June 19, 2019
Minister on right track for Oranga Tamariki change
The co-chair of Labour's Māori caucus says the Minister for Children seems to be on the right track to fix problems with Oranga Tamariki.
The caucus had a briefing yesterday from Tracey Martin about her agency and the review she has called into the attempted uplift of a six-day-old baby from Hawke's Bay Hospital.
Willie Jackson says she had inherited long-standing problems around the care and protection of children, many of which were identified 30 years ago in the Puao Te Ata Tū report as needing Māori for Māori solutions.
"Tracey takes over all that baggage. She takes over all that history and it's interesting and it's good she is saying now she wants to incorporate much of what was recommended 30 years ago. That would really help," he says.
Willie Jackson says coming from a community work background he understands children sometimes need to be taken from their immediate families, but organisations like Manukau Urban Māori Authority and Te Whānau o Waipareira had worked out ways to manage those situations without traumatising the whole community.
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