Why the Oranga Tamariki apology is so wrong and why nothing is going to change

Wellington Bureaucrats worship their new Big Data Fascism, Orac

Oranga Tamariki’s apology today for the appalling manner in which their staff attempted to uplift a new born infant highlights all that is wrong with our neoliberal welfare agencies and hints that nothing will change until the next filmed uplift embarrasses the Government again.

What most journalists covering this story miss is the neoliberal philosophy that shaped this National Party social experiment.

Neoliberal welfare is all about stripping out universal provision of services to just the worst cases that will cost the most, and it does this using big data to predict future crimes and current cost threats.

Under this philosophy, the Ministry for Vulnerable children was created using dead brown babies as their justification.

The old CYFs uplifts were weaponised and turbo charged.

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Parents rights were legally watered down, the 0800 number took informants claims straight to engagement teams, parents weren’t eligible for legal aid to fight charges, parents became always guilty of future crimes and there is no oversight agency checking on whether or not the uplifts are justified.

The Public Service then brown washed the agency with the name ‘Oranga Tamariki’ and off they went with a white saviour mentality to rescue as many children as possible rather than provide an abusive family with all the wrap around services to help the family heal itself.

This has always been a cost cutting measure, the welfare of the child really is secondary and the welfare of the family doesn’t even count.

The so called safe guards of judicial oversight that Oranga Tamariki have pointed to as evidence that they aren’t an out of control agency with the most perverse state intrusion powers of any Government Department in NZ have been shown up for the joke rubber stamping process we always claimed they were in their so called apology where OT detail that the legal process was adhered to while the family were in the total dark.

There are no safe guards here, once OT have you in their sights they have the power to kick in your door and take your child with out so much as warning you.

The power to remove your child from you is the most intrusive power the state has, how can anyone feel confident that OT have the formula right when there are no checks and balances other than causing them enormous embarrassment by filming the uplift and sharing it on social media?

Newsroom did an enormous service to journalism with their investigative report on this brutal incident.

The next part of this story that is yet to drop is what is happening to these children who are uplifted and sent out for commercial adoptions. I’ve investigated the private company who are handling the adoptions and I can’t see the difference between what the State is doing here and baby trafficking.

There is far more to this terrible story yet to come.


  1. Nothing will change because we have the same OLD people working in these places who employ people like themselves or people they can control and manipulate. I know people who work for CYFS/OT and they told me they are being held back from implementing tikanga practises because they have foreigners working there that cannot and are not complying with section 7aa so all this talk about change is a load of bullshit. And why is CYFS/OT employing Indians who do not know our Maori culture this causes resentment and anger and eventually disengagement

  2. I loved Blake’s 7 and funny seeing ‘a shared memory’ from someone your own age (pretty sure I can remember Martyn / Bomber being in the same politics lectures as myself at Auckland University back in the early 90’s) . .

  3. Yet again, as with the belated Police apology to MB which came only after they were criticised and found against by the Human Rights Review Tribunal for the appalling breach of MB’s privacy and how they tried to malign him, the apology from OT comes only after the official scathing report on their practices. It did not come before that report, although it should have. In fact, OT tried to justify its dirty filthy practices instead of front-footing them and taking ownership of them. The culture there is toxic – and that’s putting it mildly.

    The apology from the CEO of OT was as about as false as you can get because the over-acted sincerity which she tried to display was obviously forced and false. How could she conduct herself in such a way when she should have been saying sorry right from the outset. Her staff in the hospital room of that terrified young mother acted like bullies and they should go as should the CEO. Why? Because they displayed the bullying culture which has been cultivated and nurtured for many years. What confidence can the government have in her or any of her staff? None, I would have thought.

    But I agree with Michelle – nothing will change at OT, although there will be much noise about making changes. The changes will probably only be superficial in some procedural matters and not in the deeper rooted toxic culture of the organisation, nor in their understanding or rather lack of understanding of Maori culture and whanau, nor in the management which nurtures that culture. And in the mean time Maori children will continue to be snatched by self-righteous bureaucrats with what MB has rightly described as the “white saviour” mentality that they have been indoctrinated with and placed in environments which in the end will destroy them.

  4. Steven Joyce +Johnny Key’s MBIE legacy reigns again???????
    Labour needs to clear out all those ‘National party bureaucrats’ now in MBIE and all Government agencies from the top down, as they are stymieing the Labour coalition Government now.

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