Mark Dawson: Law has child's interests at heart

Mark Dawson.

Tariana Turia is threatening to march on Parliament in protest against Children, Young Persons and Families legislation she feels is disadvantaging Maori.

She need not put her walking boots on.

The legislation, part of the huge overhaul of the services for at-risk children, includes a slight shift of emphasis which has raised the hackles of some in Maoridom.

Under current legislation social workers must look to the extended whanau and hapu to place Maori children who have been taken into care.

The issue is that new proposals would give social workers and agencies greater legal power to determine who will raise Maori children who have been uplifted from family.

Dame Tariana is concerned that they will have the power to decide who is whanau to children, while Sir Edward Durie said the bill in its present form would reduce the right of Maori to place children into a family within the whanau.

In all these cases - and that has been emphasised with the radical restructuring of these services - the priority must be what is best for the child.

What is best can vary according to your perspective and there is an argument that being raised by family members and in an appropriate cultural environment has many positives.
In reality, this is what social workers look to first.

But that does not mean that it is always best for the child.

With six out of every 10 children in state care being Maori, there is clearly need for an objective, case-by-case assessment.

And that is what the professionals at the soon-to-be Ministry for Vulnerable Children (Oranga Tamariki) are trained to do and will be charged with doing.

If the best solution for a Maori child is a non-Maori household, then so be it.

There is a lot of emotion around children who have been removed from their parents and are in need of new homes, but it needs to be put aside when life-changing decisions are made.

- Mark Dawson is editor of the Wanganui Chronicle.