oranga tamariki

The Police Association President says military academies for youth offenders are worth a crack.  

The Government plans to have an Oranga Tamariki-run pilot programme by the middle of this year.  

Police Association President Chris Cahill told Mike Hosking that people who sponsored earlier models tell him they saw kids coming in with no self-esteem and leaving with their mana restored.  

He says the challenge is when they left, they went back to dysfunctional families and places with gang influence.  

Cahill says support at the end of the programmes is needed. 

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It's Politics Friday once more and this week John MacDonald was joined by National's Hamish Campbell and Labour's Reuben Davidson to wrap this week's political hits.

On todays agenda was child poverty, did Labour drop the ball? Can it be eradicated? They also discussed the success of the fees free campaign, and the future of Oranga Tamariki. 

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We have in the news yet another report into Oranga Tamariki. Yet another damning indictment into an organisation that should never exist. The Chief Ombudsman has called for changes “on a scale rarely required” at Oranga Tamariki. He reviewed about 2000 complaints over four years for his report children in care, complaints to the Ombudsman, 2019 to 2023. He said he could not yet provide reassurance that Oranga Tamariki’s practices and processes were consistently operating as they should.  

You could have basically taken any report that's been written over the last 20 years, and it doesn't matter whether it's called CYFS or Child youth and Family or Oranga Tamariki, it is the same complaints time and time and time again about an organisation, I repeat, that should not exist. 

If parents and caregivers gave their children even the most basic and rudimentary of care, like just didn't kill them, we wouldn't be spending more than a billion dollars a year on a government department that is constantly criticised. And I really feel for the people who work there. You would go in there with the best of intentions, and they would be crushed out of you within months, I'd imagine. CYFS, child youth and family, whatever, are roundly attacked for taking babies off mothers. The next day, they're roundly attacked for NOT taking babies off mothers, for not acting soon enough.  

There have been criticisms of this organisation since I can remember. I mean, I'm going back in the far mists of time, but I remember them all. Since 2017, I'm just going back to 2017, and I've been talking about this since the 1990s, but since 2017, 65 New Zealanders 17 or under have been killed/murdered. Some of them youth fighting but since 2017, 65 New Zealanders 17 or under have been killed - 24 of those were aged under 12 months. Those weren’t youths fighting in the street. They were the most vulnerable children and homes killed by their carers since 2017. 

I am going right back now: Saliel Aplin and Olympia Jetson. They were murdered by their stepfather when they threatened to tell the authorities that he was sexually abusing them. So many adults knew that they were being abused. Teachers knew and warned the authorities. CYFS workers knew, police knew. They'd complained to the police. The police had investigated. They couldn't find any evidence. Their own mother. She was a hapless soul who tried to get away. She was in a terrible, violent, oppressive succession of relationships that resulted in numerous children, and she couldn't keep them safe.   

If I say those names and you were around at the time, you'll remember the school photo of those two girls. They were gorgeous, bright, brave intelligent. But they were only 11 and 12, there was only so much they could do. They knew the risks they were taking; they phoned the authorities themselves. They were trying to get help from the adults. Their mother knew. They told friends they would die. They'd been threatened with death by their stepfather if they told. And they told their friends they would die, and they did. He stabbed them. While a whole bunch of adults knew about this abuse. Their mother was very sad and regretful. She said she'd never be in a violent relationship again. She said she would like to see trained social workers employed in primary schools so abuse to children could be detected and dealt with quickly by professionals. She was calling for major changes at CYFS, with whom she remained angry, saying there are a lot of questions to answer over its management of her family's case.  

But is it CYFS fault or Child Youth and Family’s fault or Oranga Tamariki's fault? 

How can a government organisation prevent dysfunctional families from abusing the most vulnerable? Surely you need eyes and ears within those families. Oranga Tamariki has a more than $1 billion budget. Wouldn't that money be better spent on trying something different? Although when you do try something different, then all hell breaks loose.  

I remember when women on benefits were offered free long-term contraception by the then National government way back when, must have been about 2012. Paula Bennett was accused of Nazi type policies from an uncaring National government, it was offered. It was free. It was reversible. And then when National says it's going to can free contraception for women, then everybody criticises them again for not understanding women and their needs.  

