Will getting rid of Section 7AA prioritise children's safety, or ignore the role of culture in their wellbeing - and put them at risk?
Photo: RNZ / Emma Andrews
The government promises it is putting the welfare of children first in its moves to get rid of Section 7AA of the Children's Act, but the step is deeply unpopular, with warnings it will set back efforts to make tamariki safer.
The Children's Minister, ACT's Karen Chhour, has been forced to repeatedly defend the move in media interviews and in Parliament, adamant it will go ahead despite the overwhelming submissions against the repeal at the select committee and outcry from iwi leaders.
Section 7AA binds Oranga Tamariki to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi and means the chief executive of the agency is required to work in partnership with iwi and hapū, and to report on those relationships to Parliament once a year.
Today The Detail looks at the history of 7AA with Tracey Martin, who was Children's Minister when it came into force in 2019 and is an outspoken critic of the repeal.
Martin says the work on 7AA started with her predecessor in the National government, Vulnerable Children's Minister Anne Tolley, as part of a wide-ranging review of the child protection system because it was failing Māori children. That section of the act was the culmination of decades of work to devolve the care and protection of tamariki to iwi and hapū, says Martin.
Just before Section 7AA was brought in, a Newsroom investigation revealed a shocking video of an attempt to uplift a newborn from its mother at Hawke's Bay Hospital.
Journalist Melanie Reid said in the story that the taking of Māori babies was a crisis in hiding, and that three Māori babies a week were being uplifted.
Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Martin says bringing in 7AA was not a kneejerk reaction to the story but coincidence, as the legislation was written before the uplift. However, she says the case involved her own iwi, Ngāti Kahungunu and the clause enabled a closer relationship between it and Oranga Tamariki.
"Because of 7AA we advanced a relationship on an unofficial basis where we placed a social worker inside the Ngāti Kahungunu Trust. They walked alongside them to be able to develop their capacity to support their families and children more before it reached an Oranga Tamariki stage," says Martin.
But Chhour has said that even before she became an MP she was hearing about the "unintended consequences of that certain section of the act" and the poor practise going on within Oranga Tamariki "around placement of Māori children".
She says the focus on maintaining Māori children's whakapapa links put young people at risk because their placements are based on their race and not their safety.
Those opposed to the repeal including lawyers, mental health workers, iwi leaders, psychologists, researchers and the ministry itself say her beliefs are based on anecdotes and that there is no evidence that Section 7AA is causing reverse uplifts.
They say the repeal is a breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and that it will harm children's wellbeing.
Martin says Oranga Tamariki workers who use 7AA to justify their removal of children from a safe family are wrong.
"7AA is not a whānau first clause," she says. "7AA is not a whānau at all cost clause. 7AA is about social investment and shifting investment and our preparation to prevention and early intervention to stop children coming into care."
Martin says the vote to repeal could be an "agree to disagree" arrangement where it is up to individuals to decide how they vote regardless of their political party. But Chhour argues that it is in the coalition agreement and must go ahead.
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