Minister Chhour is right to attack OT reverse uplifts but utterly wrong to repeal 7AA + Māori Party are better than their smears against her

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Controversial Oranga Tamariki bill passes vote, after officials’ and Tribunal’s warnings

A controversial bill, which will remove Treaty obligations from the Oranga Tamariki Act, passed its first vote in Parliament – despite strong criticism from the Waitangi Tribunal and Oranga Tamariki itself.

The bill will now go through select committee, after securing the support of National, ACT and NZ First during its first vote on Tuesday night.

The attack by the Māori Party on Karen Chhour was as poor as Kelvin Davis’s attack on her.

I respect Karen Chhour.

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To overcome the trauma she suffered at the hands the State, and to then become Minister of the very State Department that hurt you is a remarkable journey no matter her politics.

Her voice as a person damaged by that State is powerful and always worth consideration.

I believe that Karen is someone who very much wants the best for the children in State care.

However.

She is utterly wrong about repealing 7AA.

Our colonised past has seen the same mistakes many colonised country’s have made when uplifting indigenous babies into State care.

7AA is an attempt to redress that social mutilation.

Instead of uplifting Māori babies into a State care system that abuses and damages them, 7AA forces Oranga Tamariki to work with Māori Community Groups and uplifts Māori children to those groups rather than State care so as to keep Māori kids culturally anchored in their identity while providing on going wider whanau support.

THAT was what 7AA was supposed to facilitate.

Māori children, uplifted by the State, would go to these Māori Community organisations and (most crucially) the funding for that child follows that child to the Māori Community Organisation.

This was going to be a means to fund Māori Community Support and provide material resourcing, this was an actual solution and a way to get the abusive State out of the picture.

Now.

Did OT egregiously misinterpret Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act to reverse uplift Māori children from pakeha foster parents?

YES!

Was that an outrageous abuse of power and total misapplication of this section?

Absolutely.

Is there a good reason to ensure newly uplifted Māori children have the option of being placed in culturally appropriate environments?

Of course!

One of the complaints about the uplift process has been a lack of decent research to find appropriate whanau to place the children with, and thanks to the Social Investment model, the focus is removing the kids immediately to save the State money downstream.

The issue is that the Māori providers are being resourced properly to ensure they can provide material well being and security for those children!

While we can righteously damn OT for the manner in which they defined 7AA, repealing 7AA would be throwing the mokopuna out with the Marae.

OT policy towards Māori children being uplifted should be Whanau First not Whanau Always.

Any Māori uplift should go to Māori Community Organisations alongside the funding.

This needs to be established and established now because the dreaded Social Investment Model is coming!

Wellington Bureaucrats worship their new Big Data Fascism, Orac

The Social Investment Model uses big data algorithms to pinpoint when a child needs uplifting. For it to work properly and deliver the savings downstream to the State, the uplift must be as soon as Orac tells the State to uplift.

When they switch it on, it is going to generate an enormous tsunami of uplifts.

Removing 7AA removes the requirement for OT to talk to Māori, which is a green light for mass uplifts.

Placing uplifted Māori children into Māori Community Groups rather than the statistically likely abuse within State care is an actual solution (as long as the funding follows the child).

What ACT, National and NZ First are really fighting for here is to turn Orac on and let the magic of AI determine which child gets uplifted and which one doesn’t!

Think of it as a cross between Kindergarten Cop, Minority Report and The Handmaid’s Tale.

Karen is caught between two worlds here. The world of knowing what the abuse feels like as a ward of the State and a Political Party whose philosophy is immediate removal over any cultural considerations.

Repealing Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act could see another lost generation of Māori kids once the imperatives of Social Investment kicks in and immediate uplifts become seen as a means of ruthlessly breaking the cycle.

The Minister needs to be clear about what her agenda is,  and that must be children in State care not being abused.

Attacking her identity doesn’t protect those children nor does it stop ACTs agenda.

