Davis KelvinHon KELVIN DAVIS (Minister for Children): First let me acknowledge that what happened to Malachi is shocking and no child deserves to be treated like that.There are a few points that the member has raised that I want to address though. One is the call for hapū and iwi to be central to the decision making. Now if she's read the Oranga Tamariki Future Direction Action Plan she'll see that one of the five recommendations is that there is what basically amounts to a transfer of resources and decision making to hapū and iwi and communities. That is probably the part of the future direction plan that I am pushing the hardest. Now I don't want to replace Oranga Tamariki (OT) with another bureaucracy. Instead what we are trying to do with the future direction plan is to move the resources to communities hapū and iwi so that they can make the decisions that need to be made. Now there are some five communities across Aotearoa where that is being piloted. One is Waikato-Tainui the other is around the Ngāti Kahungunu area the third is Ngāi Tahu the fourth is Taumarunui and the fifth is up in Tai Tokerau. There are two communities there: Whangārei and Kaitāia. And just recently in Kaitāia we launched Te Atatū which is basically the community-led response to this. Change is happening.That doesn't though excuse what happened to Malachi. New Zealand has been dealing with this child abuse problem for generations. Nobody finds it acceptable and certainly I don't find it acceptable. We are talking about an issue that really cuts deep and change isn't going to be simple or easy but I am determined to make the changes and to turn things around. The future direction plan is one part of it. The Oranga Tamariki Action Plan is another part. There are multiple reviews already under way to understand what happened to Malachi and these do include the Oranga Tamariki practice review and then the Government-wide system review. The practice review from Oranga Tamariki regarding Malachi is expected soon and I understand this review will be much broader and much deeper than what the Ombudsman conducted and it will likely identify further areas where Oranga Tamariki could have and should have done better. But once we know what these areas are I expect action to be taken. The Ombudsman review is important and it responds directly to the two concerns raised by members of the whānau. I acknowledge that the concerns of the whānau were around a failure to properly address the report of concern made and that Oranga Tamariki did not have a suitable complaints process. In this case the Ombudsman found that Oranga Tamariki acted unreasonably and wrongly in addressing the report of concern made by Malachi's whānau. Oranga Tamariki do not refute that and have accepted the Ombudsman's report and its recommendations. Now I did put up my hand to take this portfolio. I do not want what happened to Malachi to happen to any other child and I'll do everything in my power to ensure we are changing the system. The approach we've taken in the past to try and prevent this kind of thing from happening just hasn't worked. The ministerial advisory board that I appointed a group of independent experts said Oranga Tamariki needed radical change and the Government agreed to all of its recommendations. We are doing things differently. During Labour's time in Government the uplifting of Māori babies has dropped by about 75 percent and the number of kids in care is the lowest since Oranga Tamariki was formed. There are over 70000 reports of concern every year—200 a day—and 50000 children at any one time who have come to the attention of the agency who social workers support to stay safe and out of care. As I said on Newshub Nation the other day 50000 are kept out of care every year. They are protected by the work that Oranga Tamariki social workers do and that's fantastic. The problem is that one mistake is what Oranga Tamariki is judged upon.So just a few key statistics. Uplifts are down 73 percent since 2018. Last year there were 402 compared to 1473 in 2018. The numbers of children in care are down to 4722 from 6316 in 2018. We have established meaningful partnerships with communities; uplifts in Kaitāia and Waikato-Tainui have decreased by over 30 percent following the development of and investment in localised partnerships which is what I've been talking about and I mentioned the future direction plan. Oranga Tamariki is committed to understanding where they have fallen short in the practice for Malachi and his family. They are doing their own practice review and will apologise to the whānau in cooperation with the Ombudsman and with the whānau advocate. After a complaint from members of Malachi's family the Ombudsman has completed an investigation and it has found that Oranga Tamariki could have done more to respond to the family's concern for Malachi's wellbeing and safety. Oranga Tamariki have accepted all of the recommendations in the Ombudsman's review and are now awaiting the Chief Social Worker's practice review—the outcome of that review. It is my expectation that Oranga Tamariki will do all they can to implement any changes necessary as a result of the reviews under way. Oranga Tamariki chief executive Chappie Te Kani has advised the Chief Ombudsman that depending on the findings of the Chief Social Worker review he intends to provide the whānau members with a fulsome accurate and sufficient apology framed by the outcome of the practice review. Please don't let me give the impression that an apology makes up for what happened to Malachi. An apology will be sincere and it will be genuine. It doesn't change what happened to Malachi. So Oranga Tamariki have had contact with a number of Malachi's family members where appropriate and when it was wanted. The practice review team requested to meet with the whānau who made the complaint to the Ombudsman. However Oranga Tamariki were advised by their advocate the whānau advocate that this meeting could not take place until the Ombudsman's review and