Urgent Debates — Oranga Tamariki—Murder of Malachi Subecz

Yesterday, I received a letter from Jan Logie seeking to debate under Standing Order 399 the opinion of the Ombudsman on the murder of Malachi Subecz. I indicated to her that I would consider that application today, since I had already determined yesterday that an urgent debate would be held on the matter raised by Brooke van Velden. This is a particular case of recent occurrence for which there is ministerial responsibility. The Ombudsman is an Officer of Parliament and responsible to the Speaker, not to the Government. However, the opinion deals with matters involving Oranga Tamariki which are the responsibility of the Government. Public confidence in our child protection system is of great importance and warrants setting aside the normal business of the House. I call on Jan Logie to move that the House take note of a matter of urgent public importance.

Point of order, Mr Speaker. I move, That the sitting of the House today—

No, that will be done at the end of the urgent debate.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I move, That the House take note of a matter of urgent public importance.

Malachi was five years old when he was murdered. Malachi experienced repeated beatings, including being held under bath water, burnt in a shower, and twice thrown against a wall. Then he was murdered. There is nothing we can do about that now, and nothing I’m going to say or focus on is meant to remove responsibility from Michaela Barriball. She needs to live with the consequences of her brutal actions. The reason we’re having this discussion in the House today is not just, or even primarily, because of Michaela Barriball’s actions; it is because there were opportunities for Oranga Tamariki (OT) and other statutory children’s agencies to intervene to protect Malachi—opportunities and legal obligations that they comprehensively failed to take.

The Green Party, the family, and the public need to understand how this happened, and, even more than that, we need confidence that the Minister and the agencies have a plan that is specific and comprehensive enough to prevent this and other injustices and tragedies from happening again. I realise there is a commitment to reform Oranga Tamariki, and the Minister actively asked for the role to be able to drive that change. I also realise that, with such horrifically high rates of child abuse and deep structural racism and ableism and a degrading of social work practice by unsafe caseloads and tick-box processes within our child protection systems, transformation won’t happen overnight. I get it. But, alongside many others, I currently lack confidence in Oranga Tamariki and, connected to that, the Minister, to be able to deliver on transformation and do their part to protect our children through that process.

Today, I want to start by going through what I understand happened, from the Ombudsman’s report, public reporting, and talking to Malachi’s uncle. The first failure and event in this chain was that Malachi’s mum was arrested and, despite drug paraphernalia being present in the house when she was arrested, Malachi was left at the house with people not even really known to him. When Malachi’s mum was sent to prison, and despite family conversations discussing Malachi’s staying with family, he was sent to stay with Michaela Barriball, who was related to his mum’s co-offender. No safety check was done. If it had been done, they would have found a history of child abuse. No thought was given to whether the relationship of Michaela to the co-offender might create an opportunity for Malachi to be used as blackmail or punishment. The cousin made an initial report to the police but was told that it was a civil matter because there was a case in the Family Court, and she should go to Oranga Tamariki.

On 22 June, the family lodged a report of concern with OT, identifying actual and potential harm, medical neglect, and suspected physical abuse. On 28 June, the family sent through a photo of suspected facial bruising. This was put on file on 6 July, and evidence of this type legally requires a report to the police. This was not done. OT decided, in the wake of that, that no action was required. At no point did anyone from that agency talk to Malachi. The family put in a complaint regarding that decision. OT decided there was no need for a peer review of that decision, and the social worker who made the initial decision was involved in that decision. There are reports that, at some stage, Malachi’s mum’s probation officer made a report of concern. Computer records show Malachi’s file was opened at that time, but there is no record of a report of concern. Malachi’s day-care centre noticed his injuries in the months before his death and photographed the bruises and black eye but never alerted authorities. They’ve had their licence revoked as a consequence.

Malachi was pulled out of day care by Michaela. The family contacted two Ministers’ offices and were told there was nothing they could do as there was a case in front of the Family Court. An Opposition MP’s office was contacted and requests for support were made, but no help was given. Michaela text her partner on several occasions that she was going to kill Malachi. There was a hearing scheduled for the Family Court on 29 October, but no welfare checks were made prior to that and Michaela cancelled that court hearing. Then Malachi was admitted to hospital on 1 November with significant injuries. Michaela, the woman convicted of his murder, sat by his bed in the hospital, and it was only the day after that that Oranga Tamariki contacted the cousin to tell her he was in hospital and there were concerns he would not survive. They did that after the district health board had activated the family violence child protection protocol to notify Oranga Tamariki. That same day, the family knew the uncle called Oranga Tamariki to ask how to make a complaint, and he recalls being told there was no complaints process and he could speak directly to the duty social worker. On 8 November, the uncle and cousin made a complaint to the Ombudsman, in their words “to stop the paper shuffling”, because that is how they experienced the system as they tried to protect and keep Malachi alive. And on 12 November, Malachi died.

I want to be very clear in this House and to the public that Malachi’s uncle and cousin did exactly what we want everyone to do. They stood up for that five-year-old boy, and they kept standing up in the face of incredibly distressing inaction from everyone they spoke to. And when I spoke to Malachi’s uncle, he asked what else they could have done. Like, they thought about going in and taking him, but they feared that they would be arrested for kidnapping if they did that. And that was a real fear. This goes to the heart of the tension when we want people to make complaints and we want to keep children safe. Our agencies have to act. And we’re not asking for or wanting an overly risk-averse child protection system that doesn’t listen to whānau. That is not what I am standing up here asking for. Not listening to whānau was, again, what went wrong here, and I would say in-built biases were also part of that.

This is not a different problem from children being taken from their whānau where there were safe places for them to go within the wider whānau; it is the same problem. And in this instance, the Ombudsman found that Oranga Tamariki “has acted contrary to its own policies, which requires the wellbeing of children and their families to be central to decision making. Oranga Tamariki does not appear to have fulfilled the bare minimum of the process required to ensure Malachi’s safety.”

So it’s clear Oranga Tamariki, OT, failed and all of our child protection agencies failed. And I stick by that description because the abuse of a child, and the death of a child, cannot be considered anything other than the most profound failing. If we recognise that and hold that close, then I hope we’ve got a chance of learning the lessons that we need to learn to stop this happening.

