Oranga Tamariki just can’t get out of the headlines, and it is for all the wrong reasons.
Despite a string of reviews and commitments made by Children’s Minister Kelvin Davis, nothing seems to be improving in the way the State deals with vulnerable and troublesome youth.
The latest revelations of cage-style fighting at Oranga Tamariki facilities being videoed by staff, followed by youths scrambling on to the roof of their facility, has again focused attention on the agency’s failings.
NBR presenter Grant Walker remembers when Davis was in Opposition in 2015 and National led the Government; there were fights in Serko-run prisons. Davis called on the minister and officials to resign over the incidents.
Walker asks why Davis should not follow his own advice and resign over this incident at an Oranga Tamariki youth facility.
Children’s Minister Kelvin Davis.
Former Police Commissioner Mike Bush is conducting a review and the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency chair Merepeka Raukawa-Tait told RNZ she hoped he would recommend the facilities – what she called “children’s jails” – be shut down.
Much of it appears to come back to money. More needs to be spent on providing the kind of facilities and the specialist staff needed to both manage and support the country’s most difficult and most vulnerable youth.
Raukawa-Tait points to similar facilities in Europe being turned into wellbeing centres, with psychologists and other health and education professionals providing treatment and guidance.
So far, no political party here appears committed to doing that, particularly as the political debate on crime, including youth offending, has been largely dumbed down to a ‘hard on crime’ versus ‘soft on crime’ approach.
Clever move
Meanwhile, Walker thinks it is a clever move of Prime Minister Chris Hipkins – to put off talking to embattled minister Kiritapu Allan until he returns from his trip to Europe at the end of next week. It means Hipkins does not have to talk about the matter at least until then.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins.
It does, though, also give time for the air to clear and for any more allegations – if they exist – to surface. So far, there are anonymous allegations that she yelled at some staff. At least one departmental chief executive has confirmed some staff issues in Allan’s office, but that goes back more than a year, and no-one has formally raised any complaints then or now.
At Hipkins’ post-Cabinet news conference, reporters, while probing him about the issue, also were confused about just what was meant to have occurred. The outcome of his conversation with Allan once he returns from Europe will be watched with interest.
This week, the Government released accounts for the 11 months to the end of May, which showed the deficit was $2 billion worse than the Treasury forecast in the May Budget, mainly because the company tax take was much lower than forecast.
Opposition parties used the numbers to hammer the Government’s economic record, blaming its poor management for the books ‘blowing out’. But, on the positive side, spending was largely in line with the forecast and the books were still in much better shape than a year earlier, even if not reaching Treasury’s expectations.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson repeated a line he has used many times before, about the Government’s responsible fiscal management and that the country was well placed to face the economic challenges of this year. He repeated that the extreme weather events of this year had and would continue to have an impact, as the Government contributed towards the recovery and rebuild, particularly following Cyclone Gabrielle.
Economic indictment
But that doesn’t impress National Party finance spokesperson Nicola Willis, who says it is an indictment of Labour’s economic management and that businesses are drowning under a tidal wave of new costs and worsening inflation, which is weighing the economy down.
National Party finance spokesperson Nicola Willis.
Whether inflation is worsening or not is open to question. It fell to 6.7% in the year to the end of March. The next CPI figure for the June quarter is due out on July 19. Both the Government and Opposition will be keenly waiting for that number, to confirm whether indeed inflation is getting worse or better.
When he is in Europe, Hipkins might discuss that matter with fellow leaders, with other countries continuing to experience high inflation. For example, in the United Kingdom, annual inflation hit 8.7% at the end of May, although in France it was only 5.2% and 6.1% in Germany.
Talking about costs, the Green Party wants to rein in increases in rents. Under the policy it announced earlier in the week, it would cap rental increases to 3% a year, establish a register of landlords, and require them to meet certain standards. A proposed Renters’ Rights Bill would ensure everyone who rented had a safe, healthy, and affordable home.
The policy was roundly denounced by some as economic lunacy, although for all but the past couple of years, annual rent increases have been under 3%.
Renters or landlords
Hipkins was quick to rule it out, but that might in the end depend on how the votes fall. If Labour really depends on the Green Party to form the next Government, it might be in a stronger position to argue its case. The Greens have long talked about imposing controls on landlords and are clearly using the issue as a means to attract support from renters, just as National – by promising to reverse much of what the Labour Government has done in regard to interest deductibility and the bright line test – is appealing to landlords.
National's housing spokesperson Chris Bishop.
National called the Greens’ policy an attack on landlords, and its housing spokesperson Chris Bishop said it would have the reverse effect of what the Greens’ intended by driving landlords out of the market and making it harder than ever for people to get properties to rent.
For a week at least, Hipkins might be able to forget all this – unless another of his ministers gets into trouble while he’s away – and get some kudos at least at the formal signing of the New Zealand-European Union free trade agreement before heading to more serious discussions about Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine at the NATO leaders’ summit.
Brent Edwards is NBR’s political editor.