And then the brave politician took food out of hungry kids mouths to give to the richest amongst us

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27 COMMENTS

  1. Blame the critical theorists in OT for the repeal of s7AA. Those vicious muppets weaponised the TOW obligation to start delivering their version of a culturally pure Aotearoa.

      • I’m logical and numerate, so no wonder we disgree so much.
        And I don’t think indigenous people have special rights.

  2. ACT race-baiting goes beyond a narrative and is actually being implemented into law that disenfranchises an already dispossessed people. Maori communities are already poor so these types of laws targeting maori communities are gonna have a negative impact. One does not need to be a rocket science to see this coming.

  3. Is the Maori Party better than the smears they dish out? There’s no evidence they are. They’re a bunch of aggressive thugs.

    • Well said Jonzie.TPM is a racist party bent on stirring up unrest .The budget day strike they are organizing will mean ordinary. People lose a day’s pay but not them .
      It is a pity they do mot use their sway to get Maori parents to immunize their children and make sure they go to school. Education is the only way they will improve their lot not protesting and wearing silly hats.

      • trevor, So speaking the truth is now racist?? Let’s remind readers of the reason that TPM exist? Foreshore & Seabed ring any bells?? culminating in anti-maori sentiment over-reaction from a white society that has all their culture needs catered for! Yes trevor we live in an european exceptionalism society that needs to be ousted for our collective wellbeing going into the 21st first century.

        Free Aotearoa

      • Very racist view Trevor, much like this racist government, of that there’s no doubt, as shown by yesterday’s chamber debacle.

      • Yes Jonzie/Trevor you are correct TPM are a bunch of racist thugs.
        The dressing up bit makes them look foolish.

      • Pukekohe was practicing racism as late as the 1970s and for a party like act that support one law for all tell, me why our land is treated different (perpetual leases) Give our fucken land back you thieves and don’t say they invested into the land and improved it because they paid pepper corn rent.

        • Bob tf is rent free in his own head and his dressed up anti left posts make him an idiot(not look like one).

    • Maori Party smears? Never seen ’em. You’re not a friend of Tim Jago (in the sense of ‘friends of Dorothy’) are you?

  4. Naive questions. Has the corporate culture at OT changed during the period under Section7AA? Despite not being required to, might OT still look to place uplifted children with whanau? Or is OT still full of people longing for the return of the Social Investment Model and the preemptive uplifting of children without actual cause?

  5. Naive questions. Has the corporate culture at OT changed during the period under Section7AA? Despite not being required to, might OT still look to place uplifted children with whanau? Or is OT still full of people longing for the return of the Social Investment Model and the preemptive uplifting of children without actual cause?

  6. Is the problem a lack of stable home middleclass maori lining up to be the foster parents of gang kids and other abused maori kids?

  7. “So long as the problem is solved for Māori the problem is solved”.

    Annnnd all the other kids can just be abused in state care, they’re not Māori so it’s fine.

  8. How come we have to be respectful to Karen Chhour et.al. Who started this fight,who every single day in parliament slags off the previous government being ably allowed by that oh so impartial speaker. Who stands up in a supplementary question making a speech not actually asking a question. This government is the most disrespectful divisive and corrupt in the history of Aotearoa. When there are big donors there are big lobbyists wanting a very big slice of the action. Lets face it Act and NZ first hate Māori’s. There’s a red neck affiliation in Act and NZFirst that can’t be denied. They are all every single one of them an Uncle Tom. The National party are supposed to be better than this but Luxon is taking them down a racist track that they may never recover from. Look at the ignorance of that sad little useless MP from the deep south and her disgraceful behavior yesterday in parliament with the Waiata This is just a taste of what’s to come

    • Maureen was trying to maintain the dignity of parliament which TPM has attempted to destroy. They need to back to the farm.I am sure the dignified Maori I have met while working are horrified by their antics.

      • What a racist comment, however you did migrate from the country that oppressed Maori so no surprises there.
        I am sure the dignified English I have met whilst working are horrified by your antics.

  9. I wonder how many of the Pakeha Managers the ones at the top of OT that earn more money than the PM got the chop chop or do they still look after their own.

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