Oranga Tamariki oversight: Minister Carmel Sepuloni defends changes amid widespread opposition
Labour is defending plans to overhaul oversight of Oranga Tamariki despite the vast majority of submitters, many of them state care “survivors”, and every other political party opposing them.
Let’s be very clear why Labour are bewilderingly amputating the Children’s Commissioners oversight of Oranga Tamariki by folding it into ERO (Education Review Office).
It’s because Labour are cowards when it comes to taking on the Wellington Bureaucracy!
As The Daily Blog has been pointing out for months since this was mooted, the State want the Children’s Commissioner amputated from oversight because it’s currently juggling the horrific Abuse in State Care inquiry which is highlighting the despicable tactics MSD used to discredit those they abused.
The sheer scope and scale of abuse by the State must be urgently smothered in an ocean of faceless bureaucracy so no one who was responsible in making these decisions can ever be held accountable.
Oranga Tamariki is a neoliberal experiment in welfare who justify their expense by arguing early intervention saves the State downstream costs so using Big Data algorithms can predict which troubled child will cost us more.
This has NEVER been about the welfare of the vulnerable kid, it’s always been about the welfare of the State’s wallet!
Recently, once the new Government made it clear that uplifting Māori children was no longer acceptable, Oranga Tamariki cravenly embarked upon reverse uplifting Māori children settled with Pakeha families because their are ‘culturally unsafe’. This sudden tide change in uplifting was driven not by any real danger to those children, but by a Bureaucracy attempting to pander to the Government of the day!
To ensure their arses are covered, the Wellington Bureaucracy want oversight removed from the Children’s Commissioner, because they are actually independent, and hidden inside the Education Review Office, the same Education Review Office that didn’t note all that sexual abuse at Dilworth over the decades they were reviewing Dilworth.
This is an arse covering exercise by the Wellington Bureaucracy over the most vulnerable children and Labour are letting the Wellington Bureaucracy get away with it because Labour are terrified of the Unions and power represented by that Wellington Bureaucracy.
Meanwhile vulnerable children are being hurt right now by a system that refers to them as ‘clients’.
This whole stinking neoliberal experiment in Welfare should be smashed to bits by Labour, not fucking protected or enabled!
Carmel Sepuloni is the most useless Minister and if she remains in place after the final Cabinet reshuffle before the election, I can’t vote Labour.
I just can’t.
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Carmel is the most useless minister? Really? Try Jacinda for defending the whole thing and basically sanctioning the whole cover up. How weak!
Defending child abuse is inexcusable.
Are you knew? You must be living in some sort of commercial Media utopia.
Knew?
Just K What do you care about the bad happenings involved? This is just something to exercise your mind on. An opportunity to flaunt your superior intelligence about politics.
+100
…. and it’s going to be one of the major reasons they’ll lose the next election.
First off tho’ we do need to differentiate between worker bee public servants at the coal face trying to do something useful while ubder resourced and under stress, and the bloated upper ranks steeped in the art of ministerial capture and self preservation. It amazes me that many of Labour’s brighter Ministers can’t see this (although I’m not sure Sepuloni is actually that bright).
Unfortunately, despite the kind and compassionate veneer, JA has a stubborn control freak streak to her – useful when you’re dealing with things like an emergency and pandemic, not so great when compassion and kindness is needed over the long term.
And while JA wants to stay the course, Sepuloni has a bit of a mean don’t-spare-the-rod streak to her
This is not going to turn out well for Labour or the Left. Hopefully the minor parties are mulling over the bottom and red lines now and making them clear to Labour (behind closed doors if necessary)
If you look in most Government departments and Councils they are bloated with admin staff, layers of management, comms staff etc while the people doing the actual work at the coal face are swamped and under pressure. Many are getting raided by consultants which exacerbates the problem. The end result is so much money is being spent on consultants who must be loving the Labour government.
This has been increasing for years. Where the neo-liberal experiment has gone wrong is to equate profit with efficiency. Having worked in government departments and Councils I’ve seen so much waste and inefficiency over the years. So much red tape and process that hinders front line staff from doing their job. That is what needs to change. Governments have to look at re-balancing the ratio of back up. feel good staff to those who actual do the work. Too much is spent on trying to tell the public what a good job they’re doing rather than actually doing the work.
Any party that sensibly tries to change this will get my vote.
/agreed totally
“This has been increasing for years”. It has, and it’s probably a big part of what is different from the days of Sir Humphrey, why government no longer works, and why the public is losing faith and any sort of respect for the bureaucracy.
Any of those good things that happened over the years (such as the OIA, for example) are now being bastardised and corrupted by the bullshit artists and spin meisters.
My fear is that things will probably have to get worse, and in some cases completely collapse before they get better.
Yet another example emerged this morning – Chris Hipkins having to apologise to Charlotte Bellis. What made me take notice was that Hipkins’ comments at the time had to have been based on advice from ‘officials’.
Those officials had
a) “deactivated” applications “in error”, and then
b) advised that things should not be made public – that after the whole thing had been put in the public domain.