Where was the voice of the child in all the decisions made about him, Minister? To have confidence moving forward, we have to look at what we’ve seen before and what has happened since. And I don’t understand why it took Oranga Tamariki until February to provide the Ombudsman with the relevant records to assist this investigation. I do not understand why they could not comment on actions at that time, despite the fact I’ve read their justifications—I just don’t get it.

I don’t understand why it took until May—at a time of public interest in Malachi’s death—for Oranga Tamariki to announce they would conduct a practice review. I do not understand how the Ministry of Education has managed to conduct a review and remove the licence from a private business, and yet Oranga Tamariki—who should be holding the welfare of Malachi and children at their front and centre—have not managed to do that review.

I do not understand why the Minister has said the practice review was delayed so much because they were waiting for the Ombudsman’s report, when OT said they wanted the Ombudsman to delay his report until they’d finished their practice review. Why has it taken six months to do an internal review? I want to know how we could possibly have confidence in the organisation when the Ombudsman has publicly said OT’s lack of engagement was curious and very unacceptable. OT—and this is his words—“has failed to give me an open picture of what occurred here and why.” He further said that the lack of cooperation was so bad, it hindered his job and he would keep a close eye on Oranga Tamariki’s own review. So he experienced the agency who was supposed to and is legally charged with the duty of putting the wellbeing of children first, as obstructive in his job of providing oversight, which we heard the Prime Minister trumpet in this House as “essential” in terms of our child protection system.

So how, also, can the Minister rely so heavily on the future direction plan to assure us that these concerns are in the process of change, when the plan had developer Kaimahi Ora’s strategy for all supporting staff, to enable work-life balance, to be completed six months ago, and now staff are going on strike to protest over unsafe workloads?

I know a staff member who’s left that agency, when they were involved in that process of transformation, because they were putting proposals out and then sitting around twiddling their thumbs because they got no response back and they could no longer deal with sitting in an agency supposedly going through transformation, and not having anything to do. At a time where our kids are being abused in care at higher levels than we have seen when a child is murdered as a result of the failure to intervene, I just find that incomprehensible and there is nothing that I’ve heard from the Minister or the staff leading Oranga Tamariki or those agencies that breaks through my sense of déjà vu of another report—another failing—and a “Yes, this sucks; we’re doing to do better” and nothing changes.

I really wonder how the Minister can tell us he’s pleased with progress, as he did on Newshub Nation, when reported abuse of children in care has increased, and Treasury has found that Oranga Tamariki lacks a clear organisational strategy and does not have a partnership strategy absolutely central to the process of transformation that’s articulated.

And as a VOYCE - Whakarongo Mai youth council member has said to me, they’re saying in response to this situation that there’s really deep mamae with all of this and that there are counsellors—care-experienced tāngata—who are willing to put in mahi to ensure things like this don’t continue happening.

Iwi and hapū from across the motu have shown that they are more than willing to put mahi into this, but Oranga Tamariki continues to charge forward—essentially, putting the lives of all tamariki in their care at risk; not engaging with them, not asking them, in their experience, about what could be done differently. And they want an assurance that the voice of the child will be central, that the care-experienced voice will be central in these changes because they know that’s the only way to make it work.

I also want to finish on a core point where concern that the Minister characterised transformation—throwing out the agency versus doing what’s being done now—and ignored the proposal from the Waitangi Tribunal for a Māori transitional authority, which would have devolved responsibility and provided accountability and oversight that could have motivated—stimulated—actual change as well as accountability.

The question is that the motion be agreed to.

First, let me acknowledge that what happened to Malachi is shocking and no child deserves to be treated like that.

There are a few points that the member has raised that I want to address, though. One is the call for hapū and iwi to be central to the decision making. Now, if she’s read the Oranga Tamariki Future Direction Action Plan, she’ll see that one of the five recommendations is that there is what, basically, amounts to a transfer of resources and decision making to hapū and iwi and communities. That is probably the part of the future direction plan that I am pushing the hardest. Now, I don’t want to replace Oranga Tamariki (OT) with another bureaucracy. Instead, what we are trying to do with the future direction plan is to move the resources to communities, hapū, and iwi so that they can make the decisions that need to be made.

Now, there are some five communities across Aotearoa where that is being piloted. One is Waikato-Tainui, the other is around the Ngāti Kahungunu area, the third is Ngāi Tahu, the fourth is Taumarunui, and the fifth is up in Tai Tokerau. There are two communities there: Whangārei and Kaitāia. And just recently in Kaitāia, we launched Te Atatū, which is, basically, the community-led response to this. Change is happening.

That doesn’t, though, excuse what happened to Malachi. New Zealand has been dealing with this child abuse problem for generations. Nobody finds it acceptable and certainly I don’t find it acceptable. We are talking about an issue that really cuts deep and change isn’t going to be simple or easy, but I am determined to make the changes and to turn things around. The future direction plan is one part of it. The Oranga Tamariki Action Plan is another part.

There are multiple reviews already under way to understand what happened to Malachi, and these do include the Oranga Tamariki practice review and then the Government-wide system review. The practice review from Oranga Tamariki regarding Malachi is expected soon and I understand this review will be much broader and much deeper than what the Ombudsman conducted, and it will likely identify further areas where Oranga Tamariki could have and should have done better. But once we know what these areas are, I expect action to be taken.

The Ombudsman review is important and it responds directly to the two concerns raised by members of the whānau. I acknowledge that the concerns of the whānau were around a failure to properly address the report of concern made and that Oranga Tamariki did not have a suitable complaints process. In this case, the Ombudsman found that Oranga Tamariki acted unreasonably and wrongly in addressing the report of concern made by Malachi’s whānau. Oranga Tamariki do not refute that and have accepted the Ombudsman’s report and its recommendations.

Now, I did put up my hand to take this portfolio. I do not want what happened to Malachi to happen to any other child and I’ll do everything in my power to ensure we are changing the system. The approach we’ve taken in the past to try and prevent this kind of thing from happening just hasn’t worked. The ministerial advisory board that I appointed, a group of independent experts, said Oranga Tamariki needed radical change, and the Government agreed to all of its recommendations.

