The Waitangi Tribunal has on Monday released an interim report on the Government's plan to repeal a section of the Oranga Tamariki Act.
It is in regards to what's known as Section 7AA, which is a clause of the Oranga Tamariki Act that requires the Crown to consider tamariki’s whakapapa and mana when deciding where to place them.
The aim of the policy was to build strategic partnerships with iwi to reduce the disproportionate number of Māori in care.
But the ACT Party campaigned on scrapping it because the party had concerns about reverse uplifts - that's tamariki Māori being removed from foster families they were told would be forever homes to be placed in the care of Māor. It got the promise to scrap it written into its coalition agreement.
An urgent appeal was lodged with the Waitangi Tribunal, but that itself was controversial because it saw the Government take the Tribunal to court last week over the Tribunal's summonsing of the Children's Minister after she refused to appear before it to explain her thinking.
The Tribunal lost but is appealing - that case is being heard on Wednesday.
There's such an urgency about all of this because the introduction of the repeal Bill will take place between May 9 and 13. So that's why the Tribunal has put out an interim report.
That report has slammed the repeal plan saying the Government’s singular focus on the implementation of a commitment made in one of the coalition agreements has caused it to disregard its obligations under the Treaty and it was concerned that the rush to repeal will cause actual harm.
A key point the report made was that the Crown is making a fundamental change without consulting its treaty partner.
The Tribunal is relatively powerless to force the Government to change its actions, but it can make recommendations - which the Government may or may not choose to simply ignore.