meeting were completed. Oranga Tamariki have needed to be sensitive to the needs of the whānau and have been working at their pace. This is not a case of Oranga Tamariki dragging its feet or failing to act. There was a decision made to undertake these broader reviews and to make sure there was a very clear picture of what went wrong. Oranga Tamariki have committed to owning their failings and taking actions to address these.So when I became the Minister for Children it was clear that as an agency Oranga Tamariki wasn't up to scratch. There were challenges with front-line practice head office decisions and the overall approaches to working with tamariki and whānau. Since becoming the Minister I appointed a group of independent experts the ministerial advisory board. The board said Oranga Tamariki needed radical change and the Government agreed to all its recommendations. In August of last year Cabinet accepted the recommendations of the board and agreed to the future direction of Oranga Tamariki for the next two to five years. This included the Future Direction Action Plan that draws together themes from across Hipokingia ki te kahu aroha Hipokingia ki te katoa the report of the ministerial advisory board as well as recommendations from previous reviews and the Waitangi Tribunal report. We are working to address these challenges. OT has a new leadership team new financial team and has introduced the future direction plan which will shape the way it operates. The future direction plan is ambitious and seeks to address the issues within OT head on. Most future direction plan actions—in fact 90 percent of them—have been progressed. There needs to be a fundamental shift in the approach the operating model and the practice of Oranga Tamariki to be truly tamariki- and whānau-centred. Oranga Tamariki is making a fundamental shift towards practice that is based on the rights of tamariki and whānau and the relationship it builds with them. It sees tamariki in the context of whakapapa and understands their safety through a more holistic view of oranga.Through these changes Oranga Tamariki is working to improve understanding and management of social worker capacity the caseload complexity and the workloads and to support our front-line kaimahi with improved supervision support. I note that the member who spoke before me spoke about social workers concerned about their workloads. Remember this future direction plan has only been in action since Cabinet agreed to it in August of last year. So it will take some time for the actions within the future direction plan to be implemented fully. Oranga Tamariki will redesign how it approaches reports of concern and other assessments especially by incorporating partners community and whānau in our processes. In fact up in Kaitāia the reports of concern are addressed with the community providers and Oranga Tamariki is just one part of the group that on a daily basis addresses the reports of concern. That is something that I would like to see right throughout the country. Whereas in the past it had been Oranga Tamariki that received the reports of concern and made the decisions. Oranga Tamariki was at the centre of all decision making; it's now becoming part of the community—and when I say community I mean the hapū and iwi as well. It's just one member in the team that looks after the needs of tamariki. So there is an organisational focus on improving leadership capability including social work supervision to ensure those doing the front-line mahi know how and where to get support for themselves. Oranga Tamariki underwent a significant practice shift following the Ombudsman's findings into uplifts. The findings and reviews were tough but as Minister I was determined to see Oranga Tamariki step up and make the changes.Annually the number of section 78 orders granted for pēpi has decreased significantly since 2017. In response to the Ombudsman's findings in this area of practice Oranga Tamariki now routinely reviews practice and decision making for all section 78 orders made for unborn and newborn pēpi. We cannot ignore the fact that nearly 70 percent of children in the custody of Oranga Tamariki are Māori. Ignoring this reality has got us to where we are today. We also need to recognise that often Oranga Tamariki works with tamariki with the highest needs. So what became clear to me quite quickly when I became Minister was that Government agencies could work better together to support tamariki and whānau. This Government has taken action to make sure the Government is working together for tamariki with the greatest needs by developing the Oranga Tamariki Action Plan. This cross-agency approach will support the removal of silos to deliver outcomes for those who need them the most.And as I said rather than having Oranga Tamariki at the centre I want to see Oranga Tamariki become an enabler and coordinator for Māori and communities to empower Māori and communities to put in place the supports needed by whānau sooner rather than later so any tamariki and whānau who come through or are likely to come to the attention of Oranga Tamariki are well and truly at the centre. That shift to the system is well under way. To conclude as I said earlier what happened to Malachi was shocking. No child deserves to be treated like that. Again New Zealand has been dealing with a child abuse problem for generations. Nobody finds it acceptable I don't find it acceptable and everybody has a responsibility here to address the problem that many just don't want to talk about. We know that the system as it was did not work. We saw that change was needed in order to improve outcomes for tamariki and whānau and I've been working to make those changes possible. We are looking at new ways to partner with communities iwi and local organisations to ensure equitable outcomes for all children. Oranga Tamariki is not perfect but it is starting to improve—this is seen in the decrease in uplifts and the decrease of children entering into care. Thank you Mr Speaker.