencing and dictating what it will look like for us.”

Other Māori iwi organisations with strategic partnerships include Eastern Bay of Plenty Iwi Provider Alliance, Māori Women’s Welfare League, Ngāti Kahungunu, Tuhoe, Te Rūnanga-Ā-Iwi O Ngāpuhi and Waikato-Tainui Iwi and Te Kahu Oranga Whānau.

298 Youth Health senior doctor Dame Sue Bagshaw said she was glad to see the Government acknowledge they should better support whānau, rather than remove tamariki.

The Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW) president Sharyn Roberts said Oranga Tamariki “must rebuild itself as a social work-oriented organisation”.

The report highlighted “the systemic and organisational failings, not the poor practice of individual social workers” Kaiwhakahaere chief executive of ANZASW Braden Clark said.

However, greater investment in social workers, iwi and community social service providers was needed urgently, Clark said.

“Without the much-needed investment, this will yet be another report into our nation’s child protection system doomed to fail.”

The Children’s Commissioner and Assistant Māori Commissioner welcomed the Government’s commitment to “transform” a dysfunctional Oranga Tamariki, but said changes needed to be “concrete and urgent”.

“Today’s acknowledgement that Oranga Tamariki must be transformed to be mokopuna and whānau-centred, and to collaborate with Māori and communities, is a good first step that can’t come soon enough,” Assistant Māori Commissioner Glenis Philip-Barbara said.

She said the advisory board findings are “the latest in a long line of reports calling for problems to be fixed while meaningful change has never been implemented”.

Dame Sue Bagshaw, a Christchurch GP and founder of health service Youth 298, said she wanted to see greater training of youth and social workers as a result of the changes.

She has been disappointed by the lack of capability in Oranga Tamariki for managing patients who were under their care appropriately.

“I’m pleased to see Oranga Tamariki seeing that the appropriate response for a Government department is to put in more support to whānau rather than remove [tamariki].”

Bagshaw said irrespective of who was responsible for children in care, staff needed to be well-trained to work appropriately with young people.