DTNZ: IPCA calls for new police protocols on child placement decisions

The Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) has found Police need clearer guidance and stronger procedures when dealing with children and young people who refuse to return home but do not meet the legal threshold for emergency intervention.

The watchdog investigated four complaints from parents and guardians whose children, aged between 11 and 15, were placed with friends or other caregivers by Police without parental consent. In each case, the young person either did not want to return home or had asked Police to take them elsewhere.

Dr Bryce Edwards: Democracy Briefing - Te Kāika and the broken model of social service contracting

In Dunedin, a charity called Te Kāika has been receiving tens of millions of dollars in government funding to provide health and social services to some of the city’s most vulnerable people. Over the past year, the Otago Daily Times has been methodically pulling back the curtain on what is going on inside this organisation. The picture is not pretty: nepotistic governance, unexplained payments to the leadership, staff fleeing in droves, government contracts unfulfilled, a youth facility shut down over abuse allegations, and a senior manager convicted of domestic violence. The Department of Internal Affairs is now investigating.

David Farrar: Race based leave?

Matua Kahurangi writes:

A clause quietly embedded in a collective agreement at Oranga Tamariki should alarm anyone who still believes the public service is meant to operate on neutral ground.

Revealed this week by Duncan Garner, the provision grants Māori staff discretionary paid cultural leave that is self-defined, open-ended, and explicitly protected from managerial scrutiny. Attendance at land court hearings, iwi or hapū meetings, cultural performances such as Te Matatini, and other obligations determined by the individual qualify. The list is deliberately non-exhaustive.

The crucial detail is simple. The entitlement applies to Māori staff only.

Ani O'Brien: Rot - Taxpayers are paying for special unlimited paid leave for Māori staff

Oranga Tamariki and Ministry for the Environment have race based leave entitlements

Duncan Garner kicked a hornet’s nest this week by reporting that Māori staff at Oranga Tamariki can take “discretionary” paid leave that other staff can’t, and that it’s effectively unlimited in practice.

Pee Kay: The entitlement applies to Māori staff only!

If this article by Matua Kahurangi is factual and discretionary paid cultural leave has been embedded in Oranga Tamariki’s collective contract, that should be of huge concern to all New Zealanders! Well, maybe not to some of their Maori staff.

This racially prescribed entitlement is not a thin end of the wedge, oh no, this is a huge battle-axe driven into society!

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: 'Fix that fundamental problem at Oranga Tamariki'

Tell you what—I'm not feeling terribly hopeful about the situation for vulnerable kids in this country after reading the coroner’s recommendations following the death of Malachi Subecz.

Matua Kahurangi: Oranga Tamariki’s race-based leave policy is indefensible

A clause quietly embedded in a collective agreement at Oranga Tamariki should alarm anyone who still believes the public service is meant to operate on neutral ground.

Revealed this week by Duncan Garner, the provision grants Māori staff discretionary paid cultural leave that is self-defined, open-ended, and explicitly protected from managerial scrutiny. Attendance at land court hearings, iwi or hapū meetings, cultural performances such as Te Matatini, and other obligations determined by the individual qualify. The list is deliberately non-exhaustive.

The crucial detail is simple. The entitlement applies to Māori staff only.

Bob Edlin: A sorry state of affairs with child abuse stats.....

A sorry state of affairs with child abuse stats – Chhour spotlights a 14% improvement but shades the negative numbers

A 1 News report headed Minister admits comments on state care abuse stats may have misled public draws attention to a ministerial apology.

It was an apology about her use (or misuse) of figures for political effect.

Bob Edlin: UN can’t curb human rights abuses in war zones....

UN can’t curb human rights abuses in war zones – so why would it fret much over child shoplifters in NZ?

The PoO team was fascinated by a headline which read: Government forged ahead with citizen’s arrest revamp despite UN breach warnings.

UN resolutions and rules are being breached every day, in relation to the strife in Gaza, the Sudan, Ukraine and a raft of other war zones.

Karen Chhour: Repeal of 7AA puts child wellbeing first

Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has welcomed the passing of legislation to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act by Parliament.

