Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: What we need to do to prevent loss of another Malachi Subecz

"I wonder now how many Malachis have existed in the past and I wonder now how many more Malachis struggle day and night under the care of the state." Photo / Supplied

OPINION:

For three nights I have not been able to sleep. I have tossed and turned in bed playing over and again a phone call I received from a whānau member of Malachi Subecz, recounting every cog they turned and string they pulled, trying to save the life of their cousin and nephew. To get him the care he deserved. And now cannot get. After his life was lost - under the care of the state.

Picture after picture of the 5-year-old bruised, beaten, burnt, starved, and unconscious on his aunty's lap at the hospital have swept newspapers, the 6'o clock news, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. In every one of them I see my own children, my own nephews, nieces and grandchildren, and am overcome with emotion when I imagine how their lives would have been affected if their circumstances were only a little different. I imagine myself doing exactly what Malachi's whānau did, trying desperately to get him the love and care he deserved. I also imagine the ever-escalating hopelessness I would have felt - and know the whānau themselves felt - after every attempt failed and the system designed to care for our most vulnerable allowed exactly the opposite to occur.

While the Chief Ombudsman outlines much of what the whānau did to save Malachi - laying reports of concern including medical neglect and suspected abuse, attempting to lay two separate complaints when insufficient action was taken (I write attempted because in one instance they were told falsely that no complaints process existed) - the whānau went even further as they informed me.

I wonder now how many Malachis have existed in the past and I wonder now how many more Malachis struggle day and night under the care of the state. At last, I wonder also how many more Malachis must be let down before we come to grips with ourselves as a country and realise that Oranga Tamariki is not and will not become what our most vulnerable deserve. The truth is clear to see: the change needed will not be achieved with plasters or patchwork. The problems of Oranga Tamariki are in the bones of the organisation. It simply is not fit for purpose.

The problems of Oranga Tamariki are in the bones of the organisation, writes Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. Photo / Jason Oxenham

This can be seen even in the inaction of the organisation a year after Malachi was laid to rest. No staff have been stood down. The same management continues to run the day-to-day of the organisation. The same minister continues to spout the same sorry excuses about Aotearoa's long history of family violence and the time it will take to achieve the change needed.

Aotearoa deserves better than this. Malachi's whānau deserves better than this. Malachi deserves better than this. We do not need another review. We've seen the hurt, the loss, the dead children posted in the media. What more do we need to see, does the minister need to see before we develop the courage to do what is needed? The Titanic is sinking, has already sunk, let the investigations end and a brand new waka be built.

Let all the old questions lie and let us ask only this one: what would a waka that would carry our most vulnerable and represent our values as a tiriti-centric country look like? It would centre the voices of those who have endured the horrors of state care and flourished despite its failings. It would be steered at the level of whānau and community. Wrap-around services would be designed and resourced around the needs of those very same communities and whanau in much the same way we saw Whānau Ora, Māori providers and the very same community stood up to the pandemic.

With 8 per cent of kids - that we know of - unsafe in state care, this is the scale of change and sense of urgency needed to ensure our most vulnerable are loved and looked after. This takes a minister that will not abdicate responsibility and sidestep questions but will instead radically transform the portfolio he pleaded for.

• Debbie Ngarewa-Packer is co-leader of Te Pāti Māori.