Oranga Tamariki hearing told
The Māori Women's Welfare League has told the Waitangi Tribunal that Māori initiatives to reduce the number of tamariki in their care have been short-lived because the Crown has all the control.
On the fourth day of the hearing into why there is a disproportionate number of tamariki Māori in state care, the Māori Women's Welfare League spoke of their "disappointment" when the Mātua Whangai programme was withdrawn in 1989, just six years after it was first implemented.
The hearing aims to identify what difference legislative and practice changes introduced in 2017 made, and any changes must the Crown make to be Te Tiriti o Waitangi compliant.
Māori Women's Welfare League president Prudence Tematekapua said withdrawing Mātua Whangai - which had aimed to "nurture children within their extended whānau groups" instead of the child going into state care - had a "devastating impact on Māori" and contributed to the disproportionate number of tamariki Māori taken into state care.#
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