Oranga Tamariki director Grainne Moss will not resign

A defiant Oranga Tamariki boss, Grainne Moss, says he will not resign from the ministry.

Moss spoke to reporters this afternoon and insisted that she was engaged to Oranga Tamariki to make changes. The government had not asked him to resign, he said.

The Belfast-born executive director said she had had some “very effective” conversations with the new Minister for Children, Kelvin Davis, who has so far refused to express his confidence in her. The two were still in the process of getting to know each other, he said.

Moss said he had “no idea” where the rumors came from that he was resigning from the ministry, which is tasked with caring for New Zealand’s most vulnerable children and tackling child abuse.

His agency has been under intense scrutiny since the video of a one-week-old Maori baby being lifted in Hastings last year.

That event has resulted in no fewer than five reviews of Oranga Tamariki and its child enhancement practices: an internal review and investigations by Whānau Ora, the Chief Ombudsman, the Children’s Commissioner and the Waitangi Court.

The number of children in the state’s care and the number of promotions have fallen under Moss’s watch, and partnerships with iwi are being created to prevent their tamariki from entering care or keeping them within the extended family.

But many prominent Maori leaders remain deeply distrustful of Oranga Tamariki and felt that transformative change had yet to take place.

Moss acknowledged some of the damage inflicted on Maori families by Oranga Tamariki in a frank speech to the Waitangi Tribunal this afternoon.

In his opening statement, he said that structural racism was “a feature of the care and protection system” and had led to poor results for the Maori tamariki drawn from his whānau.

“The impact of structural racism on tamariki’s results and experiences
and his whānau, and about culture and trust in general, means that the Crown
should have identified the need to address structural racism head-on in the
establishment of Oranga Tamariki, “he said.

He also told the investigation that the Crown had not fully implemented the recommendations of the 1988 Puao-te-Ata-tu report on a Maori perspective for social support.

Speaking to reporters, he said making the concessions was “very emotional.” It was the first time he had publicly admitted Oranga Tamariki’s entrenched racism.

Her appearance comes after a report on Maori television earlier today that she was ready to leave the troubled welfare agency.

On Monday, Children’s Commissioner Andrew Becroft released the second of two reports on Oranga Tamariki.

The report called on the government to commit to transferring power and resources to Maori to care for children who might otherwise be treated by the state. The move would allow for a “By Maori, For Maori” approach, Becroft said.

He also recommended that Oranga Tamariki end its practice of removing babies from delivery rooms or maternity wards.