After the horror of the Royal Inquiry into historic state abuse, the Ministry of Social Development wants to remove the Children’s Commissioner as oversight of Oranga Tamariki and instead roll such monitoring into the Education Review Office.
In the decades that ERO was monitoring Dilworth, they never picked up that some of the teachers were molesting their students so critics are concerned that a state agency with the power to take children from parents will have less oversight is deeply concerning. Surely Oranga Tamariki requires more oversight, not less?
Public Services Commission Boss Peter Hughes was the chief executive at MSD in the 2000s and oversaw obscene tactics that included hiring private detectives to dig dirt on victims who were complaining about being abused in state care in a Test case that if MSD had lost would have cost the State untold in damages. Peter Hughes is now recommending any abuse inside Oranga Tamariki is now monitored out of the Education Review Office who have no skill in this area. Why is the state allowing itself to cover up ongoing abuse?
Oranga Tamariki is a Frankenstein monster, a neoliberal welfare experiment conjured up by Bill English and big data.
The argument is that children from backgrounds with specific features were the worst in terms of cost to the state, so if the state stepped in and removed the children quickly enough, that cost will fall.
To do this they passed law reducing the legal rights of parents, streamlined their 0800 numbers and weaponised uplifts.
They also ensured that people with children taken from them are ineligible for legal aid so they couldn’t fight back legally.
Oranga Tamariki has always been about saving the State money and the welfare of the child is secondary to that isn’t it?
If Carmel Sepuloni merely rubbers stamps this attempt to future proof the state from holding abusers to account, Jacinda should sack her as Minister.
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And politicians wonder why the public is losing faith in them and various institutions.
You have to wonder whether various senior public servants and wonks are trying their best to undermine this government – but if so, more fool its Munsters.
This proposal really is a shocker – possibly the worst the current junta has on its agenda.
As I’ve commented before, thoroughly NICE people are not necessarily competent OR kind OR transformational OR open and transparent.
Sepoloni has a mean streak flowing through her veins and should be shunted sideways regardless.
Take Kris Faafoi with her while they’re about it:
There’s this:
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2022/02/disabled-man-being-deported-to-india-despite-living-in-new-zealand-for-22-years.html
and this:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/127837182/after-seven-years-in-new-zealand-family-stuck-in-visa-limbo-over-daughters-disability
just in the past day or so, plus many more instances of neo-kindness.
(By the way – ‘officials’ say they’re bound by legislation – the very same legislation those same ‘officials’ have designed and implemented. The authors of Catch 22)
And then of course there’s the wider issue of Public Service reform. Who’s driving that reform? Why the very same people with a vested interest in preserving the status quo.
We (and Labour) may need a shock come ’23 and we should not feel pity for them if it comes to pass.
While there’s no way in Hell I’d ever vote gNact, there’s no way in Hell I’ll be party voting Labour at the next election after a lifetime.
I just hope any potential coalition partners deliver them a bottom line over a few issues. (Looking at you Greens, TOP, and Maori Party)
I’m in the same boat as you Tim, WHO THE HELL CAN WE VOTE FOR? Greens – too airy fairy to be able to make massive changes. Maori Party – led by someone who wears a cowboy hat inside. Will Top really give opportunities to those on the bottom of the scrap heap?
Big big big dilemma coming for 2023. I shake my head.
There are thousands of us in this boat. How can we make Labour and the Greens wake up?
I agree with sacking Sepuloni, she is hanging by a thread. Don’t know about Faafoi. How far? Sailing away on the Crimson Assurance with the TVNZ bucaneers and Radionz tied to a chair, and being blackbirded never to be seen again in its present form.
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