So, if you try something, if you put your head above the parapet, it's very quickly knocked down. This is appalling. It's been appalling. It has stayed appalling. Children keep dying. The ones who survive, God only knows what happens to them when they have their families, because the very children I'm talking about their siblings are now in their 20s, 30s and 40s, having their own families, how the hell do they parent? Not all of them are going to turn out bad at all. Many people can take a dysfunctional childhood and turn it into a very successful adulthood by not repeating the mistakes, by not repeating the abuse that was dished out to them.  

But why the hell do we have a government organisation that has been rebranded, renamed, had its chief executives replaced over and over and over again, and all those children want is someone to save them. And you can't do it from a government organisation. Even if you throw a billion dollars at it. Wouldn't that money be better spent perhaps putting welfare workers with every at-risk child? There aren't that many of them. There aren't that many of them that are struggling. And yet they're the biggest, biggest problem.  

The deaths of so many New Zealand children, it’s just a damning indictment on this country. There's a stain on this beautiful country. Serenity Jay, Hail-Sage McClutchie,  Mikara, Baby Ru, James Whakaruru, Saliel and Olympia, you know, you can see their faces and you know that they're going to have to make room on the wall of shame because more babies are coming after them. 

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If you’re a parent of any age or stage —you might have little ones or you might be a grandparent, or somewhere in-between— you might find this a bit weird. 

But I think the time has come for us to start treating people who are about to become parents the way we treat people who want to drive a car or a truck or a motorbike.  

We’re dreaming if we think we’re doing enough just teaching them about changing nappies and feeding. And I think we need to turbo-drive our ante-natal training.  

And why’s that, do you think?  

It’s because of the scathing comments by Ombudsman Peter Boshier about our child welfare agency, Oranga Tamariki. He’s saying today that it’s a shambles and he wants a complete overhaul. 

He says he’s uncovered what he calls “extremely distressing stories” about kids and parents who have let down big time. And that the organisation regularly breaks its own rules. 

The things he’s heard about include one young person being kept in an institution against their wishes for years and a young disabled mother having her baby taken away from her at birth and never returned. 

He’s looked into complaints made about Oranga Tamariki between 2019 and 2023 and he’s saying: “I cannot provide reassurance that Oranga Tamariki’s practices and processes are consistently operating as they ought to.” 

Which is Ombudsman-speak for “this outfit is hopeless and needs to up its game big time”. 

But do you really think that’s going to happen? Really? Because how many times have we heard this?  

And how many times have we seen the honchos at OT with their serious faces on, nodding, and saying ‘yes yes yes, this is shocking, and we are listening to all this, and we are going to change’. And nothing changes. 

So, what are we going to do? Just continue to rely on the OT people with the serious faces to sort the place out? Under their own steam? Of their own volition? 

If we do, we’ll be in the same boat in five years, 10 years and 20 years. That’s why I think we need to do things differently. Way differently. 

And the starting point needs to be before things get to the stage of needing any sort of intervention by Oranga Tamariki. 

Before a child even enters the world. Call it the ambulance at the top of the cliff. 

I think we’re on a road to nowhere if we’re going to keep relying on Oranga Tamariki to do all the heavy lifting and to keep kids in this country safe. So, here’s what I think we should do.  

When I say we should treat new parents the way we treat new drivers, I’m saying we need to teach them things they will never forget - before they have a baby to care for.  

Not the breastfeeding and nappy changing stuff. I’m talking about really confronting stuff like showing them what happens when you shake a baby and what can happen when parents try to look after a baby when they’re off their faces on drink and drugs. 

We need to stop talking about the “Day 3 Blues” and teach women who are about to become mothers about post-natal depression. And teach the dads how to look out for it.   

Really teach them about sleep deprivation and what it can do to you. None of this sugar-coated stuff about ‘making the most of getting a good night’s sleep now because, whew, there are going to be some long nights coming your way’. 

Tell them their whole personality might even change because of what goes on when you become a parent. Tell the fathers that they’re probably going to feel like they’re on the outer a bit sometimes. 

