Youth focused organisations are calling for a significant shift in government narrative and policy towards young people experiencing challenging circumstances to avoid repeating the horrors outlined in the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care’s Report and the Aroturuki Tamariki (Independent Children's Monitor) review of actions taken in response to Malachi Subecz’s death.

The Social Services and Community Committee has been hearing submissions over the past fortnight regarding the proposal to repeal S7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. Simultaneously, the Military Style Bootcamps have launched in Palmerston North. To us, both of these policy decisions fly in the face of the recommendations of the Royal Commission and the Poutasi Review. Rather than working with communities, iwi, hapū and whānau to support our young people, the current policies dismantle the community structures that support young people in challenging circumstances.

The Royal Commission of Inquiry’s Report clearly articulated how institutional and systemic failures, particularly the Crown’s failure to uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi, created the environment that led to decades of abuse.

 The people who work day in and day out with young people are calling on the government to follow the evidence; to abandon these proposals; and to work with us to implement proven strategies. Strategies that reduce the number of children and young people who need to be taken into care, support whānau and communities to meet the needs of our young people and provide our rangatahi with the skills they need to navigate life.

The recent reports are the latest in a long series of damning inquiries and reports and are a terrible indictment of the value that New Zealand places on the lives of our vulnerable children and young people. We are all too aware that we have been here before. We must act now to make sure that we are not reading another report in a decade outlining how we failed the children and young people of 2024; the government has a duty to ensure that vulnerable young people in Aotearoa are supported by policies that are proven to work.

Organisations calling for the change:

Ara Taiohi (the peak body for youth development in Aotearoa)

ANZASW Aotearoa New Zealand Assocoiation of Social Workers

Family for Every Child

Just Speak

START

FASD-CAN ((Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Care Action Network)

Dr. Enys Delmage, Consultant in Adolescent Forensic Psychiatry Kick Back Make Change

YouthLaw Aotearoa

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