Oranga Tamariki boss Grainne Moss is facing calls to be gracious and leave. For instance, Māori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and former leader Dame Tariana Turia called for Moss immediate sacking. “The resignation of Lambert, Moss’ most senior Māori colleague, proves there are major problems that run right through Oranga Tamariki, starting at the top,” Ngarewa-Packer said. Lambert, however, made the interesting comment that people shouldn’t be concentrating the blame for the agency’s shortcomings on individuals, because the “system” that sees pēpi Māori disproportionately enter state care was a complex and interconnected one. Last month Labour minister Peeni Henare had to be rapped across the knuckles by Children s Minister Kelvin Davis after he gave a media interview in which he said he wasn t surprised by speculation around Moss, who “allegedly may be vacating in a couple of hours”.
Almost 10 years ago I made a documentary called Inside Child Poverty.
Some people (largely members of John Key’s government) got very angry with me. I was a left wing pinko journo making this stuff up in an election year. There was no such thing as “Child Poverty” and “even if there was,” said then MP and Minister Paula Bennett you couldn’t measure it.
Well a group of academics at the invitation of the then Commissioner for Children proved you COULD measure it. And in the last Labour Government we saw the establishment of what I called for at the end of my programme – a Ministry for Children.
Human trafficking has become a global crisis that has questioned the worth of being human. Victims are
exploited as commodities, falling prey to the global flesh trade, often ending up as single mothers, sometimes infected with HIV and other illnesses, with no means of survival. Human trafficking is a serious problem in Nepal and this is the main reason why Maiti Nepal was established in 1993. It’s main focus is to prevent girls and women from being trafficked to other parts of the world, while also protecting Nepali girls and women from being victims of the flesh trade, child prostitution, child labour and various forms of exploitation and torture. According to Maiti Nepal Director Bishwo Khadka, once Kathmandu airport became out of bounds for the traffickers, they started flying Nepali women out of Delhi. When Delhi authorities made it compulsory for Nepali women and girls to carry a no objection letter from the government, they rerouted to Colombo to traffic girls to Gulf coun