We are doing things differently. During Labour’s time in Government, the uplifting of Māori babies has dropped by about 75 percent and the number of kids in care is the lowest since Oranga Tamariki was formed. There are over 70,000 reports of concern every year—200 a day—and 50,000 children at any one time who have come to the attention of the agency who social workers support to stay safe and out of care. As I said on Newshub Nation the other day, 50,000 are kept out of care every year. They are protected by the work that Oranga Tamariki social workers do, and that’s fantastic. The problem is that one mistake is what Oranga Tamariki is judged upon.

So just a few key statistics. Uplifts are down 73 percent since 2018. Last year, there were 402 compared to 1,473 in 2018. The numbers of children in care are down to 4,722 from 6,316 in 2018. We have established meaningful partnerships with communities; uplifts in Kaitāia and Waikato-Tainui have decreased by over 30 percent following the development of, and investment in, localised partnerships, which is what I’ve been talking about, and I mentioned the future direction plan.

Oranga Tamariki is committed to understanding where they have fallen short in the practice for Malachi and his family. They are doing their own practice review and will apologise to the whānau in cooperation with the Ombudsman and with the whānau advocate. After a complaint from members of Malachi’s family, the Ombudsman has completed an investigation and it has found that Oranga Tamariki could have done more to respond to the family’s concern for Malachi’s wellbeing and safety.

Oranga Tamariki have accepted all of the recommendations in the Ombudsman’s review and are now awaiting the Chief Social Worker’s practice review—the outcome of that review. It is my expectation that Oranga Tamariki will do all they can to implement any changes necessary as a result of the reviews under way. Oranga Tamariki chief executive Chappie Te Kani has advised the Chief Ombudsman that depending on the findings of the Chief Social Worker review, he intends to provide the whānau members with a fulsome, accurate, and sufficient apology framed by the outcome of the practice review.

Please don’t let me give the impression that an apology makes up for what happened to Malachi. An apology will be sincere and it will be genuine. It doesn’t change what happened to Malachi. So Oranga Tamariki have had contact with a number of Malachi’s family members where appropriate and when it was wanted. The practice review team requested to meet with the whānau who made the complaint to the Ombudsman. However, Oranga Tamariki were advised by their advocate, the whānau advocate, that this meeting could not take place until the Ombudsman’s review and meeting were completed. Oranga Tamariki have needed to be sensitive to the needs of the whānau and have been working at their pace. This is not a case of Oranga Tamariki dragging its feet or failing to act. There was a decision made to undertake these broader reviews and to make sure there was a very clear picture of what went wrong. Oranga Tamariki have committed to owning their failings and taking actions to address these.

So when I became the Minister for Children, it was clear that, as an agency, Oranga Tamariki wasn’t up to scratch. There were challenges with front-line practice, head office decisions, and the overall approaches to working with tamariki and whānau. Since becoming the Minister, I appointed a group of independent experts, the ministerial advisory board. The board said Oranga Tamariki needed radical change, and the Government agreed to all its recommendations. In August of last year, Cabinet accepted the recommendations of the board and agreed to the future direction of Oranga Tamariki for the next two to five years. This included the Future Direction Action Plan, that draws together themes from across Hipokingia ki te kahu aroha Hipokingia ki te katoa, the report of the ministerial advisory board, as well as recommendations from previous reviews and the Waitangi Tribunal report.

We are working to address these challenges. OT has a new leadership team, new financial team, and has introduced the future direction plan, which will shape the way it operates. The future direction plan is ambitious and seeks to address the issues within OT head on. Most future direction plan actions—in fact, 90 percent of them—have been progressed. There needs to be a fundamental shift in the approach, the operating model, and the practice of Oranga Tamariki to be truly tamariki- and whānau-centred. Oranga Tamariki is making a fundamental shift towards practice that is based on the rights of tamariki and whānau and the relationship it builds with them. It sees tamariki in the context of whakapapa and understands their safety through a more holistic view of oranga.

Through these changes, Oranga Tamariki is working to improve understanding and management of social worker capacity, the caseload complexity, and the workloads, and to support our front-line kaimahi with improved supervision support. I note that the member who spoke before me spoke about social workers concerned about their workloads. Remember, this future direction plan has only been in action since Cabinet agreed to it in August of last year. So it will take some time for the actions within the future direction plan to be implemented fully.

Oranga Tamariki will redesign how it approaches reports of concern and other assessments, especially by incorporating partners, community, and whānau in our processes. In fact, up in Kaitāia, the reports of concern are addressed with the community providers, and Oranga Tamariki is just one part of the group that, on a daily basis, addresses the reports of concern. That is something that I would like to see right throughout the country. Whereas in the past, it had been Oranga Tamariki that received the reports of concern and made the decisions. Oranga Tamariki was at the centre of all decision making; it’s now becoming part of the community—and when I say community, I mean the hapū and iwi as well. It’s just one member in the team that looks after the needs of tamariki. So there is an organisational focus on improving leadership capability, including social work supervision, to ensure those doing the front-line mahi know how and where to get support for themselves. Oranga Tamariki underwent a significant practice shift following the Ombudsman’s findings into uplifts. The findings and reviews were tough, but, as Minister, I was determined to see Oranga Tamariki step up and make the changes.

Annually, the number of section 78 orders granted for pēpi has decreased significantly since 2017. In response to the Ombudsman’s findings in this area of practice, Oranga Tamariki now routinely reviews practice and decision making for all section 78 orders made for unborn and newborn pēpi. We cannot ignore the fact that nearly 70 percent of children in the custody of Oranga Tamariki are Māori. Ignoring this reality has got us to where we are today. We also need to recognise that often Oranga Tamariki works with tamariki with the highest needs. So what became clear to me quite quickly when I became Minister was that Government agencies could work better together to support tamariki and whānau. This Government has taken action to make sure the Government is working together for tamariki with the greatest needs by developing the Oranga Tamariki Action Plan. This cross-agency approach will support the removal of silos to deliver outcomes for those who need them the most.

And, as I said, rather than having Oranga Tamariki at the centre, I want to see Oranga Tamariki become an enabler and coordinator for Māori and communities to empower Māori and communities to put in place the supports needed by whānau sooner rather than later so any tamariki and whānau who come through, or are likely to come to the attention of, Oranga Tamariki are well and truly at the centre. That shift to the system is well under way.

