If we’re debating how to create the best possible laws to reduce drugharm, for example, we should, whichever side of the fence you’re on, be able to agree that substances can cause harm, especially if used to excess. Accepting that basic premise means we should then be able to have the far more useful discussion about how best to reduce that harm. We should look at the evidence of what’s worked and what has not. We could even talk about our values, and what those mean in practice.
Debates are unproductive when someone denies basic facts.
In our current political climate, internationally and at home, it unfortunately feels like concerns of growing political “polarisation” are morphing into fundamental misalignments of perceived reality.
That should give us all – regardless of where you sit on the political spectrum – serious pause.
It should not be controversial to state that Māori, as a group, are impacted today by colonisation, dispossession of land and resources and the dishonouring of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
You can go on to argue with me all you like about whether you think the Government should do anything about those impacts which see Māori overrepresented in almost every negative statistic in society. But to try to dismiss how our state was formed, and the impacts of it, is to deny reality.
We should be brave enough to reflect on the ramifications of decisions made historically and to this day to understand how that shapes the world around us. We can own our history and we can do better.
It outlines, through thousands and thousands of pages of evidence and testimony, how at least 200,000 young people were abused in state and faith-based institutions from 1950 to 1999.
These landmark findings spell out that through the 1950s and 1980s, tamariki, rangatahi, pakeke and wāhine Māori as well as Pacific peoples were all disproportionately targeted, monitored and therefore placed into care by the police and other state agencies.
They tell us that in the 1950s through the 1970s, many unmarried and pregnant girls and women were placed in faith-based homes, often having their babies taken from them and adopted out – in ways that were discriminatory and, for Māori, legally severed their ties to whakapapa and identity.
All of this underscores what almost doesn’t need to be said, but must be, if our Parliament is serious about its apology.
The attitudes that we have about the worthiness of people and groups of people inform and create policies that can, and do, cause real-world harm. We are at severe risk of this harm continuing to compound if we do not reconcile our history and commit to genuine justice.
Māori make up approximately 15% of the population of our country.
Yet over the past decade, tamariki Māori have accounted for more than half of all children entering state care. Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act, introduced by the former National-led Government, puts in place bare minimum requirements to uphold Te Tiriti in practice.
Christopher Luxon’s Government is mercilessly focused on repealing it. Their argument is that they are focused on the wellbeing of children. There is no evidence whatsoever the Government can produce that Section 7AA is undermining the wellbeing of children. The vast majority of submitters have outlined clear evidence and examples where the law has improved children’s wellbeing.
Then there’s the boot camps. In 2005, then-Labour leader Phil Goff said, “The boot camp idea is not new. It was tried for 21 years as Corrective Training and failed spectacularly, with a 94.5% re-offending rate.”
Chlöe Swarbrick is the Green Party co-leader.
In 2008, the former National-led Government still went ahead and introduced them, with an 85% to 87% reoffending rate in the following two years.
In 2024, the National-led Government is reintroducing them, just a few weeks after the Abuse in Care Inquiry detailed how these environments are hotbeds for abuse of power and survivors pleaded for the idea to be scrapped.
Nine of the 10 children in this “pilot” are Māori. Ngāti Te Rangitepāia, mana whenua in Palmerston North, have made clear that they were not consulted.
There’s no joy in young people’s lives being ruined if these boot camps fail, as the evidence makes clear they’re very, very likely to. There’s no fun in less oversight and cultural consideration for tamariki Māori who continue to be grossly over-represented in state care.
So what exactly are the political aims here? Deny basic facts and hope for the best, against the tidal wave of evidence, history and experience? Our children deserve better.
