Systemic Change Crucial So That All Mokopuna Māori Thrive
Press Release – Mana Mokopuna
The new report published today by my colleagues Aroturuki Tamariki | Independent Childrens Monitor shows the urgent need for systemic change at a collective level, so that all mokopuna Mori can thrive.
In light of a new report published today about outcomes for mokopuna Māori and whānau in the oranga tamariki system, the Chief Children's Commissioner is emphasising that all mokopuna Māori have the right to grow up safe and well with their whānau.
'The new report published today by my colleagues Aroturuki Tamariki | Independent Children's Monitor shows the urgent need for systemic change at a collective level, so that all mokopuna Māori can thrive.
'I want to see all agencies across the oranga tamariki system working better together to address the inequities highlighted in this report so that all mokopuna Māori are flourishing in their lives, in the care of their whānau. The State has duties to uphold the rights of mokopuna Māori as tangata whenua under Te Tiriti o Waitangi and under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This new report shows that the system as a whole is still falling short of this, and that there are intergenerational impacts playing out right now.
'I meet frequently with whānau Māori and their mokopuna, iwi and hapū across the motu. They tell me it is whānau-led, iwi, hapū and kaupapa Māori approaches that are helping to strengthen whānau, keep mokopuna safe, and growing continued pathways to mana motuhake – self determination. The findings of this report back this up,' says Dr Achmad.
The Chief Children's Commissioner notes that the report shows that good progress can be made where there is genuine partnership between Māori and State agencies that keeps mokopuna and whānau central, along with the sharing of data and resources.
'I want to see these approaches strengthened and expanded so they deliver enduring wraparound services and supports for all mokopuna and whānau who need them. A stronger focus on by Māori for Māori prevention and early intervention is essential. These approaches will improve outcomes so that all mokopuna Māori grow up safe and well in the care of their whānau, connected to their whakapapa.'
She says safety concerns about mokopuna must be responded to appropriately and quickly, but that with almost half of Reports of Concern leading to no further action, the report shows this isn't happening.
'I want to see mokopuna Māori needs being met early, through Māori-led approaches working closely with whānau. These ways of working need to be better supported by the oranga tamariki system – the report highlights that this leads to the best outcomes for whānau and mokopuna.
'I am deeply concerned the report shows mokopuna Māori aged 10-17 are more likely to be prosecuted than non-Māori, and less likely to be referred by Police to alternative action or given warnings. The system must urgently stop criminalising the unmet care and protection needs of mokopuna Māori.
'Nearly 40 years have passed since the publication of Pūao-te-āta-tū. This new report shows that the system is still not working as it should be for whānau Māori and their mokopuna. The crucial change that is required must collectively meet the aspirations of whānau and mokopuna Māori,' says Dr Achmad.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Otago Daily Times
8 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
The leadership clearing the air
A new documentary shows what leadership can look like. I seem to have dodged addiction to nicotine in my life, unlike many of my peers growing up. Just as I don't blame those who are addicted, I cannot take the credit for not having this addiction. The absence of nicotine addiction in my life has been through a variety of accidents of birth and opportunity. For young people today it is different. Those who manage to avoid the lures of the tobacco industry can, to a considerable extent, thank the community leaders who took on big tobacco and made the air cleaner for all of us. I've written about leadership in this column before, at that time focusing on a few inspirational people profiled in an excellent book, Te Kai a te Rangatira , during a period when the general electioneering was downright horrible. Sadly, the neoconservative and individualistic values of those spinning the right-wing rhetoric are now driving our central government leadership. We hear and see their beliefs in the economic approach of "trickle down". An obvious place where their leadership will be responsible for harm in Aotearoa New Zealand, is associated with nicotine and tobacco use. So, in times like these, it's worth remembering the foresight and leadership of others who have long fought to reduce that harm, through initiatives such as Tupeka Kore, undertaken by a collective of Māori organisations and advocates. I was lucky enough to attend the world premiere of a documentary that shares that history, Tupeka Kore: The Whakapapa of Māori Tobacco Control in Aotearoa NZ . Through the documentary, I had a glimpse into the globally significant leadership by the late, great kuia and Te Tohu Kairangi/Dame Tariana Turia, and others. There were key points in this documentary that people who hold positions in our current central government would do well to heed. Key people and key events have stood up, stood tall and stood firm. In 2006, then-MP Hone Hawawira introduced a private member's bill to ban the sale of tobacco and initiated an inquiry into the tobacco industry. The subsequent 2010 report was vociferous in its demand to hold the tobacco industry accountable for its harms. Tupeka Kore, a collective demanding eradication of nicotine from our lives, was born at this time too. Matua Shane Bradbrook was key in its creation and is still one of the leaders of the resistance movement. The documentary ensured that we heard the voices of the Minhinnick family, as they told the story of their kuia going from marae to marae, seemingly a one-person change agent: he mana wahine toa ia. The government destroys our social science research environment, insisting we need more STEM, not arts, yet ignores that science, technology, engineering and maths provide overwhelming evidence against tobacco. Science tells us the product, in all its forms, is evil. Perhaps they should have added economics, making "steem", to understand that a