To conclude, as I said earlier, what happened to Malachi was shocking. No child deserves to be treated like that. Again, New Zealand has been dealing with a child abuse problem for generations. Nobody finds it acceptable, I don’t find it acceptable, and everybody has a responsibility here to address the problem that many just don’t want to talk about. We know that the system, as it was, did not work. We saw that change was needed in order to improve outcomes for tamariki and whānau, and I’ve been working to make those changes possible. We are looking at new ways to partner with communities, iwi, and local organisations to ensure equitable outcomes for all children. Oranga Tamariki is not perfect, but it is starting to improve—this is seen in the decrease in uplifts and the decrease of children entering into care. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Every child’s life matters. Malachi Subecz’s life matters. The debate in this House today, and the call that I take, is in the memory of Malachi. Often I hear members in the House stand and say, “It’s a privilege”, and they take a call with pleasure. Today, I take this call with privilege but with a strong sense of despondency, dismay, a gut that’s wrenched, and disappointment that the State failed Malachi and his family and loved ones. The first duty of the State is to protect its citizens. The most serious responsibility and duty of care of the State is to protect its most vulnerable, and our children are vulnerable. The culture of our country does not value our tamariki as taonga in the way that it should. Regrettably, our State welfare agency, Oranga Tamariki—which is meant to be about the wellbeing, welfare, and best interests of our children—did not provide the blanket of protection and security for Malachi and also many other children. This debate, my address to the House, is in the memory of Malachi.

It’s all very well for members in this House to stand and speak about “what if”. We’ve heard the Minister speak about future directions; that future direction must factor in the importance of Malachi’s life in a way that the agency and its agents—who were responsible for providing that blanket of protection—did not.

As a former child advocate and child welfare lawyer, knowing full well the system, having worked in the system of Child, Youth and Family, as it was, and within the Family Court system, it’s not just the system that let this little boy down; it was the agents working the system. This is an awful, avoidable tragedy, and, obviously, and understandably, our thoughts are with Malachi’s family. He was an innocent and vulnerable child who was failed by Oranga Tamariki. Chief Ombudsman, Judge Peter Boshier, has provided a most compelling finding describing Oranga Tamariki’s response as a litany of failures. I add to that that this is also about the State being held accountable for its litany of liabilities. I acknowledge the Green member of Parliament Jan Logie for putting the motion to the House so that we can raise and we can alert and lift the level of alarm to New Zealanders about the appalling state and culture and attitude we have towards our children.

For the moment that these matters are before the media there is this anguish, there’s this disgust, there’s this outcry, and then it disappears. This House must hold Oranga Tamariki to account for its failures and its flaws and its faults that have been identified in Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier’s report. He is the Officer of Parliament who formerly served 25 years as a Family Court judge and a Principal Family Court Judge, and prior to that served many years as a family lawyer, so the recommendations that he makes are profound and are based on experience.

It’s long overdue that the Government and child welfare sector took the politics out of this and listened to those who know—listened to those with lived experience—and take heed. I heard the Minister in the House talk about the changes that will be made by this Government. However, this Government fails to listen to those with lived, knowledgable experience. There is a commission of inquiry into the abuse of those in care that is still ongoing. However, this Government saw fit to pursue its agenda with the oversight of Oranga Tamariki bill—now law. The very purpose of that bill—now law—was to ensure that there were not going to be failings like this case. There has been the appointment of an independent children’s monitor who looks externally. The advice that was given to the select committee not only from me but from other members working in the sector, is that there are the internal mechanisms within the agency that need to be adjusted. Instead, the Oversight of Oranga Tamariki System Act—now—totally overlooks that, and here we have yet another review which, for some reason, Oranga Tamariki failed to heed the initial recommendations and findings of the Ombudsman, saying that before it took action to apologise to Malachi’s whānau, they would await the outcome of their internal practice review.

The Oversight of the Oranga Tamariki System Act has external agencies—the independent children’s monitor, which was set up to look over complaints as an external independent agent without going into the internal mechanisms and failings and flaws of the processes within the organisation itself—bolstered the Ombudsman’s office with fiscal resources, and then restructured the Office of the Children’s Commissioner, the most significantly responsible and respected children’s advocate, voice, and representative.

The details of Malachi’s case and the memory of his death should not ever be forgotten. There are failings within Oranga Tamariki—its systems—but there are also failings in terms of accountability for poor practice. It’s been outlined that if this were an accident or a death in a workplace, undoubtedly WorkSafe New Zealand would be in there without hesitation and would take action. That has not been done six months later. Where is the responsibility of this Government and its accountability to recognise that a child has died because of its litany of failures—the litany of liabilities this Government must be held responsible for and account for? It needs to go internal and look not just externally from independent agents but to make amends, and in making the amends never forget that every child’s life matters. How many more deaths do there need to be? Take care of our children; take care of what they hear, take care of what they see, take care of what they feel, for how the children grow, so will be the shape of Aotearoa.

The debate raised in the House today was brought about by the tragic death of five-year-old Malachi Subecz and the concerns that all of us across this House and, indeed, across all New Zealand have at this young boy’s untimely and tragic death. Questions have been asked and they continue to be asked as to how Malachi was left in such a situation that he was suffering daily beatings, burnings, and malnourishment at the hands of a carer that Oranga Tamariki approved and that our agencies paid to take care of this young boy. It is mind-boggling that our agency Oranga Tamariki has failed not only this child but others, and it is a continuous pattern which is contributing to the death of our children, our tamariki.

The Ombudsman, to his credit, has fairly quickly figured out what went wrong: Oranga Tamariki did not conduct an investigation into the report of concern about Malachi’s welfare made by his cousin; Oranga Tamariki denied a complaints process to Malachi’s uncle; Oranga Tamariki omitted to do all that was necessary and desirable for that child’s wellbeing; Oranga Tamariki did not speak with Malachi to check that he was safe or that he even wanted to be with his carer; Oranga Tamariki did not consider conducting a safety check on the home that Malachi was living in; and, contrary to Oranga Tamariki’s own policies, which require the wellbeing of children and families to be central to their decision making, they did not even fulfil their own bare minimum requirements to ensure Malachi’s safety, his welfare, and his wellbeing. Not once did Oranga Tamariki prioritise Malachi.

