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September 08, 2019
Baby uplifts continue despite increased scrutiny
Waatea Team
Posted On September 8, 2019
The chair of the North Island Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency says Oranga Tamariki seems to have learned nothing from the controversy over its policy of uplifting newborn babies.
The child protection agency was involved in two uplifts in Auckland last Friday, including one where police were used to enforce the taking of a baby from Auckland Hospital while whānau members tried to prevent it happening.
Merepeka Raukawa Tait says there has to be a better way.
She says district health boards should also be asking questions of the ministry and the police.
"How dare they allow police officers and also Oranga Tamariki to come into your bedroom, which is in the hospital, it's your bedroom you've just given birth, it's private. It's actually tapu as far as I am concerned, and all these people waltz in saying 'we're here to take your baby'. It beggars belief that we are still doing that," Mrs Raukawa Tait says.
She says the incidents shows the importance of the independent inquiry her agency is now conducting.
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