Te Pāti Māori are demanding accountability and mandatory reporting of abuse across all agencies responsible for the care of tamariki, following the “litany of failures” that led to death of five-year-old Malachi Subecz.
“Malachi was left in the care of a woman related to the co-defendant of his mother when she was sent to prison. That was his only connection to her. If Oranga Tamariki had done their job they would have found a history of abuse and immediately initiated a safety check” said co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer.
“Instead, they ignored all of his whānau’s concerns even after receiving photographs of facial bruising inflicted by the hands his caregiver. Oranga Tamariki failed in their legal obligations to report this abuse to the police and then continued to stand by their inaction.
“Members of Malachi’s whānau reached out to two ministers offices for help only to be told there was nothing they could do. When we reached out to one of those offices on their behalf, we were told they had not kept any records of their conversations with his whānau.
“When a Family Court hearing for Malachi was cancelled by his abuser, not one agency raised an eyebrow.
“This poor baby died in hospital with his murderer sitting at his bedside. Even as he lay dying, his whānau tried to reach out to Oranga Tamariki and the Minister to have Michaela Barriball removed from the hospital only to be brushed off once more” said Ngarewa-Packer.
It wasn’t until May this year, 6 months after Malachi was killed, that Oranga Tamariki finally announced their solution: another internal review.
“Oranga Tamariki have failed 17 reviews already, and we have no doubt that this one will find a litany of failures across every government agency involved. How many more reviews need to be failed before we accept that our state care system is broken? How many more mokopuna need to die before we see some accountability?” said Ngarewa-Packer.
So far, the only agency bearing any consequence for Malachi’s death is his day care centre who have since had their license revoked for failing to report evidence of his abuse to the police. Currently, people working in early childcare are not trained to recognise signs of child abuse, nor are they legally required to report abuse to the authorities.
“This needs to change immediately” said Ngarewa-Packer.
“We’re also aware that 11 middle management roles have since been disestablished, which feels like a similar response to when tamariki were being abused at the Te Oranga facility in Christchurch. Will this just be another incident where staff take the blame so the Government can wash its hands of any blood and continue as normal?
“The whānau told me that the assessment of Malachi was completed by a new staff member. If that is the case, what induction had the staff member received prior to completing the assessment?” said Ngarewa-Packer.
Oranga Tamariki’s systemic failings are not just cultural. The system they use to keep data, Cyrus, is over 22 years old. It is no wonder basic book-keeping is too much for this agency to keep up with.
“One of the recommendations of Royal Commission’s inquiry into abuse of children in state care is for the state to be held legally liable for failing to protect tamariki from abuse. Of course, this has not been adopted by our Government. Even bare minimum standards of accountability are too high a threshold for an agency that doesn’t even follow its own legislation” said Ngarewa-Packer.
“This week, when we called on Minister Davis to resign, we provoked the ire of Māori ministers in Government. How dare we demand accountability for our mokopuna?
“Until we are given transparency, until Kelvin Davis stops withholding information as to exactly what went wrong and how he will fix it, we have no faith in him as a minister.
“Oranga Tamariki is fundamentally broken and needs to be dismantled. Until then, we demand changes and for Minister Kelvin Davis to step down” said Ngarewa-Packer.
