I’ve recently written about the proposed repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. This is a summary based on a piece for e-tangata (‘Not one more child’) and a submission from the New Zealand Family Violence Clearinghouse. More detail including references and evidence can be found in those documents.

• The state and media have pushed a story of bad Māori parenting for decades to justify removing children, and ignored evidence of generations of Māori children harmed by the state.
• The state has harmed Māori children by attacking Māori systems of safety and wellbeing, by removing tens of thousands of Māori children from whānau, and by putting those children in violent situations.
• The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry found the State has enabled neglect, abuse and torture of over 200,000 children since 1950. Māori were more likely to be taken into care, and to be treated badly.
• In the 1980s, Puao Te Ata Tu and He Whaipaanga Hou both reported on the effects of racist state policies and practices, and recommended Māori-led solutions. Neither have been implemented.
• Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act was an overdue and inadequate move towards those recommendations, allowing more decisions to be made by rōpū Māori.
• Māori have always looked for ways to protect and care for our children—including setting up kōhanga and kura and other rōpū and programmes that keep them away from racism and the state.
• Māori seized the opportunity created by 7AA, and are setting up strategies and programmes to support whānau and tamariki in all sorts of ways. It feels like the start of a massive shift.
• The government wants to remove 7AA despite all evidence, advice and analysis supporting 7AA and warning against its removal, including from Oranga Tamariki and other state officials.
• There is evidence that 7AA is reducing inequities and improving outcomes for tamariki, is increasing the wellbeing of children and whānau, and is reducing the risk of harm to children.
• There is no available evidence that 7AA is causing harm or unsafe practice or decisions, nor that 7AA is reducing the safety, stability or wellbeing of children.
• The Crown should be listening to Māori organisations, to people and organisations with care experience, and to the findings from the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry.
• Whatever this government does, Māori will continue to show up for our children.