New Zealand child welfare head resigns after furore over M?ori family separations

The embattled chief executive of Oranga Tamariki has stepped down, saying the focus of the story has become about her, rather than the well-being of New Zealand’s most vulnerable children.

Gráinne Moss’s resignation follows growing concern about the uplift of M?ori babies, and the high number of M?ori children in care – they account for 65% of kids in state care though M?ori comprise just 16.5% of the country’s population.

A two-part investigation by the office of the children’s commissioner into Oranga Tamariki released at the end of last year found that M?ori infants were five times more likely to be taken into state custody than non-M?ori, often in traumatic circumstances and including from maternity wards.

Meng Foon, the human rights commissioner, noted that the report highlighted persistent inequities that affect M?ori, including intergenerational harm being done to M?ori children and wh?nau (family), and how this collides with entrenched disadvantage, colonisation and systemic bias.

“Such systemic bias needs to go,” Foon said.

The children’s commissioner, Andrew Beecroft, said Moss’s resignation was “principled” but that the child welfare agency needed a “total transformation of the statutory care and protection system to a by M?ori for M?ori approach”.

“This resignation needs to be seen as the opportunity for that reset,” he added.

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Moss became chief executive four years ago and has overseen a period of unprecedented turbulence at the organisation, as calls for change grow louder in New Zealand society.

“I am proud of all that we have achieved over the last four years,” Moss said in a statement.

“However, I believe it is the right time for the agency for me to step down and make way for new leadership. I feel the focus has been on me rather than how we work together to improve the well-being of children.”

According to Oranga Tamariki, during Moss’s tenure fewer children and young people entered care, social worker caseloads were reduced, and investment in iwi/M?ori services has doubled.

However her detractors say Moss’s departure is the first step in tackling entrenched, institutional racism within the agency.

Maori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said: “Given that she has acknowledged the continued failings and systemic racism on her watch, Gráinne Moss tendering her resignation was the only right thing to do.”

The operations of Oranga Tamariki have long drawn the wrath of M?ori elders, with large public demonstrations held in 2019 calling for an end to baby uplifts.

“There’s been unprecedented breaches of human rights,” Naida Glavish, the head of a M?ori-led inquiry into the practices of Oranga Tamariki, told the Guardian last year.

Glavish said there have been cases of women’s babies being taken into custody over the cleanliness of the mother’s home, or their past records, even though they had changed their behaviour, and the gang affiliations of former partners.

Glavish also accused the agency of not allowing extended M?ori families to care for children – an established cultural practice – when relatives thought that was the best option.

“For us here there is no way that we are actually going to allow it to continue,” Glavish said. “We’ve reached a stage where enough is enough.”

A recruitment process is now underway and Wira Gardiner has been appointed as acting chief executive.

Gardiner has has whakapapa links to Ng?ti Awa, Ng?ti Pikiao, Te Wh?nau-?-Apanui and te Whakat?hea, and has been involved in significant interactions between the Crown and M?ori iwi on treaty settlements and other complex negotiations.

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