healthy population, not ill from nicotine and tobacco-related illnesses, will produce better outcomes for Aotearoa New Zealand into the future than the short-term gains from being in the same bed as tobacco companies. We heard from my colleagues, Anaru Waa and Lani Teddy, as they epitomised generations of researchers. Work such as theirs should mean making the right choice is the easy choice. As researchers, we know our maths, and the numbers demonstrate that, for the first time in a decade, tobacco use rates in Aotearoa New Zealand have plateaued. We know that vaping was one of the responses of the tobacco companies to declines in smoking rates, their vape devices delivering "new customers" for the industry, while helping to keep their old ones. As scary as vaping has proved to be, even more disturbing is that the tobacco companies and their co-conspirators are continuously creating the next generations of nicotine delivery. In the documentary, we heard from the rangatahi pressure group Hashtags that they don't want nicotine in their lives, and that the repeal of the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act 2023 was a very clear sign that the current government is not listening to them. I was heartened to hear from Hashtags member Pōtatau Clark, as they stand up, stand tall and stand firm, being vocal in Parliament, in their councils, in their communities, that nicotine has no place in their lives. The Hashtags are nearing voting age; heed this call. Finally, I was privileged to hear from our kuia, Catherine Manning, representative of those who have pushed and pushed against the tobacco industry. We should never forget that this is the industry that lied and lied, knowingly hiding their evidence that smoking tobacco causes cancer. The documentary, Tupeka Kore , is a celebration of Māori leadership, demonstrating the strength of the collective, the strategy and the persistence of many, for the betterment of all, not just Māori. As was said in the 2010 Inquiry into the Tobacco Industry report presentation to Parliament, "the tobacco industry is a killer of whakapapa". Legends were lost along the way. Moe mai rā e kuia, e koro. The documentary demonstrated that although we've been here before, and we shouldn't have to be here again, we can take on the unsupportive and actually obstructive current government and take on the tobacco companies. We have our old people, our communities, and our young people keeping us in Tupeka Kore. Tū mai rā. Kia haere tōtika. Kia kaha haere.
Otago Daily Times
a day ago
- Otago Daily Times
Counting on the census
One of the great pillars on which modern New Zealand society is based has been scrapped by the government in a move which has shocked many. The five-yearly, or thereabouts, census has seemingly had its day, Statistics Minister Shane Reti reckons. He announced on Wednesday that New Zealanders had, for the last time, needed to scurry about looking for a pen to fill out the forms or pray that the more recently online documents would work as intended. Citing the need to save time and money, Dr Reti signalled the census will be replaced with "a smaller annual survey and targeted data collection". This will, according to the somewhat breathless Beehive media release, provide better quality economic data to underpin the government's "growth agenda". In line with this thinking, there will be no census in 2028, with the new approach starting in 2030. The new method of collecting nationwide statistics will sharpen the focus on delivering "more timely insights into New Zealand's population", the minister reckons. Good luck with that. While we should not automatically kibosh something before it has had a chance to prove its worth, it is difficult to see how what may effectively be a scattergun approach will be superior to the system which has developed over more than 170 years. The census has, of course, never been perfect. There were well-publicised issues with the 2018 and 2023 counts, and the five-yearly spacing has been interrupted several times, due to such events as the Depression, World War 2 and the Christchurch earthquake in February 2011. There were also concerns about the robustness of responses when the 2023 census was held the month after Cyclone Gabrielle. Dr Reti also has some justification for being concerned about the cost of the census, which has ballooned during the past decade. According to government figures, the 2013 census cost $104 million, but outlay for the 2023 one was $325m, and the now-ditched 2028 one was expected to cost around $400m. The huge leap in price is certainly concerning. Based on those government numbers, there can be no doubt running a census is a very expensive business. However, we need to remember, and perhaps remind the government, that the policies which are meant to benefit everyone across the country in healthcare, education, housing, transport and so on, actually cost many billions of dollars. The price-tag for a census which informs those policies is definitely not chicken feed, but money generally well-spent. Reaction to this week's announcement has largely been negative and expressing surprise at the move. There is particular concern about how cherry-picking data and using smaller sample sets will affect the rigour of information about Māori and Pasifika communities, and also people with disabilities, rainbow communities, and smaller ethnic groups. Dr Reti's promised land of a "sharpened focus on quality" when it comes to statistics will be extremely difficult to achieve. There are crucial questions to answer around how people's existing data within government agencies will be appropriately and sensitively used, who decides what to use and when, and who will oversee the process to make sure it is as comprehensive and fair as such a potentially fraught new system can be. We are uneasy that this move appears to be another example of this government not being especially interested in the science or data necessary for good decision-making and for making policy which is evidence-based, instead careening ever-more wildly across the political landscape in pursuit of zealotry-driven outcomes. We unapologetically support the census system we had, and believe in the provision of proper statistical data sets for modern-day needs and as a source of valuable information for the historians of the future Beware the old saying: "Garbage in, garbage out."
