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Download AudioLabour’s children’s spokesperson Willow Jean Prime says the Government is making up a conflict between the Treaty of Waitangi and the rights of the child to justify repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act.
The Bill was read for the first time on Tuesday night in a highly emotional debate.
Ms Prime says section 7AA aimed to addresses the disproportionate number of tamariki Maori in state care.
She says the current law makes it clear the interests of the child are paramount – and there are well-established international conventions acknowledging culture is part of that.
The Royal Commission on Abuse in Care heard from multiple witnesses that they suffered as a result of racist and monocultural practices.
“The National Government put in section 7AA to address the inequities, to address these issues, and now we have Christopher Luxon, now the prime minister of the National-led Government, removing section 7AA with no empirical evidence, all based on anecdote, hearsay, nothing to support it so this is straight political ideology,” Ms Prime says.
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