Karen Chhour breaks silence, promises end to siloed agencies after Malachi Subecz death

Minister for Children Karen Chhour has spoken to Ryan Bridge about the death of Malachi Subecz.

Minister for Children Karen Chhour has broken her silence on the death of “invisible child” Malachi Subecz, promising to bring an end to the agency siloing that informed his murder.

Malachi’s mother had placed him in the care of her friend Michaela Barriball while she was imprisoned on drug charges in 2021, to the distress of the boy’s extended family.

He would be killed by Barriball after just under five months in her care, prompting a review by Dame Karen Poutasi in 2022 that recommended system-wide changes.

A coroner’s report into the 5-year-old’s murder released this week concluded the implementation of Poutasi’s recommendations was too slow.

Though Chhour said earlier this week she was too busy to respond to questions about the report, this morning she told Ryan Bridge TODAY she refuses to accept the continuing deaths of children in care.

“Agencies are siloing and this poor boy had so many touch points at his time of death. Different agencies across government had little pieces of information, but because they weren’t sharing them, the whole picture wasn’t seen, and unfortunately worst-case scenario happened and he became what you call the invisible child.”

Chhour said it was “unacceptable” that children were slipping through the cracks and it was clear the siloing “has to stop”.

With 4000 to 4500 young people in Oranga Tamariki’s care, and an average of one child dying every five weeks, she said significant work is already underway to bring the agencies together in one wraparound system.

“It’s not just up to Oranga Tamaraki as an agency to deal with this. We have education, we have health, we have mental health services, we have social services.

“We have to make sure that those services are actually producing results for these young people. That’s what I’ve been concentrating on, and we’re starting to see the results of agencies working together making a difference.”

A new inter-agency hub has been established to deal with reports of concern, an initiative Chhour hopes will help ensure at-risk children are being monitored.

“There could be a few hundred kids a year that fall into this category, and this hub is designed so that the agencies are talking to each other and making sure that those young people are sighted, seen, we know where they are and we know they’re safe.”