Tell them that, yes, there will be times when they might feel jealous of all the attention the mother and the baby will get. Tell them that, yes, they will feel hopeless and scared sometimes. And tell them what to do to keep themselves and their family safe before their frustrations boil over. 

And tell the mothers that, if things go pear-shaped with their relationship and they end up with someone else, there’s a chance that their new partner won’t love their baby as much as they do.  

You can’t stop someone falling in love with a drop-kick, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t talk about this stuff with people who are about to become parents. 

Because all of it is real. And we need to get real if we think having an outfit like Oranga Tamariki is all we need to do to keep kids safe. An outfit that's being told it needs to up its game big time. 

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Today marks the 13th anniversary of the Christchurch earthquake. 

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is visiting the city both to mark the day, and for an update on the ongoing fire in Port Hills.

Luxon joined John MacDonald on Canterbury Mornings to discuss the anniversary, the rebuilding of the city, and where it’s heading. 

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There’ll be no shortage of people lining up today to bag Oranga Tamariki. But I won’t be one of them. 

They’ve just put out their latest safety report which says that, in the year to June 2023, just under 10% of kids in its care were harmed. 

This is up from about 5.5% five years ago. 

And it follows the news last week that our child welfare agency doesn’t really know whether the kids in its care are going to the doctor or the dentist regularly or not. 

And so, today, Oranga Tamariki is making all the right noises about the stats in its new report. It’s saying that it’s “horrendous and absolutely unacceptable” that kids are being harmed under its watch. 

Which it has to say, doesn't it? Can you imagine the caning it would get if it came out and said, “what this latest report shows, is that just over 90% of kids in our care aren’t being harmed”. 

Of course, it wouldn’t say something like that. 

But if Oranga Tamariki thinks it’s going to turn the ship around and eradicate any harm being caused to the kids it cares for, then it’s in la-la land - just as much as the ill-informed people who think if Oranga Tamariki doesn’t have a 100% success rate then it’s a basket case. 

Now I’m not an apologist for OT in any way, shape or form. And I know that if any of my kids had ended up on their books and came to harm in some way, then I’d be coming down on them like a tonne of bricks. I know I would. 

But I think part of its problem is that some people running the place seem to have forgotten that it’s a child welfare agency and run it as if it’s some sort of professional development outfit. 

There’s no shortage of people there rushing off on courses and people doing their PhDs and being sent-off to cultural competency classes. There’s also no shortage of big internal projects that just suck up people’s time and energy. 

And, like anywhere, some of these projects are more critical than others. 

But they can have the finest IT systems in the world, and they can have the best indoor-outdoor flow at its residences, but there are always going to be statistics and aspects of its performance that will never meet whatever expectations we might have of our child welfare agency. 

The only way Oranga Tamariki would be able to get things right every time would be if it was run by robots and if it was looking after robots. 

But it’s not. It’s run by people, looking after other people. And these people that it looks after, come from the most dysfunctional and tragic backgrounds. 

There’s all sorts of abuse and trauma. Absolutely horrifying stuff. Which must be so hard for the frontline people at Oranga Tamariki who deal with this stuff day-in day-out, to compartmentalise and not take home with them at night. I couldn’t do it. 

These are the same people who must feel like they’re under constant attack when the outfit they work for seems to be in the news all the time for cocking things up. 

Because it happens. OT makes mistakes. It cocks things up. And it will always cock things up. I wish it was different, of course I do. 

But we’re talking here about an organisation that gets 70,000-to-80,000 calls every year from people who think a child might be in danger. When you’re dealing with those numbers, of course you’re going to fail. 

Of course, there are going to be slip ups. I’m not saying it’s good enough. But, sadly, it’s inevitable.  

And then, once those thousands of calls of concern have all been gone through and once the kids end up in the system, there will be slip ups again. 

Maybe the caregiver who looked so good on paper, turns out to be a disaster. Yes, OT needs to do everything to make sure the people they’re placing these kids with aren’t disasters. But it won’t get it right every time. 

