June 16, 2019
Baby uplifts point to need for system change
Ikaroa Rāwhiti MP Meka Whaitiri says the number of Māori babies being taken by Oranga Tamariki points to something being wrong with the system.
A Hands Off Our Tamariki march to parliament is planned for July 30, and Ms Whaitiri will be there to meet it.
She says she has been asked to be an advocate for the mother at the centre of a Hastings incident which was at the centre of a Newsroom documentary on the issue, and it has brought home to her how disempowered whānau can be.
"We need to make sure that this system, and particularly under a wellbeing Government, that we are doing everything we possibly can to protect māmā, baby and fathers or whatever the family construct is is safe and baby will be safe," Ms Whaitiri says.
It's essential the Ministry for Children works to ensure that if the immediate family cannot look after a child or baby, responsibility shifts to the wider whānau.
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