The Front Page podcast: Baby uplifts - what needs to change to protect vulnerable children?

Oranga Tamariki works to keep vulnerable children from harm. Photo / 123RF

Each week The Front Page takes you behind the scenes of the biggest story from the New Zealand Herald and Newstalk ZB. Today it's the disturbing stories coming out about Oranga Tamariki. Hosted by Frances Cook.

Four inquiries are under way into Oranga Tamariki, the organisation that is supposed to keep vulnerable children safe from harm.

There was video of a highly distressing baby uplift, and since then, plenty of other worrying stories have come out of the woodwork.

Over the weekend, Māori from across the country packed out an Auckland hui for the launch of one of the inquiries into Oranga Tamariki.

Organisers said being Māori-led would make it easier for some participants who had been dealing with Oranga Tamariki their entire lives to open up.

Meanwhile a Herald investigation uncovered another failing, after a judge strongly criticised Oranga Tamariki for planning to send the child of a drug-trafficking mother back to the country of his birth, despite evidence criminal gangs might sell him to cover his parent's debts.

To get to the bottom of what's going wrong, and what's being suggested to fix it, on the latest Front Page podcast I talk to Newstalk ZB's Jake McKee and Herald investigative journalist David Fisher.

For the interview, watch the video.

For more on David Fisher's investigation, click here.

If you have questions about Herald investigations, or want to stay up to date on social media, you can find host Frances Cook on Facebook here, Instagram here and Twitter here.