Between June 2021, when Malachi’s mother went to jail, and 12 November 2021, Malachi’s protection and safety were compromised many times. Complaints went unchecked. Photographs of Malachi with bruising around his eye were simply filed away. Oranga Tamariki failed this young lad, and within five months he was dead. Where was the Minister on this—where is Kelvin Davis, the Minister for Children, on this tragic death?

We have legislation in place to protect our children. We have processes, we have guidelines, we’ve got frameworks, and we have laws—for goodness’ sake—designed to ensure that the welfare and the interests of all children that come through Oranga Tamariki are prioritised. The bare, basic, minimum legal requirements were not carried out by this Government’s agency, and so I ask again: where’s Kelvin? Where is the Minister for Children? Hiding behind a report that isn’t written yet, a report not written by the organisation that enabled the death to occur in the first place. He’s hiding behind his Government’s failure to protect some of our most vulnerable children—the failure of his agency to not follow through with their own mechanisms to keep our children that need them safe.

I heard the Minister say in an earlier speech that uplifts were down, but that doesn’t mean that our tamariki are safe. It’s like the prison population: if it’s down, that doesn’t mean that there are no criminals out there. It means that we’re not addressing the issues, and I’m not surprised by that. I’m not surprised to be told that 67 children who are known to Oranga Tamariki have died since this Government took office in late 2017. What I am surprised by is the silence of this Government to the nation’s outrage.

Then, while we continued to hear no condemnation from the Minister, we were advised of another report just yesterday of a child who has suffered 63 injuries—that’s right, another child—who has now been left with a permanent disability from a head injury he received at the hands of his carers. They are people that Oranga Tamariki allowed this child to go back to, even after they had already lost that child due to abuse—carers who had hurt this child so badly that he needed two craniotomies. He had fractured ribs, he had retinal injuries to his eyes, and he had damage to the ligaments in his neck. This child, who was abused when he was nearly four years old, now needs a wheelchair, and this child was reportedly placed back into the care of his abusers.

At this point, I’d like to acknowledge the work of our medics, who fight to save our children who present with such injuries. Hawke’s Bay Hospital staff saved the life of the child that I just spoke about. I’d also like to acknowledge the bravery and stamina of our community, who fight for the rights of children all over this country, and I acknowledge the families who have fought, loved, and lost children—especially Malachi’s uncle and his cousin.

There will be an apology at some stage for Malachi, but apologies hold little weight if the children in need are forgotten in the process. If nothing changes—if another child dies—then the apology is empty.

We implore the Minister to stop sitting on his hands and to do something and to say something. Stop hiding behind unfinished reports. When Minister Davis walks his bridge, he needs to look down at his shoes and see the cracks that are appearing, because our children are falling through them, and the lifeboats under his bridge are either gone or they’re sinking. We need to save our vulnerable—our at-risk tamariki.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. As other speakers have done before me in this House today, can I begin by acknowledging what happened to Malachi and to say that it was absolutely shocking and unacceptable that this happened to a child in Aotearoa New Zealand. As we know, the Chief Ombudsman received a complaint about the actions of Oranga Tamariki (OT) in relation to the death of Malachi, and that the Ombudsman found that Oranga Tamariki acted unreasonably by not investigating the report of concern after completing its intake and assessment processes.

It is important that we have a clear understanding of what happened to Malachi. As others have mentioned previously, there have been multiple reviews under way. There’s been an OT practice review and also a Government system-wide review on what is needed and what is happening. I challenge a little bit what the previous member, Nicole McKee, said in terms of anybody in this Government hiding behind reviews, because, really, what we are seeing take place here is reviews into a system that has had gaps, and what we want to do is to make sure that we identify whether the system as a whole could or should have done more to prevent what happened to Malachi. That is included in the scope of the Government-wide review to be able to use the findings and the outcomes of individual agencies’ internal reviews related to this case, to look at what those gaps were across various spheres and to then use what we find there to strengthen the system as a whole.

It’s also to identify significant risk factors of child abuse, including how the relevant processes for each agency or regulated service to notify and respond to potential child abuse interacts across the system—the coordination and the information sharing across various agencies. That’s what the reviews that have been mentioned will undertake and will lead to in terms of change.

Oranga Tamariki has accepted the Chief Ombudsman’s recommendations and, I know, as Minister Davis has said in the House previously today, that he has made it his mission to enact those changes. The system that we had inherited was already flawed. What we’ve been trying to do on this side of the House, and the Minister’s been leading, is the changes that are needed to shift that direction of Oranga Tamariki. Again, to a point that the previous member made in terms of numbers being down, it does not show—as she was saying—that the Government is abdicating its role in terms of strengthening the system. It doesn’t show that it’s not working. What it shows is that change in direction in terms of what the Minister is leading, in terms of OT working with whānau, with communities, on the ground with iwi and hapū to change things so that children don’t need to come into OT’s care. That’s what we’re seeing with the drop in numbers and that’s the point that the Minister was making there as well.

I want to touch on, in the time that I have, some of the changes that are taking place in terms of Oranga Tamariki’s practice. We have heard already that OT is committed to understanding where they’ve fallen short. They have accepted that this should not have happened, that there were gaps, and they have committed to understanding what those gaps are and plugging those gaps. That’s why all of the recommendations were accepted by OT. The Minister also mentioned the Future Direction Action Plan, which will shape the way that OT changes the way that it operates. And that’s what we are seeing as well, the fact that there needs to be a fundamental and significant shift in Oranga Tamariki’s approach, so that what happened to Malachi doesn’t happen to other children as well. That fundamental shift is under way.

As the member Jan Logie said in her contribution, change does take time, it doesn’t happen overnight, but the steps to ensure that that change happens is well and truly under way. And what that change is, is to ensure that tamariki are seen in the context of whakapapa and that OT as an agency, and that agencies across Government, understand what their safety needs are in a more holistic way. It’s through those changes that OT is working to improve the way that they understand and they manage social worker capability, capacity, caseload, complexity,—all of which are issues that have been touched on in the House today—workloads, the support that is provided to front-line kaimahi and the improved supervision that Minister Davis spoke about as well. OT is redesigning how it approaches reports of concerns and other assessments, and is also looking at how they work better—as I mentioned previously—with whānau, with iwi and hapū, and ensuring that the needs of those children are central to the work that it undertakes as well.