He’d have been better off keeping his trap shut and pulled out the usual line – i.e. “it’s an operational matter”
There’ll be no consequences of course. One of the ‘officials’ has already gone on to fuck up ACC where she’ll stroke the egos of her subordinates in order to get commendations on LinkedIn and embellish her achievements, and it’ll all be business as usual until it goes completely tits up
(pardon the language)
spot on chris
Are there bright Labour Ministers?
are there any bright pollies on either side in NZ?
Gagarin. There probably are bright politicians somewhere, there have to be, or we are stuffed. Comments here about government organisations bloated with useless bureaucrats, pen pushers, and spin doctors are well founded. My GP spoke graphically about this in relation to the hospital system; health “consumers” are the persons with the practical awareness of this, not the indolent politicians with private resources and insurance schemes, and the mentality of psychopaths.
The only good thing about this disgraceful Children’s Commissioner debacle, is the number of men speaking up on behalf of our vulnerable children. Like it or not, men have always had the clout, and their role, sociologically, has been as protectors, and it’s regrettable that the whining Minister of Children haplessly rooted in times past, can’t get himself up to speed and actually be a champion of the children.
They have always been thin on the ground.
Oranga Tamariki executives have tried to interfere in judicial processes and affect the outcome of court cases in order to protect their own workers not vulnerable children. This could be called corruption. The tentacles of the corrupt scare some people.
Judges and Children’s Commissioners have criticised and condemned OT cultural practices pertaining to the Maori community, and this criticism is what needs to be curtailed. In today’s social climate, white people have to be the baddies. An independent children’s commissioner without a political agenda is a direct threat to maintaining distorted damaging narratives. Children are very much a secondary consideration in this industry.
Yeh that whole “client” label is so de-humanising even people on the sickness benefit are called clients now.
I would comment, but I just can’t. “Clients?”, FFS
Cheers Thomas, many of us are reacting in the same way. These two women are so shocking that one has to wonder if they’re nuts.
Nuts will do Gentle Annie.
That sounds rather misogynistic Gentle Annie. Shouldn’t your name be ‘Antagonistic Arnie’?
Cantabrian I feel much the same way about Kelvin and Trevor too. Not sure now whether they’re femmes or I’m ambidextrous.
MSD has called people clients since the days of Rankin.
SPC “Clients” implies a certain legal stature though, and it shouldn’t apply to children.
Well we can’t have an independent outfit like the children’s commissioner having a go at the government can we now. It is all disgraceful. Hiding this appalling stuff that has gone on and no doubt continues to.
Michal. All O T want are persons they can rely on to blame wicked colonialists and contemporary Pakeha for their monumental stuff-ups. A Commissioner for Children who responds to facts doesn’t suit their agendas. Thank you for speaking up for children.
“Most transparent government ever”
Andrew “ Most transparent government ever”. Correct. We can see right through them. They don’t care.
Another example of the Labour Government’s inability to manage.
These are children we are talking about real live people not numbers.
Kindness?
Bob the first. Thank you for your reminder that these children are real live people and not just numbers. The children desperately need a man like you to represent them and to speak up for them in a Parliament where the power hungry are unabashed cowards. Thanks again Bob – and I mean that.
Thanks SW.
Agree 100%, although I think the Greens are worst traitors as they had a chance to actually do something positive to the environment in all their years in power and squandered it on identity politics so we now have even more craven woke in management positions and task forces aimed at removing professionals out of NZ to put in more terrorists and criminals that they seem to love to support (sadly this has migrated to Labour too).
Natz always loved the white collar criminals and exploiters and social dysfunction with globalism, so we would expect that from them.
I’m not looking forward to having the Natz back as they are (unbelievably) worse at running the country than even Labour – although will feel better that the craven woke will not be grandstanding at any occasion and grabbing more power for their perceived micro aggressions. Meanwhile real aggression is ignored as being shot at and punched in the street while fraud and losing belongings from crime that is now considered low status for police and the culprits are empowered to continue.
Don’t bother fostering an OT kid if you are Pakeha, as apparently the kid will be removed for cultural reasons while OT push them onto someone who has an abuser in the house https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2022/05/17/oranga-tamariki-critical-race-theory-dogma-in-reverse-uplift-trauma-highlights-perverse-ideological-outcomes/ or someones friend who murders the kid instead https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/128574643/oranga-tamariki-to-investigate-failings-in-malachi-subecz-case.
Clearly cover ups like these, make the public fear government departments that are so out of control and get everything badly wrong. So badly wrong, some poor child who deserves to be looked after after being placed into care with OT approval, is then murdered and horribly abused under their watch.
Maybe the state service gravy train, fake degree/visa processes for $$$$ and low wage economy has made much less likely for the public service management and their employees to be competent, qualified and experienced to do their job in NZ which is why things seemed to have got a lot worse.
Labour need to stop lecturing everyone to care, and actually do their job to ensure that government departments are not full of incompetent management who sit on their asses in between covering them.
You’re not wrong.
