Aotearoa has a new Children’s Commissioner, with experienced child protection advocate Jane Searle taking responsibility for ensuring the voices and rights of more than a million mokopuna are heard by those making decisions about their lives.
Searle began her five-year term as Te Kaikōmihana mō ngā Tamariki on August 1, succeeding Dr Claire Achmad.
She arrives with more than 15 years of experience across child protection and children’s rights.
Before taking up the role, Searle was chief executive of Child Matters, a national organisation focused on preventing child abuse and neglect. She spent 11 years with the organisation, including nine years as its chief executive.
Her career has also taken her from the courtroom to the frontline.
Originally trained as a lawyer, Searle practised in the Bay of Plenty before joining New Zealand Police. She worked as a frontline officer and later as a detective in a child abuse team, and has also held governance and specialist advisory roles.
Now her responsibility is much wider.
As Children’s Commissioner, Searle is the independent advocate for around 1.2 million mokopuna across Aotearoa, carrying the experiences and perspectives of children and young people into conversations with Government and the wider community sector.
For Māori, that advocacy carries particular importance.
Mana Mokopuna has responsibilities that include integrating te ao Māori approaches into its work, incorporating Te Tiriti throughout its mahi and building relationships with hapū, iwi and Māori organisations. Its strategic work also includes identifying opportunities to influence public policy affecting mokopuna and strengthening the Crown’s fulfilment of its obligations under Te Tiriti and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
That means the wellbeing of tamariki and rangatahi Māori cannot simply be treated as another statistic within the wider children’s system.
Whakapapa, whānau, tikanga, identity and connections to hapū and iwi all have a place in determining what good outcomes for Māori mokopuna should look like.
Searle takes office at a challenging time.
Children’s rights advocates continue to raise concerns across poverty, education, health, youth justice, online harm and the safety and wellbeing of vulnerable children. Those areas are among the issues currently being monitored through the Children’s Convention Monitoring Group.
There is also growing attention on the digital environments where rangatahi spend significant parts of their lives.
Recent work from Mana Mokopuna found young people held differing views about proposals such as restricting social media for under-16s, but there was broad agreement that stronger action was needed to protect children from online harm.
Searle’s appointment therefore comes with a significant challenge: ensuring decisions about children are not made without children.
For Māori communities, the test will also be whether the office can turn its commitment to te ao Māori into meaningful relationships with whānau, hapū and iwi, while ensuring tamariki Māori themselves have a genuine voice in the policies affecting their futures.
With a five-year term ahead of her, Jane Searle now carries one of the country’s most important independent advocacy roles.
Her job is ultimately about making sure the smallest voices in Aotearoa are powerful enough to reach the biggest decision-making tables.
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