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Māori Voice Excluded From Crucial Panel
Māori Voice Excluded From Crucial Panel on Future of Child, Youth And Family
14 May 2015
The Māori Women's Welfare League is determined to fight a move that has left Māori representation off an Independent Expert Panel on the Modernisation of Child, Youth and Family despite the fact that more than half the children in the agency's care are Māori.
The National President of the League (Te Ropu Wahine Māori Toko I te Ora), Prue Kapua, says League members are very concerned that the Minister did not see fit to appoint a Māori onto the panel and she’s written to the Minister of Social Development urging her to reconsider the panel’s make-up as soon as possible.
"The terms of reference specifically require the panel to address how a new operating model will deliver better outcomes for Māori," Ms Kapua says, "and yet there is no reflection of the need for expertise in tikanga Māori in the appointments made by the Minister.”
"With such a glaring omission – they can hardly call the panel expert at all."
"In fact, without Māori expertise and knowledge we have no confidence that any of the panel's findings or recommendations will properly address the needs of our children,” says Prue Kapua. “And we desperately need to do better - we must urgently address all the children’s needs while finding ways to reduce the alarming numbers of Māori children in care."
The statistics are consistent. Over the past decade more than 50 per cent of the children in Child, Youth and Family's care are Māori.
League branches and members are involved in working in the community with whanau through a number of programmes, including Whānau Toko I Te Ora through the Ministry, and have an intimate knowledge of the issues facing children, youth and whanau in their interactions with Child, Youth and Family.
"The League is more than happy to assist the Minister in identifying an appropriate independent panel member," she said. “In the meantime we continue to wait for a response from the Minister to our letter sent nearly a month ago.”
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