BANG!
And we are off to the races Comrades as we watch how many mainstream media took the bait and ran with it.
Stuff and Newshub are first off the ranks with total capture.
What am I talking about?
I’m talking about a propaganda campaign aimed at creating the perception of oversight when really you are being sold the paint job of accountability.
Let me back up here for you to appreciate the pure manipulation of Stuff and Newshub.
As some of you may be aware, I spent part of last year locked in a private battle with the Bureaucratic Gods of Wellington for repeatedly posting blogs that pointed out the dark tactics the State were prepared to go to undermine State abuse victims.
My point was that we have ample evidence of these behemoth Ministry’s with enormous power hiding and minimising their culpability for abuse and in the year we held a Royal Inquiry into historic State abuse, that removing the Children’s Commissioner oversight on Oranga Tamariki was obscene self interest.
The State doesn’t want a truly independent voice investigating abuse in State care and rather than extend the Children’s Commissioner oversight, they bundled it away into the bloody Education Review Office, because you know, nothing says laser like investigations and resourcing like the Education Review Office right?
They didn’t manage to notice students were being sexually abused at Dilworth for 3 decades, but hey who is counting?
Now, I recently reminded everyone of this madness when I criticised the appointment of Carmel as Deputy because this is all on her.
I asked why no one was being genuinely critical of her time as Minister. She implemented none of the Expert Panels welfare recommendations, she sanctioned 4000 disabled beneficiaries on welfare and she didn’t extend the Children’s Commissioner oversight over OT.
Those posts were read far and wide, and knowing State Services monitors this blog, lo and behold look what just magically pops up on TVNZ news this week…
Watchdog finds Oranga Tamariki failing to meet care regulations
…no way!
You have to read this in full…
Over three years after new legislation set the minimum care standards for a child in state custody, Oranga Tamariki is still failing to meet requirements.
That’s the finding of the second annual report from Aroturuki Tamariki, the Independent Children’s Monitor, which was set up to measure compliance with the regulations.
The Experiences of Care in Aotearoa report is based on monitoring data and surveys with people involved in the care system.
“It remains difficult to measure and understand if Oranga Tamariki is making meaningful change in meeting its regulatory obligations to tamariki and rangatahi in its care,” Aroturuki Tamariki Executive Director Arran Jones said in a press release.
“To learn from past mistakes, it is crucial that Oranga Tamariki close these gaps in knowledge as quickly as possible.
“Oranga Tamariki need to self-monitor and collect data in a way that fulfils its regulatory obligations and commitments to tamariki and rangatahi, and their whānau, whose lives are impacted by being in care,” Jones said.
Oranga Tamariki Ministry for Children is a focus for the report as 99% of the 6,398 children in care are in its custody, but Open Home Foundation and Barnardos were also monitored.
Some of the findings about Oranga Tamariki include caregivers and home environments are not always fully assessed before children move in, the requirement to self-monitor compliance with the National Care Standards is not being met, lack of access to mental health services is still a barrier for children’s health and the agency couldn’t provide data for the watchdog to establish if the health and education needs of tamariki in care are being met.
In the 2021/2022 reporting year, 53% of children in care were registered with a general practitioner, down from 60% in the previous year.
The report also reveals 65% of tamariki were visited by their social worker in line with their plan for visits.
In a published response to the Independent Children’s Monitor, Oranga Tamariki states how it has made progress on the issues detailed in the report and what it will now do.
“We are pleased the Monitor notes some progress has been made with our self-monitoring and agree that further work is needed to continue to strengthen our self-monitoring approach so that we are fully compliant with the NCS Regulations,” the agency stated about achieving the national care standards.
The agency said the finding that caregiver assessments are not always occurring is “concerning” and is being investigated with urgency to fix the problem.
Oranga Tamariki has been through a period of reform after multiple damning reviews into the agency were released.
Former chief executive Grainne Moss resigned in 2021 after facing criticism for the agency’s treatment of Māori.
…ok.
While reading that, did you note at any point during that news story that this is the new replacement to the Children’s Commissioner?
Does it note that they are actually inside the Education Review Office?
And look at the stats they are claiming, it’s all box tickling stuff, that’s not whether or not children are being abused in state care!
This is a very deceptive take on the issue.
It’s not explained anywhere who they are and you can barely find any mention of their true nature when you go on their purposely obtuse website.
So The Daily Blog has a history of being monitored by State Services; we are highly critical of a replacement of the Children’s Commissioner and associate that with a Wellington Bureaucracy Elite desire to limit independent oversight of abuse in state care; we remind people of Carmel’s role in that and lo and fucking behold an article via press release comes out on the State Broadcaster from the very group inside the ERO that we have been critical of proclaiming some watchdog feature???
And how does Stuff and Newshub cover the story?
Why they take the bait hook, line and sinker! Note how there is no mention in either of their stories that this is the Children’s Commissioner replacement, they simply parrot exactly what they have been sent uncritically which creates the illusion of a watchdog over OT when in fact it’s a grotesque undermining of oversight that has occurred here.
The stats produced by this group inside the ERO are basic bureaucratic box ticking, it’s not oversight!
The Children’s Commissioner had the power to independently investigate abuse and systemic issues, by removing them, vulnerable children in State care are less safe.
This happened under Labour’s watch. This is on Labour. Who was the Minister, oh that’s right, Carmel, who is now Deputy.
The righteous thing to do now is stop this change and put the Children’s Commissioner back in their oversight role, but this latest propaganda attempt by the very group inside ERO that TDB has been criticising suggests the State has no intention of allowing that to happen.
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They have called themselves an “Independent” Childrens Monitor. Complete smoke and mirrors making it sound like it is an organisation independent of Government. Which and how much was the PR company paid to come up with this name?
Never the less they have published two appalling stats. Of the 6,938 most vulnerable children in the country 47% of them are not registerred with a GP, a carer who can be independent of the bureacracy and this rate of failure has gone up by 7% in the last year.
The second stat is that Oranga Tamariki is failing to check on 35% of the kids in its care even once per year.
Where are the stats on how many kids were placed back with abusive families and were further harmed? Or were subject to race based uplifts?
They will be independent of having to take any responsibility for what they say to either the administration, the pollies whom they should be heeding. And to the citizens who will ultimately pay their salaries and carry their burden of knowledge that they have been helpless to change practices and the lack of values, and also the sadness of the outcomes from the daunted people post-care.
It is similar to the new health system which has removed all reporting on outcomes such as wait times for surgery .Labour seem to thing we should just trust them and not ask any hard questions . Remember OT is so well run it gets their minister the top role of deputy PM
It was rough being a state ward in the 1980’s. To hear how much worse it’s become is depressing and deplorable. These kids KNOW they are unloved and seen as unworthy. It’s really not that hard to nurture each other. Is OT run by psychopaths? Foster parents not being scrutinised first?
FFS.
WHY ARE OUR KIDS STILL BEING RAPED AND ABUSED IN “CARE” UNDER ORANGA TAMARIKI????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
If we can’t fix OT we’re all fucked and unworthy imo. Shame on all our houses.
Sinic. Agree. Shame on all our houses. Shame on the whare of the Minister for Children. Shame on the Nats as silent as the aforementioned. Shame on the gender bending Greens. But shame on us all.
Arran Jones comes from the MSD. The online mission statement of this outfit says the important thing is to listen to the various voices involved, but little, if anything, about responding to those voices. It might behove this group who seem to be pictured jumping around happily by a river bed to project a little more gravitas when it is the well being of vulnerable children which is involved here, children who have little to jump around about. If they’re taking their cue from Sepuloni who abolished the Commissioner for Children, then God help the children.
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