Maybe a child placed in residential care turns out to be far more emotionally damaged than first thought and they should be living somewhere more appropriate, so they don’t end up harming someone. Yes, OT needs to prevent that happening. But it won’t get it right every time. 

Oranga Tamariki itself needs to accept that, and not fall into the trap of promising something it will never deliver. And we need to accept that. 

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Today on Politics Friday, John was joined by Labour’s Megan Woods and National’s Matt Doocey.  

They discussed National's gang policy, and the fact that the Mongrel Mob is now getting legal advice.  

Why were decisions made to move the Metro Sports Centre to its current location, given the issues with sinking land we are facing now?  

And what will happen to improve Oranga Tamariki? 

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I don’t mind telling you that I sort of avoided talking about this topic a couple of days ago because it’s simply grim.

But the revelations are continuing following the death of baby Ru, with the latest including that the uncle of the slain toddler has criticized Oranga Tamariki saying that he asked the agency back in December to remove the child from the family home.

And so, the Groundhog Day style naval gazing examination begins with the inevitable accusations that Oranga Tamariki is not up to the job.

There probably haven’t been too many of us who haven’t thought that simply the fact that the baby was named “Ruthless-Empire” should have been a red flag from the start.

I mean seriously, who names a beautiful little baby “Ruthless Empire”?

But perhaps that’s a bit of a distraction when the inevitable questions about who is to blame begin, and whether Oranga Tamariki is fit for purpose.

It’s not helped by the revelation that more than fifty children have died since the establishment of the agency.

But isn't the fact simply that they have an impossible job and it’s just lazy and easy to make them the culprit, when in fact the picture, the failure of these children, ultimately must go back to the communities and the families in which they reside.

That’s not to place blame too widely either, because members of the wider family, it seems, were very concerned. As we can see from the uncle who had complained about the safety of this child.

I think it’s also important to acknowledge that if you’re working for Oranga Tamariki, surely you are there to make a difference and the very last thing you want to see is a catastrophic failure that results in a child's death.

I can’t help but think of other agencies that are often under fire —such as Pharmac for not providing all the medicines we need— when it’s an impossible task when there is a limited resource trying to cope with an inexhaustible supply of problems.

Just look at the stats:

Around 70,000 complaints received a year.

38,000 had investigations completed, around 51,000 individual children. That’s 1% of our population. 

57 child homicides since Oranga Tamariki came into being seven years ago.

There will be questions, people who will want to see Oranga Tamariki disestablished, and a new agency set up but what would that achieve?

Who’s it going to be staffed by? Probably the same people who work for the existing agency, who struggle with the scale of the problem that they have to deal with.

Are we going to require that every child is uplifted when there is a question raised about their safety?

Well, there will be those who say that’s the right answer, but then we’ll see stories of communities objecting to being children being removed and destroying the family and those communities in which they live.

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

But one thing that’s certain is that as soon as we are relying on a government agency to provide all the answers, we’ve demonstrated that we’re failing as a society and as communities. When that government agency surely can only be as effective as the willingness within communities it serves to help them do their jobs.

Personally, I think the problems go a lot deeper. The ongoing narrative that people's problems are always someone else's fault – the lack of demanding personal responsibility, entrenched reliance on the welfare state, the list goes on.

And let’s be honest, we're only another few news cycles away from another tragedy just like this. 

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Today on Politics Friday, John MacDonald was joined by Labour's Duncan Webb and National's Gerry Brownlee.

They discussed tax policies, Labour's changed stance on the prison population, and just who is to blame for the shocking state of Oranga Tamariki?

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Today on Politics Friday, John MacDonald was joined by Labour's Duncan Webb and National's Gerry Brownlee.

They discussed tax policies, Labour's changed stance on the prison population, and just who is to blame for the shocking state of Oranga Tamariki?

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Tonight on The Huddle, Ben Thomas from Ben Thomas PR and Jack Tame from ZB's Saturday Mornings and Q&A joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day- and more!

The Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor warned in a new report that New Zealand cannot arrest its way out of the gang problem and there's no quick, simple way out of reducing gang harm. Is this sensible advice? What approach can we take to crack down on gangs?

