July 05, 2017
Oranga Tamariki to be debated in Parliament
The Oranga Tamariki Legislation Bill is in committee stage and due to be debated in parliament this week.
The bill covers a wide range of legislative reforms and establishes the new Ministry for Vulnerable Children, Oranga Tamariki.
The controversial legislation has been compared to Australia's Stolen Generation and Canada's Sixty's Scoop policies both of which saw the respective governments remove tamariki from their whanau and indigenous communities to be raised by white families.
Labour MP for Manurewa Louisa Wall says a recent Canadian court case should signal to the National Government that placement of tamariki Maori must remain with whanau hapu and iwi first.
" At the beginning of this year there was a court system that essentially held the government of Canada accountable for stripping away the indigenous identity of 16000 Ontario indigenous children who were taken from their indigenous families and given to white families to assimilate them. We don't want that to happen to our Maori children. Our Maori children have the right to grow up as Maori children and to have access to their language, their culture. We will be holding the minister and the legislation accountable, to ensure that does not happen to our Maori children in the care and protection system," says Labour MP for Manurewa, Louisa Wall.
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