The task incoming chief executive Sir Wira Gardiner has with Oranga Tamariki was laid bare this week with yet another example of OT using extraordinary legal powers to simply uplift children without notice.
Christchurch GP and youth advocate Dame Sue Bagshaw wrote directly to Sir Wira Gardiner pleading with him to intervene in yet another case where Oranga Tamariki reflectively resorted to the blunt force trauma of an uplift without notice order rather than working with the immediate family and wider whanau for a solution.
As covid poverty starts to really bite and stress filled temporary housing and welfare solutions turn septic and matasticise, Oranga Tamariki is increasingly operating in communities who have become so degraded there are no structures of agency or economic self management left.