None of this has helped over the last 10 – 15 years where senior Wellington staff at government organisations started to be squeezed out earlier and earlier. It started with Clark and accelerated under Key (All political, not so much we dont want oldies, more we dont want anyone doing the job properly because that might take too long and cost money or just not give us the political answer we are looking for). Some stellar people were moved on. People who turned up to work and worked long hours and on weekends because they cared about getting it right. People who got great outcomes. All replaced by people with a political bent and little experience.
Then came Labour with the identity politics curse. Now, your identity and views are valued more than your contribution or commitment, To the extent that most policy work is now carried out by new or slightly new Grads who have no life experience and skew left and all things social media.
As they used to say in the old days “Garbage in, garbage out” and I dont suppose you hear the old public service mantra of ‘probity? with public money anymore.
And again well said Fantail.
Fact check – the Greens have never been in power, never been in any coalition government. The closest they have ever got was 2017-2020 as support to the Labour-NZF coalition.
SPC you are 100% correct. I’m sick of people blaming the Greens when they are not even in Cabinet and have little or no influence over the government.
saveNZ. Don’t forget that the Minister of Children himself, seems to think that white Kiwis are the dodgy descendants of crooks and land thieves, and that’s not the healthiest of work environments. It is not a view generally shared by Maori I know or have worked with, and I’d be more than happy to chat with Kelvin Davis about my hard-working pioneering whanau who I won’t accept as being any less worthy than his.
Yes Applewood don’t be made to feel bad be proud.
Bob the first. I am very proud of my diligent ancestors, but very worried about my mokopuna in today’s socially destructive environment.
The planet burning while dopey politicians sawn around in Mercedes, bake scones for pop singers, and advise white men to delete themselves, doesn’t bode well for the future of the have-nots either.
Bang on Applewood.
Total failure of a party. No return. Morally depleted.
100% agree.
Second that Fantail.
Orange Tarakihi probably got the Maori Caucus to run interference as they dont want scrutiny over what they are up to. They are not going to stop their ideological zealotry any time soon so just want to make sure that what they are up to (and its inevitable outcomes) doesnt leak. The Media can be controlled but not all Commissioners can.
Why isnt the Human Rights Commissioner being done away with? I could get behind that!
Fantail. Hush. Joanna Kidman mightn’t like what you’re saying. Why do you think she was given the job of chief shutter-upper ?
Also abuse by pushing more children into NZ, when the current children don’t have enough teachers.
Likewise health care is in crisis, and so is affordable housing.
“A fast-tracked COVID-19 residency visa for 110,000 eligible migrants opened this year and already, more than 14,000 dependent children overseas have been approved, leading to questions about who will teach them.”
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/06/exclusive-teacher-shortage-could-get-worse-due-to-immigration-influx.html
Don’t worry about any of this, worry about the Gib shortage!!!! FFS – the Fletcher Gib monopoly has been going for decades, now but Labour has to intervene with a Gib taskforce.
Easier than the health, kids, OT crisis and all their task forces that seem to be making things worse!
Another “ Task Force.”
Maori Party or Greens Martin?
Māori party or greens….tell him he’s dreaming…
Of course they care that’s the problem with blindly taking the idiology of caring past its usefulness. Some times you have to be brutal to care ie kick in the powerful wankers.
Teina Pora compinsation was the low hanging fruit. what should have happened was the prosecution of the conspirators who framed Teina but didn’t. Pity.
Spelling?
” This whole stinking neoliberal experiment in Welfare should be smashed to bits by Labour, not fucking protected or enabled ”
LINO only have one approach and that the neo liberal one. Its no experiment after 35 years it is the only economic approach with no alternative being offered or debated.
The ” no alternative ” of 1984 is just as prevalent in 2022 and is the gospel of the free market that has dominated this country economically and socially.
Bleating on day after day about Labour somehow taking action and smashing anything to bits is impossible Bomber and as much as I value you raising these issues you know that unlike the U.K, Sanders in the states or the New Democratic party in Canada there is no real alternative to the status quo available and that includes the Greens who had the best policies out of all parties standing last time.
MMP and a real viable alternative is still possible.
please can anyone define ‘CULTURALLY UNSAFE’ and is that more or less safe than being abused by meth-head members of the whanau
and NO maoris are not meth-heads but the insistence on family placement if that family is dysfunctional is deliberatly putting children in danger…
better ‘culturally unsafe’ than dead, in my humble opinion.
Well said gagarin.
Yes gagarin good points.
I think NZ is on a hiding to nowhere. Looking at the range of concerned people writing on the blog I think that we have lost the plot, lost our vision and our principles.
Here is our fond expectation about our lost principles. Children’s nursery rhyme – accurate and simple enough for even the most deflecting political punter/munter.
Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep,
And can’t tell where to find them;
Leave them alone, and they’ll come home,
Bringing their tails behind them.
But Labour did commission the Welfare Experts Advisory Group in 2018 and got a comprehensive report on welfare in 2019.
When they got re-elected in full control they only had to wait 3 days for 39 poverty and child groups to sign off a letter begging Labour to implement the recommendations.
Implemented recommendations so far? Maybe 7, and that’s being argued.
There are lots of opinion pieces about Labour not caring for the poor (Stuff etc).
No wonder Gamgs , violence and general social disorder isn’t quitening down…