Election 2020: Maori Party launches mokopuna policy, takes care of Maori babies

The Maori Party wants to remove Maori children from the care of Oranga Tamariki and turn them into a new independent entity, saying the current system is “disgraceful”.

The Mokopuna Māori Policy, launched by Te Taitokerau candidate Mariameno Kapa-Kingi today in Whangārei, targets the beleaguered state agency, which has been criticized for its actions around the “routine” removal of Maori babies from their families.

“We are at a turning point and the time has come to regain our rights as a tangata whenua,” said Kapa-Kingi.

“Our babies make up 70 percent of children in state care and are effectively funded to stay with people with whom they have no whakapapa connection; Maori mokopuna do not belong to generic state care, they belong to whānau, hapū and iwi.

“The latest global pandemic has given us the opportunity to reset our compass for the ‘True North’ and build our own Maori kaupapa system for Maori, by Maori, as Maori.”

Oranga Tamariki has been the subject of four investigations in the last year into its lifting practices, triggered by the highly publicized lifting of a 6-day-old baby from its 19-year-old mother at Hawke’s Bay Hospital.

More recently, the Chief Ombudsman, Peter Boshier, discovered that separating newborn babies from their parents without prior notice had become a “routine” rather than an “exception”.

Boshier said the large number of cases and limited Maori specialist staff were contributing factors.

In response, Oranga Tamariki CEO Grainne Moss said they had recently made changes to their practices, hired more Maori specialists, and developed partnerships with iwi.

More than a quarter of its front-line social workers are Maori.

But the Maori Party said the changes were only superficial, to “calm” its team, but not to change the “culture that harms our tamariki and mokopuna.”

The policy would involve a $ 600 million diversion from Oranga Tamariki to establish an independent Mokopuna Māori Entity, which would be responsible for the care of all Māori mokopuna in Aotearoa.

The service would be provided “by Maori, for Maori, to Maori.”

The entity would also establish a partnership network between the Maori organizations, hapū and iwi, to ensure that Maori mokopuna remain connected to their whakapapa.