That is really the shift in the way that OT is working, that the Minister’s talked about and that the Minister is leading. As he has said, what he’s trying to do and what OT is trying to do is to empower Māori and communities to put in place the supports needed by whānau sooner rather than later. The whole point of this shift in practice is to empower and strengthen communities so that children and their needs and their aspirations and their safety is protected. It’s a primary prevention point of view, changing the landscape so that children don’t need to come into OT’s care. That’s really the fundamental shift and the crux of the Minister’s work in terms of changing the direction of OT, and that is the shift that I mentioned that is well under way.

As he has mentioned also, community-led solutions are incredibly important. We see that across Government and across the work that is happening, whether it’s in the space of child protection or family and sexual violence more broadly, or the child and youth wellbeing strategy that also—all of these pieces of work look to create an integrated system so that people and children don’t fall between the cracks. What we’re trying to do here, whether it’s through Te Puna Aonui—which was the joint venture which brings together about 10 different agencies, to look at how we take various actions that sit across Government agencies and across Government to strengthen that integrated support.

I’ll just touch on, in the time that I have left, some of those changes that we are making in the broader family violence prevention space as well. For the first time, we have a long-term national strategy called Te Aorerekura, and I commend the work of the Minister Marama Davidson as well in terms of leading the delivery of that strategy and the design of that strategy. That is another strategy that is aimed at integrating the system and making sure that people don’t fall through the cracks, and that we achieve long-term change as well. Preventing violence against children and youth is at the core of the actions embedded across the Te Aorerekura strategy, and that again is about transforming our systems.

There are specific actions within Te Aorerekura that work towards building the specialist capability workforce that we need to work specifically with children and young people, understanding what their needs are in terms of family violence prevention, working again with whānau, family, and communities to ensure that they have the support that they need, whether it’s to access services or whether it’s to support those who are facing family violence and acting as bystanders in that space as well. Just recently, we’ve introduced digital tools because we knew it was highlighted through COVID that people weren’t able to access the support that they needed because of the reliance on face-to-face services as well. And so now we’re looking at how we expand the support so that people can access that support wherever they are, whenever they are as well.

All of those are steps that are taken by this Government to strengthen that integrated system, to transform the way Government agencies work so that we no longer work in silos, but can actually work together to put the interests of families and children at the heart of what we’re doing.

So, just in conclusion, I end where I began. What happened to Malachi was absolutely shocking. It was unacceptable. And the work that we’re doing across various spheres and sectors on this side of the House is to do everything that we can to prevent such situations from occurring in the future. Thank you.

“such situations from occurring in the future.”—sounds a bit academic, really, doesn’t it? What we’re talking about is the last few hours, days, weeks, and months of a five-year-old’s life. Malachi, a young child who was vulnerable already because his mother was in prison. That child should have been a high priority for Oranga Tamariki, for that circumstance alone. Often, when we debate issues of child protection in this House, there are some pretty easy problems that are identified—some pretty ugly ones. Somebody knew what was going on and didn’t report it. Yes, that happened in this instance, and what was the consequence? An early childhood centre identified concerns and didn’t report it. The Ministry of Education took swift action and they’ve lost their licence. They have been held accountable for their failure to act.

But, also, in this instance, family members of Malachi raised reports of concern. And what would you expect in a situation like this? You would expect the agency responsible would take a complaint seriously. To have a report from the Chief Ombudsman where he says that Oranga Tamariki failed to do the bare minimum—we’re not talking about one mistake. We’re not talking about one error. We are talking about the fact that Oranga Tamariki, who was responsible for “ensuring that children and young people are safe and nurtured in their whānau, families, and homes.”, failed to do the bare minimum, and that is why we are debating—I’m not sure that we’re debating; we are talking about the tragic life that young Malachi lived and didn’t survive, when family members have raised concerns and Oranga Tamariki failed to take the bare minimum steps to ensure he was safe.

We’ve heard the Government members talk about systems and processes and reviews and all of these wonderful things, but the fundamental heart of this is somebody failed to take action to ensure that child was safe—not just once; multiple times. I don’t think I’ve ever read a report from the Chief Ombudsman that is as scathing as this one. The Government members can talk about improvements all they want; this is the core, fundamental reason that Oranga Tamariki exists: to keep children safe from harm. When those concerns are raised, you would expect that they are investigated. You would expect, when there is photographic evidence of harm, the police are involved. You would expect the child is spoken to, that the home is visited and inspected. But, no—and I’m quoting from the Ombudsman—“There is no record that Oranga Tamariki considered its obligations under the [Child Protection Protocol] at any stage, nor did it record any consideration of the suspected bruising.”

There’ll be people, unfortunately, who see this as part of our national shame, and another child that’s added to the list. In New Zealand, on average, one child dies from abuse every five weeks. Oranga Tamariki has one job. When there is a complaint, when there is photographic evidence, their job is to take it seriously. But, no, what did we hear happened? There’s a bit of paper shuffling and “not my responsibility”, “oh, it belongs over there”, “oh, no, someone else should look at it”, “oh, no, we don’t have a complaints system.” When a poor family member then contacted Ministers, contacted Parliament—still no action, when they knew that Malachi’s life was in danger. I just can’t imagine what it’s like for his family, when they did everything possible within their power to prevent this and the system—the system—let them down. But, guess what! The system is made up of people to serve other people, and, in this instance, our most vulnerable: a five-year-old boy whose mother was in prison. That is what’s disgraceful.

Where is this review at? “Oh, no, there are a couple of reviews, so we should feel relaxed about that.” Why is it taking so long? Why isn’t this urgent? This boy died in November last year. We are nearly a year on, so why aren’t those investigations complete? Why hasn’t the Government taken urgent action? Why has there not been an apology? That’s what is disgraceful today as we debate—I’m not sure that we’re actually debating—a report from the Chief Ombudsman that says Oranga Tamariki failed to do the bare minimum.

