As the Children’s Commissioner, Dr Claire Achmad was a passionate advocate for Children in Aotearoa. She supported Government policy when it worked and she was critical when it didn’t.
Her warmth, her empathy and her courage made her someone with the mana to be the Children’s Commissioner.
She pointed out with clear eyed clarity where we were failing our kids and always had solutions on offer to remedy the damage caused by Government social policy.
She spoke truth to power.
Which is why her silencing and removal are so questionable.
She was originally given a 5 year term so that her role remained independent and beyond the punishment of the immediate Government she was criticising.
This Government reset the conditions of her role, gave her a 1 year term for that and then promptly dumped and replaced her with a new Children’s Commissioner who immediately had their term upgraded from 3 years to 5 years.
Dr Claire Achmad did not deserve that.
The Children’s Commission did not deserve that.
And the Children whose interests she protects did not deserve that.
It looks like the Government isolated a critic and removed them, not because they were bad at their job, but because they were doing their job.
Good people with real mana advocating for the most vulnerable amongst us should be celebrated, not punished because they told the truth!
We are a lesser country for this gerrymandering.
