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Weekly Media Roundup

April 07, 2017 at 11:12 AM

Oranga Tamariki

Can the Ministry for Vulnerable Children succeed where CYF failed?

New Zealand’s record on child abuse and neglect is a scar on our conscience. A new agency seeks to change that. Expert Emily Keddell explains what it’s intended to, the pitfalls it could face, and that controversial ‘vulnerable children’ label.

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New children's ministry to be under 'constant restructure'

The newly launched Oranga Tamariki - the Ministry for Vulnerable Children - is set to be under "constant restructure" for the next few years.

Child, Youth and Family (CYF) was folded into the new agency, which was launched in Wellington yesterday.

CYF has been under review almost continuously since its inception in 1989 and has been restructured 14 times.

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Ministry for Vulnerable Children seeks to tackle abuse and neglect

The Ministry for Vulnerable Children will replace the Ministry of Child, Youth and Family, aiming to protect the more than 230,000 children classed as vulnerable.

Child Youth and Family has had 14 restructures, but the Government claims the new ministry is a transformational change.

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Child advocate Anton Blank slams new 'hugely flawed' Ministry for Vulnerable Children

The new Ministry was launched on Friday afternoon, but will it do anything to reverse our shameful record on child neglect and abuse?

Social policy expert and child advocate Anton Blank told Three's The Project that while the Government has shown strong leadership in dealing with a difficult issue, "the problem is the overall approach is hugely flawed".

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Q&A: What's different about Oranga Tamariki, the Ministry for Vulnerable Children?

In the greatest shake-up of state care and child protection in nearly two decades, Child, Youth and Family (CYF) is gone - replaced by the Ministry for Vulnerable Children, Oranga Tamariki.

The Government promises that where CYF was failing, this new agency will do better.

It has a new name and a new direction, but can the new agency tasked with keeping vulnerable Kiwi kids safe fulfil its lofty goals?

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Eight things the new Oranga Tamariki Ministry for Vulnerable Children must do better than CYF

OPINION: Child, Youth and Family is no more, and its legacy is one of failure. 

That's not to diminish the many social workers and staff that were in it only to look after New Zealand's most vulnerable children.

But they were stymied by decades of piecemeal legislation, underfunding and chronic under-staffing across successive governments. It was inevitable that cracks would turn to gaping holes, and the ones that fell through them would be the children.

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Care system for New Zealand's at-risk children to be completely overhauled

As of tomorrow, Child, Youth and Family will be no more.

Child ministry reform will be ‘tense and challenging’ Bill English says
The PM said at the launch of the new Oranga Tamariki ministry, replacing CYFS, that there will be many challenges along the way.
Source: 1 NEWS

The controversial agency will be completely reformed, and become the Ministry for Vulnerable Children; Oranga Tamariki.

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Other News Media

Data for funding 'excessive and disproportionate'

Privacy Commissioner John Edwards has come out against the government's plan to require community groups to hand over clients' private details if they want state funding.

The policy will kick in from July for most community agencies seeking state funding.

The new arrangement has already come into effect for budgeting advisors. Sexual violence groups have been given a year's reprieve after they argued it could scare off people from coming forward.

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New MSD system will be rushed say community groups

Community groups have expressed their disbelief at the Ministry of Social Development's claim that it can set up a new IT system in a matter of months to securely collect people's private information.

The ministry's current portal was shut-down yesterday after a second breach was revealed.

It said it was going to fast-track a new one to ensure the safety of the information.

The groups were worried that would mean shortcuts were taken.

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Less than 1 in 4 high schools sign up to sex ed programme focused on consent

Less than a quarter of secondary schools are using a government-endorsed sexual education programme teaching teenagers about consent. 

Mates and Dates – an ACC-funded programme designed to help prevent sexual and dating violence by teaching young people relationship and behaviour skills – is available nation-wide for all schools.

The programme was held up as proof schools have resources available to them at the time of a large protest at Parliament last month, which called on the government to make consent compulsory in sex education.

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Facebook photo retrial case 'clarifies law'

Legal experts are welcoming a ruling that has ordered the retrial of a man for posting half-naked photos of his estranged wife on Facebook.

The man, who has name suppression, had posted the photos of the woman lying in bed in her underwear. Manukau District Court Judge Colin Doherty found him guilty of one charge of breaching a protection order, but dismissed a charge of causing harm through posting a digital communication. The man was discharged.

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Insight: Online Porn - The New Sex Ed Teacher?

Horror stories are emerging from parents trying to protect children as young as seven from the proliferation of online pornography.

Some have spoken of their fears in trying to navigate the minefield.

But how damaging is easy access to online pornography for young minds and what is known about its effects?

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Southland 'champions' campaign against domestic violence launched

A man who was raised in a violent household and would later beat up his own family has thrown his support behind a Southland-wide campaign to reduce family violence in the region.

