Minister for Children Tracey Martin, Ngati Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated chairman Ngahiwi Tomoana and Kelvin Davis, Labour Party deputy leader, at an inquiry announcement on Sunday.
Minister for Children Tracey Martin, Ngati Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated chairman Ngahiwi Tomoana and Kelvin Davis, Labour Party deputy leader, at an inquiry announcement on Sunday.
Here we are on the brink of a national climate emergency, being called by regional councils around New Zealand.
But the climate is by no means the greatest emergency facing NZ.
There is an element of political symbolism to the climate emergency that Hawke's Bay is likely to announce thiscoming week.
It draws attention to the issue, waves a flag at naysayers and deniers, and says "we need to take this seriously".
All reasons we could justifiably call a cultural emergency at a time when we have Oranga Tamariki taking Maori babies off their mums and gangs taking young Maori men into their ranks.
Police at Hawke's Bay Hospital, after tensions arose over the uplift of a baby by Oranga Tamariki last month.
Unlike gangs, Oranga Tamariki are not the "bad guy" - they exist to make life better for kids who have families who, for many reasons, can't provide a good life.
But they seem to be a little disorganised. Ironic, given gangs are becoming more organised.
The fiasco around Oranga Tamariki's attempted uplift of a baby from Hawke's Bay Hospital has led to multiple inquiries.
Uplifting the baby may well have been the right thing to do - the appropriate court thought so.
But how it was carried out, or attempted to be carried out, became farcical as social workers and the family waded knee deep through misinformation and confusion.
So it's good that there are multiple inquiries, hopefully a concise conclusion is reached. And longer term, there is plenty happening to make OT better.
There is plenty happening to make the Mongrel Mob appear better as well.
Gone are the slovenly, anti-social rancid members that gave rise to the name "Mongrel". They are dressing and acting a little smarter. Someone is making a small fortune selling to the Mob - leather jackets, motorcycles and red 2019 sedans.
Ignore their efforts to give the impression that they are some sort of do-gooding club - not a gang.
Ignore the gangsters who say they are trying to go straight, but remain members.
Because P is the commodity at the centre of their illegal business empire. And as a retired mental health nurse noted in these pages a week ago, P is the root of all evil.
Expect to hear that the Mob have bought businesses to launder their money.
And expect to hear that the businesses are owned by trusts or companies that hide the real owners behind layers of bureaucracy, created with advice from professionals with questionable moral compasses.
The additional tragedy is that there are young men, predominantly Maori, attracted to gangs because they offer a sense of belonging, of family, that they have previously lacked because of generational abuse or dysfunction.
It's a sad day when the weather casts a greater pall on the nation's consciousness, than the cancerous erosion of a proud culture that has so much to celebrate.