Businesses paid 10.7 per cent less tax than expected in the 11 months to May as the economy cooled and the Crown received $2 billion less, according to the Government’s latest accounts. Are we in more financial trouble than we thought?

Four Oranga Tamariki employees have been stood down for filming an MMA-style fight between youths. How should the organisation proceed?

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On tonight's edition of The Huddle, Trish Sherson from Sherson Willis PR and Mike Munroe, former Labour Chief of Staff and Director at Mike Munro Communications joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day: 

Auckland mayor Wayne Brown has waged a war on road cones, and Vector is standing by in support of this move. Will Wayne Brown get something done to improve Auckland traffic management?

Ginny Andersen is the new Police Minister- what do we think? Is her limited experience in Cabinet and low ranking a concern? Is it the best look for Chris Hipkins to defend her?

The Pakeha foster parents of a young Maori girl, 'Moana' have made the tough decision to return her to state care as Oranga Tamariki and the girl's mother are concerned about the couple not meeting her 'cultural needs'. What do we make of this case?

Is it sexist to offer a $10,000 prize to the first person to complete the 100km South Island Ultra Marathon in eight hours? 

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A bitter end to a custody fight over a Maori child, whose Pakeha foster family has given up an ongoing legal battle.

Stuff reports Oranga Tamariki three times took the girl, nicknamed Moana, before she was three before putting her with the couple.

After four years, Oranga Tamariki then placed her with a Wellington Maori family, saying the couple couldn't meet her 'cultural needs'.

Whanau Ora Commissioning Agency chair, Merepeka Ruakawa-Tait, says it's unbelievable.

"This wonderful family, they provided for her emotional needs, her health and educational needs. And yes, they mightn't have been able to apply for her cultural needs, but with the family support, they could have done that."

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Right, I'm going to tell you a story that makes me incredibly sad. And I want to know whether you think we’re doing things right in this country.

Today, the family of Moana have announced they’re going to give her up because fighting to keep her is too stressful.

Moana is a little girl, about seven or eight years old. Authorities took her away from her mum when she was three and placed her with a foster family in Hawke’s Bay. She'd already been taken away from her mum three times.

She showed signs of sexual abuse, she flinched at the sight of men, she had rotten teeth and an untreated club foot.

The foster family took her and raised her and she was then described as a happy, healthy, stable, young girl living in a loving relationship where for the first time she had a father.

But then Oranga Tamariki, aka CYFS tried to take Moana away from her foster family because her foster parents are Pakeha and she is Māori and Oranga Tamariki didn’t think her foster family could provide her ‘cultural needs’.

Legally they can do this, because the law requires Oranga Tamariki to consider ‘treaty principles’. Section 7AA, put into the law in 2019.

The case went to the Family Court, which ruled that Moana should stay with her foster parents. The judge slammed Oranga Tamariki for putting ideology ahead of the girl’s best interests. 

It went to the High Court, which also ruled that Moana should stay with her foster parents. It was going to go to the Appeal Court too, but now her foster parents have given her up. 

They say it’s the “hardest decision of their lives”, but it's too stressful.

There have been ongoing appeals, a number of reports of concern lodged against the family claiming abuse that was never substantiated and the birth family, they say, only see her for a few hours every few months, but gave the power to make rules around how she’s raised that affect her day to day routine.

So after years of fighting to keep her, they’re giving up. They’re giving her back to Oranga Tamariki.

Are we doing things right in this country? 

Moana was reportedly happy and healthy and she will now be taken away from that family, her birth mother wants her to go to a Māori family.

Culture is important; we would all agree I'm sure. I’m sure we’re all very proud of our own culture, whatever it is.

But surely a child’s safety and wellbeing is more important. I think we’re doing things wrong.  

I'm very sad about this news. If this is what Section 7AA does to little kids, then putting it in there was a mistake and it needs to be removed from the law.

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A young person living in Oranga Tamariki's care was discovered to have been living in a motel for 600 days. 

Further reporting has also revealed other young people in state care were living in motels for up to 200 days, as no suitable alternatives could be found.

