The new Children's Commissioner objects to the name as "stigmatising and labelling".
Metiria Turei says it's "very negative, takes a deficit and exclusionary approach to supporting children and families. "
Labour want a Ministry for Children - no adjective.
Marama Fox of the Maori Party says, "If it was up to me I would be looking to set up a Ministry of Family or a Ministry of Whanau. We need to fix the whole of the problem."
Think-tank Maxim agrees with them all,
"The name falls squarely into the “deficit” model of thinking that fails to express a sense of aspiration for the children in care."
I disagree.
The new Ministry will be dealing with children who are vulnerable. It follows the passage of the Vulnerable Children Act 2014. Its name is entirely befitting. And Anne Tolley is to be commended for sticking with it.
But there is ongoing resistance. The Children's Commissioner says he will only refer to the Ministry by its Maori name. Oranga Tamariki.
In support Maxim blogger Kieran Madden writes,
"Oranga Tamariki is the silver lining here; it is redemptive. Not only because this is more inclusive of Māori children—who count as 60% of the children in care—but also because it is aspirational. “Imagine the reaction to a door knock from a badged Vulnerable Children’s worker,” asked Becroft. Compare this with someone representing Orangi Tamariki.
This convinced me that the new name—while accurate—isn’t helpful. Tolley argued that a name “won’t save a single child,” but if it does open one door that might have remained closed, it might.
Becroft is urging all in the sector to only use Oranga Tamariki, hoping that the English version will “wither on the vine.” This is a good idea. A name is, as he notes “only the start,” but an important one. It is up to the Ministry, and those working with children and their communities to provide care that lives up to the better name.
Ka pai, Oranga Tamariki."
Anyway, I thought I should find a translation of the name that we are all being urged to use before I wrote this post.
5 comments:
who cares what the hand-wringers think. As you say, good on Tolley. It's named that because there is a myriad of vulnerable children out there, as our past of bashings, beatings, maimings and killings in the last few decades have shown.
Call it what it is, and stand up for vulnerable children, far better than having deceased children. This was needed earlier, do we want to see more shocking deaths aka that of the vulnerable, defenceless Moko? It's high time something concrete and definitive was done.
The issue is whether this expensive hoopla will make any difference. I fear not.
3:16
Call it what it is: Government Parenting Service.
A worse day for freedom in NZ than when the anti-parenting bll was passed.
First they make parenting illegal. Then they create a Ministry to Replace Parents.
What's it say at the top of this blog: oh yeah - "The welfare state is unsustainable economically, socially and morally."
Government can never replace personal responsibility. It is foolish socialism to try.
Tolly's name is accurate and entirely appropriate. The Maori name represents exactly what SJWs and many Maori want, ie a Ministry that ignores child death and abuse and pours money into middle class welfare.
Or to put it another way.. a Ministry that deals only with vulnerable children reduces the opportunities for graft, virtue signalling, grandstanding and worthless jobs.
JC
Yes, I reckon nothing will really change. Where was the state when Moko needed him, where were the cbecks and balances. Have you seen what the mum looks like? Poor boy never had a chance. She can wring her hands all she wants etc, but she was the one who left her utterly vulnerable boy with weeks and weeks on end, not even checked up on, what kind of mother does that.
This is just the govt grandstanding, because they won't stop the no-questions-asked
breeders welfare, where its oh so easy to grab tax dollars for baby-bearing, as long as the father is not named. Sick system.
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