Putting children first

Minister for Children Karen Chhour is putting children first:

Hon KAREN CHHOUR: I move, That the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Social Services and Community Committee to consider the bill.

It’s a privilege to stand here and speak to this bill tonight. Many MPs hearing this speech tonight may have been present the last time I spoke to this exact same bill while in Opposition. It was a member’s bill that I had put in the biscuit tin in the hope of starting a conversation around the decision making on where our most vulnerable go when they are not safe and when they need the State to step in.

When I became the Minister for Children, I made it clear that my intention was to refocus the children’s system on the wellbeing and individual needs of children. I want our system to ensure that every child in this country is raised in a loving and stable home that sets them up to succeed for life, regardless of race or culture.

As a child growing up and dealing with Child, Youth and Family myself, I can tell you that all I wanted was a stable home where I could feel loved, safe, and wanted. During my time in Opposition, and before coming to Parliament, I heard devastating stories about how some Oranga Tamariki staff prioritised cultural considerations and the desires of the child’s family over the individual needs of the child. This sometimes led to unsafe care decisions and disruption for both the children and the caregivers. I saw firsthand the devastation on caregivers’ faces and the pain in their voices after being told a “forever home” did not necessarily mean just that. I saw the damage caused to a family that by the grace of God managed to find a Māori relative a few generations back after receiving the threat of having a child removed from them because they were not Māori. That was enough to save them from a reverse uplift. It’s the same house, the same people, nothing had changed, just the fact that they could trace a small piece of Māori in their bloodline.

I had caregivers tell me of being forced to send children to visit previous abusers just to keep the family connections, with the attitude that the child needs to know where they came from. There was no regard for the trauma this was causing the child or the caregivers, who were too terrified to speak up, knowing they would be perceived as racist and that the child may be uplifted if they spoke up.

Then we had the very public case of a young girl referred to as Moana. Moana was traumatised and neglected for years before being removed and placed into a safe, loving home—what was meant to be a forever home, until a social worker decided they needed to remove Moana from their care because a Pākehā family could not provide for her cultural needs.

Then there was the latest Newsroom story that covered four children being uplifted in a similar way, all because they were the wrong ethnicity. This is the most heartbreaking thing to see, and it should not just be accepted. In all of these awful decisions, section 7AA was given as the justification.

Every child deserves the same level of care and support based on their needs, and their safety and wellbeing should always come first. This bill is the first step in this direction. While its original aim was well intentioned, I believe that section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act has been able to be used to influence care decisions that have put vulnerable children in harm’s way by prioritising cultural considerations over safety and wellbeing.

While I applaud the incredible work our front-line staff do to protect and care for children in need, section 7AA puts pressure on social workers to prioritise cultural considerations over the needs and safety of individual children while making care decisions.

It’s important that I make it very clear that this bill does not prevent Oranga Tamariki from retaining its current strategic partnership or from entering into new partnerships with iwi, hapū, and Māori organisations. I have personally made my expectations clear to officials at Oranga Tamariki that they should continue the good work that has been done in this space if the agreement is working in a positive way and to the betterment of our children.

I have never said that whānau, hapū, and iwi should not play a part or a role in the care of our young people. I support empowering all communities, and the Act already required this prior to the inclusion of section 7AA.

I welcome the robust discussion during the select committee process and would like to take this opportunity to encourage all those affected to make a submission. I know there are many caregivers out there who’ve felt they could not speak up in the past, and this is an opportunity to do so—to have a voice in the debate—because, after all, you are ones who open your hearts and homes to the many children I have spoken about tonight, and I have to say how grateful I am to all those who do so.

Quite frankly, anyone who argues that the safety and wellbeing should not be the most important consideration needs to take a good hard look at themselves. A child does not choose to live in fear or be harmed and hurt. The Government cannot control what happens to young person before they come to the attention of Oranga Tamariki, but they sure as hell can control what happens after. Abuse and neglect does not discriminate, and when a child cries out for help and we have a system that sees them as an identity first and a child second, we have a real problem.

This bill is about making sure that all our children are in the best environment that will provide them with the best start in life. It’s about ensuring the kids’ need for love, safety, and freedom from neglect are placed first, as they should be. If we truly see our children as taonga, let’s start treating them like they’re precious, because right now many children in this country are being treated like a piece of furniture that gets passed around from place to place until they’re broken beyond repair, with no care for their rights or needs, and this needs to stop.

It is a disgrace that my role even needs to exist in New Zealand. But I will tell you why I stand here today—

Hon Willow-Jean Prime: Because you’re a sell-out.

Hon KAREN CHHOUR: —willing to take the abuse and the mud that’s been thrown my way. It’s names like Baby Nga Reo, or Baby Ru to many; Malachi, Maya, Carla, Leanne, and, most recently, to add to our list of shame, Falute Vaila. I think of the Kāhui twins, Nia Glassie and many more. Those are just some of the names, many names, that will never be spoken again, as they are the invisible shame of our nation. Then there are those who survive and are often denied a better life, their voices being silenced and unheard.

I have heard a lot about Treaty obligations, rights of iwi, Māori rights, and racism. But where is this the same level of outrage when a Māori child takes their last breath in this world because the people who are supposed to love them and care for them do not?

Surely love, safety and treating our children with basic human decency is a priority instead of the easy way out of blaming racism and the Government for our shameful child abuse problems.

This may be hard and uncomfortable to hear, but I will never make excuses for those who choose to harm our most precious gifts. I’m not here to use lazy arguments of racism being to blame for the loss of our precious children. I never want to see another child torn from a loving home for life because the caregivers are the wrong race, and I never want to see another traumatised child sent back to their abusers because they are the right race. That is what section 7AA has contributed to and I am proud to repeal it.

And if the other side of the House will try to paint this as racist or try to paint me as some kind of traitor to my race, I know New Zealanders will hear the empty, hollow words for what they really are. I commend this bill to the House.

The Minister has received nasty, personal abuse for her determination to put children first.

She discusses that with Heather du Plessis-Allan here.