Abuse in Care: Oranga Tamariki questioned on trauma and abuse in care
Tuesday, 23 August 2022
Warning: this story contains descriptions of physical abuse
Oranga Tamariki has faced more blistering questions over trauma caused by the state care system between 1950 and 1999.
The ministry appeared before the Royal Commission of Inquiry again on Tuesday as part of its Institutional Response Hearings.
Lawyers from the commission also grilled staff from the ministry about historic and recent allegations of abuse from inside care and protection residences such as Epuni.
In the morning, commission counsel assisting, Dr Allan Cooke, questioned Oranga Tamariki about intergenerational trauma caused by the state.
**READ MORE:
* Abuse in Care: Survivors experiences 'abhorrent' – Oranga Tamariki
* Abuse in Care: Crown's education watchdog says its reports can only go so far
* Abuse in Care: Ministry of Education not prepared to admit systemic racism
**
One of the ministry witnesses, Nicolette Dickson, was visibly shaken when Cooke quoted evidence from the testimony of survivors.
In questioning, Cooke pressed Dickson on her past-experience working as a social worker in South Auckland.
Dickson said she had seen intergenerational trauma and its effects every day, working with families where adults were in prison and their children were facing state care.
Cooke quoted testimony from a female survivor who had previously shared her experience of loss.
“We can never get back what we have lost, the love and care of our parents. We can never retrieve what we had, a loving close-knit family who loved us.”
“We will never truly be siblings again because we are all too damaged.”
“We will never know what it would have been like to grow up connected to our extended family, our whenua or marae, because we lost all that the day we were removed from our parents' care.”
Dickson said she did not have the words to acknowledge the extent of grief and loss described, only to say that it was very deep and very real.
Commission counsel assisting, Anne Toohey, took over from Cooke in the afternoon, turning her attention to care and protection residences.
She shared several examples of historical abuse at different residences throughout Aotearoa, including a section of an interview with staff from Kohitere Boys Training Centre in Levin.
The interview had taken place in 2007, but Toohey said it related to the time period between 1970 and 1980.
“It was known that new arrivals would get a stomping on their second night, a blanket thrown over them and beaten.”
“Most would have been through a boys home already and would know that this was coming. If you took the beating and didn’t tell anyone then you were more likely to be left alone.”
She later went on to discuss a recent monitoring report from the Office of the Children’s Commissioner into Epuni Care and Protection Residence in Lower Hutt.
The report found staff had been unable to keep young people safe from their peers, and that young people had continued to feel unsafe, largely due to staff inability to protect them from other rangatahi.
She asked if Oranga Tamariki agreed those complaints mirrored the same problems that had been conveyed about residential care in the 1970s and 1980s.
The ministry’s chief executive, Chappie Te Kani, quickly responded saying Oranga Tamariki knew of every circumstance the Children’s Commissioner had reported on.
He said Oranga Tamariki had a process in place to understand and rectify any concerns about harm and act on any recommendations made in the monitoring reports.
“We are in the position where we understand the details of what has happened in the cases there,” said Te Kani.
“Not acceptable. I wouldn’t say it’s the same as what the commission has seen today in terms of the testimony and evidence presented before it in relation to Kohitere or Eastlands as providers.”
Te Kani said that did not minimise the points and observations made by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner.
The Oranga Tamariki Chief Social Worker, Peter Whitcombe, added that a report of concern had been made at the time of the Children’s Commissioner’s Epuni report.
A plan had been put in place to respond to the identified concerns, said Whitcombe.
After further questioning about the now infamous Te Oranga Newsroom video, Te Kani said he ultimately wanted the residences to close for good.
“We have a very clear view that the care and protection residences need to be closed down. That is a stated organisational view that is also the view of the government as articulated in the future direction plan.”
Te Kani said the ministry was now in the process of figuring out how to do that in a way that was safe for the tamariki inside.
He also said it was time to move to a model of care which offered more support to whānau with tamariki who had high and complex needs.
Oranga Tamariki witnesses are set to spend their final day on the stand on Wednesday.