Whanau Ora Commissioning Agency Chair, Merepeka Raukawa-Tait, says that allowing these young people to live in motels is not the ideal solution and they will need a better long-term alternative.

"There are not all that many, but there are a certain number that will need safe accommodation and skilled care. Get to them as soon as possible, that's the other thing as well. But you can't tell me, after 100 days, no alternative other than a motel could be found."

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Look, we're not much into the year, are we?

I suppose we're almost at the end of January. But there's another awful story about emergency housing about motels and the people being sequestered away in motels because authorities say there is nowhere else for them to go. In this case it is young people. It absolutely beggars belief that Oranga Tamariki can consider motel accommodation the best option for at risk young people, yet that's what they told analysts from the New Zealand Herald whose story is in the paper today.

A young person in state care lived in a motel for nearly two years until suitable accommodation could be found. Other young people have spent more than 100 and 200 nights living in motels across the country. Oranga Tamariki said that while most motel placements were for one to three nights, 14 young people spent more than 100 nights, of those seven spent more than 200 nights. And what stunned me is that Oranga Tamariki tried to justify the use of these emergency motels. They're quoted as saying we work hard to ensure that the young people experience consistency of accommodation and staff and are able to access education and spend regular quality time with whanau and people who are important to them.

At the emergency motels. Some young people, said Oranga Tamariki, enjoy and are able to take part in cooking, tidying and some cleaning. This will always be supported by the carers who are with the young people. Depending on the young person, a range of options could be used to supervise them, including security guards outside motel rooms for the highest risk cases.

It makes you want to weep.

What chance do these kids have? If any at all? You've seen the sort of motels that are being used for emergency accommodation. You've seen this state of them. In what universe does Oranga Tamariki imagine that the young people in these motels are going to enjoy taking part in cooking, tidying and some cleaning?  They're describing some bucolic paradise where the children with an apron around their waists are in a farmhouse, while a rosy cheeked carer helps them turn out perfect scones and a whacking roast for the entire family?

I mean, come on.

How can they possibly justify it? In 2019, then Children's Commissioner Judge Andrew Beecroft. demanded Oranga Tamariki stop using motel rooms. That's how long they've been around. But OT says that while motels are not preferred, they're often the only option for children in care. How have we come to this? I get that it's very difficult to place difficult children. I get that. There are children who have multiple issues that would be very, very difficult to place, but to justify their use of motels as the only possible option and then try to paint some idyllic day-to-day activity that these children are supposed to be involved with.

We've seen the state of those motels. We know what they look like. Children should not be there. At risk children should not be there. I don't care who changes this. Who makes this better. I don't care what party of what colour changes it, but it has to stop. It has to stop now. 

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Today on The Huddle: Georgina Stylianou, Director of BRG NZ and Sam Johnson, social entrepreneur joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day- and more!

The Government has given police new powers to directly target fleeing drivers, as well as establishing harsher penalties for fleeing drivers. These include disqualification from driving for offenders for up to two years and permanent vehicle loss. How effective will these changes be in stopping crime?

A report has been released today highlighting the critical gaps in Oranga Tamariki's monitoring, care and agency co-operation that led to Malachi Subecz's death. How has Oranga Tamariki been able to get away with ignoring all the warnings?

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Oranga Tamariki's CEO says there's been accountability within the child protection agency after a scathing review into the murder of Malachi Subecz.

The five-year-old whose mother was in jail was abused and killed by his carer last November, inspiring an investigation into the company.

A review released today found five critical gaps in monitoring, care and agency co-operation. Some key recommendations for change include mandatory reporting of abuse for any person tasked with child protection.

The CEO of Oranga Tamariki, Chappie Te Kani says he's owning the fact the agency didn't get it right.

"We did not do right by the whanau. They did everything right, they put Malachi at the centre of their decisions. They were concerned for him, they came to Oranga Tamariki and we could have, and we should have, done our critical job for him."

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Oranga Tamariki has yet to run a full investigation into the handling of Malachi Subecz's death nine months after the fact. 

Kelvin Davis and the rest of the current Labour government have been pressed for comment, and political editor Barry Soper is here to discuss Kelvin Davis's statement.

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