The Bill’s passing will enable Oranga Tamariki—Ministry for Children and its frontline staff to focus first and foremost on the safety and wellbeing of children when creating care arrangements, says Minister for Children, Karen Chhour.

David Farrar: I wish more journalists would do research

The Herald reports:

Staff at a charitable trust working with Northland’s most vulnerable kids held crying families as they told them their services were under threat.

Stand Tū Māia plans to take Oranga Tamariki to court over its decision to terminate a three-year funding contract worth $21 million a year.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 17/12/24

Simply subtract ACC from ABEGAL and add an x for the Christmas miracle of a surplus (but not for a few more years)

Finance Minister Nicola Willis put a brave face on things – aided and abetted by the deft application of accounting cosmetics – after the publication of the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update this afternoon.

Dr Bryce Edwards: Democracy Briefing - Holding state agencies to account for Abuse in care

New Zealand is not the only country that has experienced shocking abuse inside its schools, hospitals, social welfare and child protection systems. In 2013 Australia convened its own Royal Commission on abuse in care. The report was released in 2017 and came to similar conclusions to the New Zealand inquiry’s. Both found evidence of pervasive physical and sexual abuse of children combined with acute neglect across state and faith-based institutions, concealed behind cover-ups by church and state officials. There have been similar findings in Ireland, the UK, France, Germany and the US.

Kerre Woodham: There needs to be some measure to keep people safe

There's been much political play made around outside organisations having the potential to use violence on at risk kids. And really, it's entirely the fault of inexperienced politicians in the Coalition Government that Labour and Te Pati Māori have got any traction on this at all. The PMs ‘I know nothing, I know nothing’, when he was questioned about this yesterday on the Mike Hosking Breakfast, the refusal to answer questions on a leaked document, it just makes a vacuum which the opposition can fill with accusations of ‘violence’.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 8/8/24

Govt paves the way for public service curbs on wages while facilitating the flow of funds for council water systems

Two of the latest ministerial press statements reflect an admirable governmental concern to ensure our taxes are spent efficiently. Here’s hoping they achieve what the ministers intend.

Public Service Minister Nicola Willis is the big hitter. She says the Government has issued a new Workforce Policy Statement outlining expectations and priorities for employment relations across the Public Sector, with a strong emphasis on fiscal sustainability and performance.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 7/8/24

Getting rid of weeds: Govt looks for savings from Oranga Tamariki contracts while spending more on dealing to Caulerpa

Children’s Minister Karen Chhour is aiming to weed out the duds among external service providers at Oranga Tamariki who – all up – account for total contracts valued at more than $500 million.

For too many years Oranga Tamariki has been the cash cow for community service providers who said they would provide services, “and then don’t”, she says.

Carolyn Moynihan: A shameful scandal offers New Zealand a chance to start again in caring for kids

New Zealanders during my lifetime have regarded our country as “a great place to bring up kids”. It still is – if you know how to bring up kids. If you didn’t learn good parenting from your own upbringing, you could be struggling, especially if you are poor, have a child with special needs, or a partner who is abusive.

In the mid-20th century, if parents had a child who was deaf, disabled or mentally disturbed, and lacked other support, they were often advised to place them in institutional care. Children in homes where they were neglected and abused would be removed by a welfare officer and placed with foster parents or in a state or church “home”.

Lindsay Mitchell: Oranga Tamariki behind the scenes

Another baby known to Oranga Tamariki has died. It is bad enough that a life is lost when it has barely begun. But it is worse when there were opportunities to intervene not taken.

Oranga Tamariki is very preoccupied with process. Perhaps dangerously preoccupied.

Bob McCoskrie: Oranga Tamariki v parents who believe in biology

Oranga Tamariki has just signalled it’s ready to knock on family doors if they refuse to let their children change gender. While OT already has the power for children officially “in care”, it now says it can intervene in any family if it believes parental resistance to transitioning threatens the child’s “emotional wellbeing”.

Lindsay Mitchell: Meanwhile “… the disturbing trend of increasing violence towards children continues to worsen.”

The Children's Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child's best interests. In her words,