So, you know, what does need to be done differently? Well, first of all, we do need to ensure that anyone who is working with children in an educational setting has child protection training. The National Party supports Child Matters’ call to ensure that that training is mandatory. That wasn’t the problem in this case—someone recognised it, but didn’t take action. Perhaps, actually, the agency that’s responsible for child wellbeing and their protection from harm needs to have that training themselves, because they’re the ones that took no action. That is what’s disgraceful—absolutely disgraceful—and no words that the Minister utters in this House today can take that away. The accountability has to sit with the people in Oranga Tamariki that the concerns raised about this child’s wellbeing were raised with. That’s what accountability looks like.

The Minister talks about the fact that we’ve got fewer children in State care. I actually don’t think that’s the right measure; I think the right measure is that there are fewer children being harmed. That has to be the outcome that New Zealanders are seeking. If a child is taken into State care because they’re at risk of being harmed, that’s a good thing. The outcome has to be protecting children from harm. We have to make sure that when issues are raised, those people who operate in the system do their jobs, are accountable, and make sure that no child is dropped between the cracks.

One person should be responsible for that child, but, instead, he died following sustained and horrifying abuse at the hands of the person that was meant to be looking after them. In New Zealand, when the Prime Minister says this is the best country in the world to be a child, I’d argue that’s clearly not the case.

Kia ora, Mr Speaker. First, I want to recognise the appalling loss of a beloved child at the hands of one who was entrusted to look after him—a loss that can never be repaired for his whānau. But the appalling reality is that Malachi’s loss is not unprecedented in New Zealand. Drawing on figures from 2009 to 2018, the Family Violence Death Review Committee—and how appalling that we need a committee with that name—estimates that about 70 children are killed by family and caregivers every year in New Zealand; a child killed, on average, every five weeks. We have a shameful record of child abuse, stretching back generation after generation.

The Ombudsman’s report on the opportunities to protect Malachi that were lost by Oranga Tamariki is deeply, deeply upsetting. The fuller recitation of the facts by Jan Logie should be enough to bring each of us to our feet and to tears—multiple failings, across a range of agencies, who passed the buck again and again. As an ex-practitioner, it is also deeply, deeply familiar. I did not—thank God—work on cases in which children were killed, but over my time in practice I have worked on multiple cases in which we fought to get Oranga Tamariki to accept that children in its care were at risk of, or were, being abused, to get police and multiple lawyers for children and Family Court judges to take whānau concerns seriously, to take the words of children themselves seriously. A senior UK academic I know well once remarked that, if you want to get away with a crime, assault a pre-schooler, because no one believes them and everyone prioritises the accused’s rights over the child’s rights.

Now, some social workers, some police, some lawyers are excellent, but my definition of an “excellent practitioner”, in the past, has been one who was prepared to stand up against the system, not one who operates within what we have had. What we have too often faced is people who prioritise the system over the child and the whānau, who shut their ears to criticism of their decision making or their preferred caregivers. Like most ex - Family Court practitioners, I have seen social workers double down to protect and support their preferred placement. I have also had the dubious privilege, as a practitioner, of living through a number of reviews, reports, and re-brandings of Oranga Tamariki, most notably, in the recent past, under the Opposition—the rebranding exercise that saw it renamed Oranga Tamariki, with the nice orange logos. So I get the scepticism with which our reform programme has been met.

As I sat through the submissions process for the Oranga Tamariki oversight bill, I heard that scepticism reflected back to me again and again in the anguish and the pain of professionals and whānau with too much experience of failed reform. I have also never forgotten a comment on the death of Victoria Climbié in the UK, where social workers’ failings were “of the usual variety”. The reviewer commented, however, that the constant flogging of social workers breeds a defensive culture, which lends itself to the sort of closedminded, doubling down that has put many of our children at risk over the years. Defensiveness breeds a shell of closedminded, self-protective arrogance. Arrogance breeds the inability to listen and respond to reality, and so we perpetuate systemic neglect and abuse.

But we are not offering a defence on this side of the House. The Government accepts fully that Oranga Tamariki has been broken, and broken for a long, long time. Minister Davis asked his reviewers for the brutal truth, and when it came, and when it was brutal, he accepted it absolutely. We are committed to radical change. We are committed finally to working with whānau. Will we get it right every time? No. But to those who say, as did Ms Logie, as did Ms Hipango, in the oversight hearings, that we should be waiting for yet another review or a study, no. We cannot afford to wait for the perfect model, and, in fact, I doubt any Government could produce a perfect model. The same Family Violence Death Review Committee that produced those damning figures pointed to the need for a fundamental shift in the Government’s approach—that we need to stop treating ourselves as the saviours and start working with community. That is what we are doing. That is Minister Davis’ vision. Get on board, and we can do something about children like Malachi.

Kai kinikini ai te mamae i ahau, e, tōtatatia rā, ki wawe au te mate.

[The pain within me gnaws on, hasten, that death may soon come.]

I stand as a father of a five-year-old, and I’ve found it quite difficult to sit here and listen to the kōrero about this young boy Malachi. I find it difficult that someone who was entrusted to the State, to ensure that they were safe, has lost his little life, due to the abuse, due to the neglect, and due to being ignored by the State. I’ve heard the statistics, today, that a child dies every five weeks. That is absolutely appalling. If I look in the history of my people—not Once Were Warriors; once were gardeners, once were fishermen—there is nowhere in our history where children were treated, abused, and ignored. It is the contrary. For someone who has been brought up with oriori, which is our version of how—I don’t know how to explain it in English; a lullaby, but it’s not a lullaby. These were the downloads of our ancestors, of our tīpuna, of grandparents, of parents to their children about who they were, what their whakapapa was, who they connected to, the taonga that they were, te taonga o taku ngākau, ko taku mokopuna e. [My heart’s greatest treasure is my grandchild.]

