A deplorable scene of political posturing, over inflated ego and false narratives around democratic value have all collided this week as the High Court ruled Children’s Minister Karen Chhour could not be compelled to testify to the Waitangi Tribunal about her politically motivated desire to repeal Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act.
The Political Right have used this legal victory as a great blow against Māoridom when that is just political bluster and empty bigotry.
The real victims in all of this are the children in State care who statistically have more chance of being abused in State care than if left in the community.
The true motive in repealing Section 7AA are not the talking points ACT and NZ First are spouting. The true issue at hand here is the Social Investment Model of welfare that National are quietly putting into place.
The Social Investment Model uses big data to pinpoint abused children who will cost the State money downstream.
The model will indicate who Oranga Tamariki should uplift and when.
This model is about the welfare of the State’s wallet, it has little to do with the welfare of the child!
Section 7AA forces Oranga Tamariki to consider Whanau when uplifting a child, but that requirement slows down the uplift process, so removing Section 7AA allows Oranga Tamariki to fully implement the Social Investment Model to ruthlessly use big data to launch a vast new wave of uplifts.
The court battle of whether the Minister should appear in front of the Waitangi Tribunal is a side show to what is really happening here.
If the Social Investment Model, with its big data hit list of uplifts, is allowed to progress post the 7AA removal, we could see a new generation of lost Māori children swallowed by a system that hasn’t made them safer at all.
First published on Waatea News.