RNZ News
a day ago
- RNZ News
Scrapping national census raises data sovereignty, surveillance fears for Māori
By Lara Greaves, Ella Pēpi Tarapa-Dewes, Kiri West, Larissa Renfrew of An administrative census will use information collected in day-to-day government activities. Photo: 2023 Census, Stats NZ Analysis - Wednesday's announcement that the five-yearly national census would be scrapped has raised difficult questions about the effectiveness, ethics and resourcing of the new 'administrative' system that will replace it. An administrative census will use information collected in day-to-day government activities, such as emergency-room admission forms, overseas travel declarations and marriage licences. The move is not necessarily bad in principle, especially given the rising cost of the census and declining participation rates, but to make it effective and robust, it must be properly resourced - and it must give effect to the principles of te Tiriti o Waitangi (Treaty of Waitangi), as set out in the Data and Statistics Act. The transformation process so far leaves considerable room for doubt that these things will happen. In particular, there are major ethical and Māori data sovereignty issues at stake. As Te Mana Raraunga (the Māori Data Sovereignty Network) advocates, data is a living taonga (treasure), is of strategic value to Māori and should be subject to Māori governance. Changes to census methods risk compromising these values and undermining public trust in the official statistics system in general. Because the new system takes census data gathering out of the hands of individual citizens and households, it also raises questions about state surveillance and social licence. Surveillance means more than police stakeouts or phone-tapping. The state constantly collects and uses many kinds of data about us and our movements. For more than a decade, the Integrated Data Infrastructure has been the government's tool to patch gaps in its own data ecosystems. This administrative data is collected without our direct and informed consent, and there is no real way to opt out. The safeguard is that information about individuals is 'de-identified', once it enters the Integrated Data Infrastructure - no names, just data points. Stats NZ, which administers the system, says it has the social licence to collect, cross-reference and use this administrative data, but genuine social licence requires that people understand and accept how their data is being used. Stats NZ's own research shows only about one in four people surveyed have enough knowledge about its activities to make an informed judgement. The risks associated with this form of surveillance are amplified for Māori, because of their particular historical experience with data and surveillance. The Crown used data collection and monitoring systems to dispossess land and suppress cultural practices, which continue to disproportionately affect Māori communities today. Meaningful work to address this has taken place under the Mana Ōrite agreement , a partnership between Stats NZ and the Data Iwi Leaders Group (part of the National Iwi Chairs Forum). The agreement aims to solidify iwi authority over their own data, and ensure Māori perspectives are heard in decision-making around data and statistics. On the face of it, repurposing administrative data seems like a realistic solution to the census budget blowout, but there are questions about whether the data and methods used in an administrative census will be robust and of high quality. This has implications for policy and for communities. Administrative data in its current form is limited in many ways. In particular, it misses what is actually important to Māori communities and what makes life meaningful to them. Administrative data often only measures problems. It is collected on Māori at their most vulnerable - when they're in crisis, sick or struggling - which creates a distorted picture. In contrast, Te Kupenga (a survey by Stats NZ last run in 2018) included information by Māori and from a Māori cultural perspective that reflected lived realities. Before increasing reliance on administrative data, greater engagement with Māori will be needed to ensure a data system that gathers and provides reliable, quality data. It is especially important for smaller hapori Māori (Māori communities), which need the data to make decisions for their members. Stats NZ plans to partly fill the data void left by removing the traditional census with regular surveys, but the small sample size of surveys often makes it impossible to obtain reliable information on smaller groups, such as takatāpui (Māori of diverse gender and sexualities), or specific hapū or iwi groups. Photo: RNZ /Dom Thomas It is not clear the implications of this have been fully been worked through in the census change process, nor is it clear whether the recommendations from Stats NZ's Future Census Independent External Review Panel - from Māori and a range of experts - have been fully considered. This included crucial recommendations around commissioning an independent analysis informed by te Tiriti principles, meaningful engagement with iwi-Māori and the continuing implementation of a Māori data governance model developed by Māori data experts. We are not opposed to updating the way in which census data is collected, but for the new approach to be just, ethical and legal will require it to adhere to te Tiriti o Waitangi and the relationship established in the Mana Ōrite agreement . Lara Greaves is an Associate Professor of Politics, Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington Ella Pēpi Tarapa-Dewes is Professional Teaching Fellow, Faculty of Arts and Education, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Kiri West is a lecturer in Indigenous Communication, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Larissa Renfrew, is a PhD Candidate, School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau. - This story originally appeared on [ the Conversation].