We have waited far too long for these reviews. Oranga Tamariki has failed 14 reviews. How many more reviews do we wait before something is done? A review, after review, after review—14. When will the devolution happen? I heard about devolution, when will that happen? When will our people be entrusted to look after our tamariki mokopuna? Somebody must pay. Somebody must be accountable. Not an education facility. It starts at the Minister, Kelvin Davis. I asked, today, that the Minister resign or lose that position, because we have, for far too long, waited to get justice for these types of incidents and, at the end of the day, for our tamariki mokopuna. I’ve got a whole lot of kōrero here, but I’m just going to speak from my heart.

So we need action. There has been no action. There has been no accountability. Who is accountable for the death of Malachi and the many other deaths that have come out of the failing system that these tamariki are entrusted in? Come on, e hika mā, we must put the politics aside. Is this our tomorrow? Is this what Ngāti āpōpō looks like? If we must take the example of how to look at mokopuna, we must look at oriori. We must look at the way our tamariki mokopuna were treated in those villages. Colonisation has had a huge part in the way that our tamariki have been treated. To be abused in school for speaking te reo Māori was absolutely something our people had never seen before. And so we must prioritise our babies.

Ko ngā taonga o te iwi ko ā tātou tamariki mokopuna me ō tātou pakeke.

[The treasures of the people are our children, grandchildren, and our elders.]

And those in between have an obligation to look after our mokopuna and to look after our pakeke. Kia ora tātou.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I want to acknowledge first and foremost, before I talk about Malachi, the Speaker of the House enabling us to have this very important debate. I think it is important that this House take heed of what has happened with Malachi and that we acknowledge the mistakes that have been made and the loss that his family has sustained.

I want to be very clear that every person who has spoken today has spoken their truth and I want to add to that. But first and foremost, the member Rawiri Waititi nearly brought me to tears with his song and I hope at the end of this speech today that we, as a House, consider the heavy matter that we have heard and that we lay that matter to rest for a small amount of time.

The death of Malachi is a really difficult matter for us to talk about and I want to acknowledge Judge Peter Boshier, the Ombudsman, for the investigation that he carried out and for bringing this matter, as an independent person, to this House for us to discuss. I’ve worked with Judge Boshier for many, many years as a domestic violence adviser in the Ministry of Justice when he was the Principal Family Court Judge, and I have always acknowledged the good work that he did in that place. I want to thank him for raising this.

I also want to thank all members in this House for speaking to this matter. But I do have to say, I don’t think family violence and these kinds of matters should have politics played upon them. And that is what we see sometimes in this House, and there is the outrage and all of the things that happen and, actually, what we really need to do is to just stop yelling at each other and start working together. Finger-pointing, blaming, and asking for resignations and all of those kinds of things—what do they do? What do they do? They do nothing. The real work has to happen across the transformation of our country around family violence work. The real work has to happen when each and every one of us puts our hand up and takes responsibility for this kind of horrific history we have in this country.

It terrifies me that more than 15 years ago I worked on the death reviews—on behalf of the Ministry of Justice—where a family violence death had occurred, and it terrifies me that the same systematic issues are appearing here, many years later. It is horrific to think that, again, the siloed mentality of practice, the failure of practice, and the systems, basically continue to support the death of our babies. And it’s just heartbreaking.

There are quite a few in this House who have done this work, who have worked in Oranga Tamariki or worked in the family violence sector or worked protecting children. Many of us have known for years what needs to change, and it’s trying to get everyone to work together to do that. We’re very lucky now that we have a joint venture on family violence and we have a strategy: Te Aorerekura. It’s really important that we have that strategy because this is part of the solution that each and every one of us have to take responsibility for.

So I want to also just acknowledge the Oranga Tamariki workers in this situation. My community, Te Puna, was where this little boy was murdered. He didn’t lose his life; he didn’t die—he was murdered. So this is where this little boy was hurt and couldn’t survive his injuries. And I want to acknowledge those Oranga Tamariki workers, because I’ve worked with many of those officers over the years. I’ve attended so many meetings with these workers, and they’ve actually done the very, very best that that they could to keep and protect our children.

But the system does not allow best practice. And that is what our Minister is saying when he is saying that, actually, we need to change the system. This system does not allow our staff who are working at Oranga Tamariki to have even the basic training around family violence work—and it’s something that I’ve come to Parliament about: the family violence skills and expertise for social workers in this country is abysmal. And the Minister, Kelvin Davis, has actually incorporated family violence practice and identification into the social work development that occurs. This is the kind of transformation that we need, that will protect and support best practice to enable when a child who, by the way, was asked by the little education provider, who hurt him or how he got hurt—he actually answered. If that organisation had known what to do—he clearly said that he was being hurt by his carer, and Oranga Tamariki didn’t pick that up, and the education provider, who has now been closed down, didn’t pick that up.

Each and every one of us, ask ourselves: if you asked a little person, “Have you been hurt?”, or “How did you get that bruise on your head?”, and they said, “I can’t tell you because such-and-such will be angry at me.”—that’s a flag that each and every one of us needs to identify as worthy of a report of concern. And then each and every one of us needs to continue to follow up those reports of concern, because there are more than 50,000 reports of concern in this country. The more reports of concern, the more attention is paid and that is not a system that is a good system; it as an overburdened and under-resourced system—

💬 Hon Paul Goldsmith: You’re in Government.

I just heard someone say “and you’re in Government.” I’m going to double down on what I said: this is not a political issue—this is not a political issue. This is about the death of a baby, another baby—

💬 Nicola Grigg: Then fix it. Do something about it.

What do you mean, “Do something about it”? At least we’ve funded family violence services, retraining our social workers to ensure they know this work, making sure that there’s Te Aorerekura with a policy that teaches each and every person in this country how to identify abuse and to report it. We’re doing so many things but it will take not just finger pointing; it will take each and every one of us to get on board and stop finger-pointing.

I want to acknowledge the hurt of Malachi’s family. I’ve been in the situation, when I worked at a refuge, of holding on to babies when they’ve been in hospital, and the Oranga Tamariki emergency social worker standing beside me was crying. So I just want to acknowledge that this work is important. It needs to be better. But these are people too, and they have done their best. But we have failed them because the system does not support what we need it to do.

I just hope I never have to make another speech like this. Thank you.

The time for this debate has expired, and I’d just like to thank the members for the sensitivity with which they approached this tragic event. I think it does credit to the House, the way this debate was conducted.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.