Vic Tamati, a face of the It's Not OK campaign,  outlined his shockingly violent  background ahead of the launch of the Southland Champions campaign in Invercargill on Tuesday.

Community champions, of which 18 have so far signed up, are taught what to say to victims and perpetrators of family violence and steer them in the right direction to get the help they need.

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Justice Minister confident Parliament will back family violence legislation

New measures are set to be debated in Parliament that the Government hopes will make a dent in the country's family violence problem.

MPs will today consider the first reading of legislation reforming domestic violence laws, including changing bail rules to put the safety of victims first, better information-sharing regarding domestic abusers, and making the breaches of a protection order an aggravating factor at sentencing.

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Norm Hewitt opens up on suicide and domestic violence

Norm Hewitt is packing a lot into a life that was once going nowhere, or nowhere safe.

He can also pack an extraordinary amount into a phone conversation.

The former All Black, aged 48, has a generous and seemingly limitless capacity for sharing his message, one that centres on releasing men from a "prison" of silence and violence.

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Man punched partner, dragged her by hair, threatened to stab her

A man had a "significant fall from grace" after punching his partner in the face and threatening to stab her, a court has heard. 

The man had been in a respected job for a lengthy period but resigned in December after being charged over what police prosecutor Scott McColgan called a "prolonged and brutal" assault on his partner.

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Sexual assault victims say they still feel let down by police

The New Zealand Police is marking 10 years of better behaviour, but recent victims of alleged sexual assault have told Newshub they are still being let down by police.

Louise Nicholas's claims of rape by police officers in the 1980s sparked a Commission of Inquiry into police practices and culture, and Police were found to be wanting on both counts.

Over the last decade all 47 of the Commission's recommendations have been put in place.

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Louise Nicholas: Police must continue the job they've started

OPINION: On January 31, 2004, I told my story of rape and abuse by members of the New Zealand Police through a Dominion Post reporter, Phil Kitchin.

The story was accompanied by a call I had made through the Dominion Post for a proper independent inquiry into a bad culture that I knew festered within the New Zealand Police.

I asked the Prime Minister, at the time Helen Clark, to set up a Commission of Inquiry "to ensure that as a victim of police abuses I can finally be treated fairly and decently".

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Upper Hutt boy from Trentham School runs away from potential abductor thanks to password system

An Upper Hutt child escaped a possible abduction attempt because a stranger did not know the password his mother used when sending people to pick him up from school.

The Trentham School boy was approached by a man in a black car on Monday afternoon who told him: "I need to take you home."

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Call for more support for disabled or violent kids

A lack of funding to deal with violent children is also hurting children with disabilities, the Northland Principals' Federation says.

Federation president Pat Newman said he was close to advising schools to start suspending pupils who were a safety risk.

Other principals, who have supported his stand, said the funding squeeze was limiting the prospects of children facing physical and other challenges.

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Lawyers have crucial role against domestic violence

A Bay of Plenty barrister says lawyers have a crucial role to play in the campaign against domestic violence, and understanding the causes and effects can prove vital.

Megan Leaf is one of the faces of a video project coordinated by It’s not OK, a national campaign run by the Ministry of Social Development to prevent family violence through changing attitudes and behaviour.

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Child abuse in state care: Bureaucrats 'believed there was no problem'

There are records showing the government dismissed genuine complaints of child abuse at state institutions for years, a researcher says.

Between the 1950s and 1980s, more than 100,000 children were taken from their parents and put into state institutions and some have since said there was abuse and neglect in their welfare homes.

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Police looking at Chozyn Koroheke's boyfriend for involvement in her fatal shooting

Police have confirmed 22-year-old Chozyn Koroheke was killed in a close-range shooting at her Auckland home.

In a media conference on Thursday afternoon, Detective Senior Sergeant Kevin Tiernan said they believe her boyfriend Turiarangi Tai, also 22, was involved. 

The mother-of-two was shot and died on Tuesday.

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Baby murderer Troy Solomon appeals conviction

A lawyer for a man found guilty of murdering his infant argues the jury in his case was unfairly prejudiced by comments made by an expert at his trial. 

At the Court of Appeal in Auckland on Wednesday lawyer Phil Hamlin also said that intense and "unusual" publicity around the death of toddler Moko Rangitoheriri at the time of the trial for Troy Solomon might have influenced jurors. 

Solomon was found guilty of the murder of his five-month-old daughter Aaliyah Izabella Betty Solomon in June 2016.

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Women demand answers for Family Court failings

Women dealing with the Family Court have come forward to tell a new independent watchdog that the system is failing to keep them, and their children, safe.

They have also come up with a list of 160 questions for the Government, demanding to know why the system is letting them down.

Read more...



Category: News Media