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How refreshing it is to have a politician speak plainly and truthfully about where the issue really lies.
National MP Judith Collins has attacked suggestions of institutional racism at Oranga Tamariki, the Ministry for Children.
“It’s a real insult to the social workers who work so hard to try and keep children safe,” Collins said on the AM Show on Friday, when asked if there was institutional racism at the ministry.
“People have been abusing their children, hurting them, killing them in some cases, and the Family Court is involved in all these uplifts.
“It’s not like social workers are wandering around the corridors of maternity hospitals looking for children. A Family Court judge has gone through and said this child needs to be kept safe from this particular family,” she said.
“I actually think that it’s good to hear some people saying they want to take some responsibility. I’ll tell you what, just stop beating up kids, and you won’t need Oranga Tamariki.”
Stuff
When Labour MP Willie Jackson was asked if child abuse and maltreatment was a Maori problem replied: “Of course not, it’s a New Zealand problem.” He also jumped on the racism bandwagon claiming that “there’s an institutional racism that’s been in place for a long, long time” inside Oranga Tamariki.
The statistics on child abuse and even the child abuse news articles that we read every month tell us that it is very much a Maori problem. They are hugely over-represented in the statistics despite being a smaller percentage of the population.
It is not the fault of Oranga Tamariki that child abuse happens. As Judith Collins bluntly said, Oranga Tamariki would not be needed if kids were not being beaten up.
The only people who can stop these children from being abused are their families. They are the ones who are responsible and they are the ones that need to change. It is an inconvenient truth because people would rather scapegoat Oranga Tamariki than take responsibility but it is the truth nevertheless.
