Lady Tureiti Moxon, Dame Iritana Tāwhiwhirangi and Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier.
Lady Tureiti Moxon, Dame Iritana Tāwhiwhirangi and Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier.
Opinion by Lady Tureiti Moxon
OPINION
The Ombudsman’s report on complaints concerning children in care released last week makes sad, sorry, and repetitive reading.
Twenty reports later, here we are again with yet another one evidencing failure within Oranga Tamariki.
The report highlights the procedural deficiencies, unreasonable, unjust, oppressive, discriminatory acts, omissions, unprofessional conduct, unreasonable delay, factual errors, misleading statements, or distortion of facts to the Family Court and inadequate advice being given.
One of the top recommendations of the Ombudsman calls for an “organisation-wide quality improvement plan” and “change on a scale rarely required of a government agency”.
Members of Chief Ombudsman Peter Bishier's Māori advisory panel Puhara Mana Tangata, Juscinta Grace, Jacob McGregor, Lady Tureiti Moxon, Peter Boshier, Dame Naida Glavish, (the late) Neville Baker, George Konia (kaumātua) and Arihia Bennett.
Fixing it up is not going to change the unsafe practices that have plagued Oranga Tamariki and its predecessor for decades.
It needs to be disestablished and devolved into community so Māori can look after their own tamariki.
We need to have a whānau centred model that places the child at the centre of care. A model that prioritises and values tamariki within the whānau/family unit.
The Crown has proven time and time again it is a poor parent and always will be.
How many tamariki need to suffer abuse and trauma before this stops? What is needed for transformational change is the Oranga Tamariki budget being focused on strengthening and supporting parents to look after their own tamariki.
I’m very sad that families, like those of little Malachi Subecz, report that they still have not been given a suitable apology from the Crown agency, which is really the very least that should have done. In our 2020 Waitangi Tribunal claim WAI 2915 based on compelling evidence from the Māori-led Inquiry into Oranga Tamariki, 1000 whānau showed Oranga Tamariki has failed Māori in every single respect.
The Crown agency is a monolith. Far too huge and too cumbersome and too damaging with continuing systemic issues that are perpetuated day-by-day and year-on-year.
For Māori, we want to take care of our children, so we want rangatiratanga over our own whakapapa.
Small contracts here and there with iwi and Māori service providers hasn’t done the work that it needs to do to improve the situation.
Dismantle it, Minister Chhour. Māori will do what we know best, which is to look after our own.
Oranga Tamariki clearly has workforce issues but the worst of it is that our children haven’t been treated in the way that they should have been treated. Sadly, many of them have been abused.
The whole structure needs to go. Pouring more and more money into it isn’t going to make it better.
Currently we have bureaucrats looking after these children who really need to be loved and cared for in a way that doesn’t separate them from their whānau, but actually includes them.
So I call upon Minister Chhour to disestablish Oranga Tamariki and follow the recommendations of the Waitangi Tribunal, He Paharakeke.
This roadmap, in my view, would lead Aotearoa to a completely different place.
Lady Tureiti Moxon is chairwoman of the National Urban Māori Authority and managing director at Te Kohao Health and was a member of the establishment board of the Māori Health Authority. She is also a member of the Ombudsman’s Maori advisory rōpū, Pūhara Mana Tangata.
