The resignation of Oranga Tamariki chief executive Grainne Moss today followed months of scrutiny due to her presiding over a policy that removed vulnerable, predominantly Māori, children from their mothers and placed them into state care.
Photo: RNZ/Rebekah Parsons-King
Here is how her controversial tenure unfolded:
- 31 March 2017: Child, Youth and Family is folded into Oranga Tamariki/Ministry for Children, which has its first day of operation under Moss.
- 8 May 2019: News outlet Newsroom publishes 'Don't take my baby', an article by investigations editor Melanie Reid detailing a standoff between Oranga Tamariki and midwives, lawyers and whānau over the attempted removal of a newborn baby from its mother at Hawke's Bay Hospital.
- 10 May 2019: Moss defends how her staff handled the Hawke's Bay case, calling their approach caring and empathetic. The Māori midwife who fought to prevent a young mother from having her baby taken away accuses Oranga Tamariki of bullying and racism in their approach.
- 11 June 2019: Newsroom publishes a documentary capturing the May incident at Hawke's Bay Hospital.
- 17 June 2019: Minister for Children Tracey Martin announces an internal inquiry into Oranga Tamariki's process with the Hawke's Bay family.
- 19 June 2019: The Ombudsman announces a 'wide ranging' investigation into Oranga Tamariki.
- 21 June 2019: Protests against the removal of babies by Oranga Tamariki begin in Christchurch.
- 28 June 2019: Oranga Tamariki, under pressure over taking Māori babies from their whānau, releases its statistics in the interests of transparency, showing the practice has increased since 2014 and more than half of those taken are Māori.
- 1 July 2019: The Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Legislation Act comes into force, mandating that Oranga Tamariki provide practical commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and offer support for young adults up to age 25. It is the first time the treaty has been mentioned in New Zealand legislation relating to children. Children's commissioner Andrew Becroft calls the changes significant but warns that "nothing short of a revolution will do".
- 5 July 2019: Detailed figures from Oranga Tamariki reveal eight instances in six months where its staff have harmed children in care.
- 22 July 2019: A grandmother is granted custody of her six-month-old mokopuna after a long battle with Oranga Tamariki in one of the first uses of an amendment to the Oranga Tamariki Act imposed earlier in the month.
- 30 July 2019: Hundreds of people protest around the country calling for Oranga Tamariki to stop taking children from their families. More than 300 people participate in handing over an open letter at Parliament.
- 23 August 2019: Ngāi Tūhoe sign an agreement with Oranga Tamariki so the ministry will notify the iwi of any tamariki with Tūhoe whakapapa coming into their care.
- 6 September 2019: Two people are arrested during the taking of a newborn baby by Oranga Tamariki at Auckland Hospital.
- 1 October 2019: Figures released to RNZ show there had been 99 reports of assaults on Oranga Tamariki social workers in five years, with 39 of those in the past year, and suspicion of far more going unreported.
- 7 November 2019: An internal Oranga Tamariki review into the incident finds that although safety concerns for the baby meant Oranga Tamariki did the right thing to get involved, mistakes were made in how it worked with the family and other partners. "I think we have caused hurt and harm, and I'm deeply, deeply sorry about that," Moss tells RNZ in an interview.
- 8 November 2019: Prominent Māori leader Merepeka Raukawa-Tait, chair of the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency, calls for Oranga Tamariki to be shut down.
- 16 January 2020: Official figures show Māori babies were five times more likely than non-Māori babies to be taken into state care, and their rate of urgent entries into state care has doubled since 2010.
- 31 January 2020: Oranga Tamariki backs Ngāti Porou's whānau-based approach to stop any more of their tamariki going into state care by 2025, but won't commit to new funding for it.
- 3 February 2020: Māori-led investigation into Oranga Tamariki chaired by Dame Naida Glavish calls for a complete overhaul of the ministry, saying there have been unprecedented breaches of human rights and inhumane treatment of Māori women. It says the Crown, through Oranga Tamariki, is failing to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
- 24 February 2020: Ministry's new "uplifts" complaints team reports it is already reviewing 17 cases.
- 25 March 2020: Alert level-four Covid-19 nationwide lockdown begins.
- 3-4 June 2020: Children's Minister Tracey Martin says she was never "officially asked" to do anything about the Māori-led inquiry into Oranga Tamariki and was told by Dame Naida Glavish she was not required to respond. Dame Naida is appalled Martin has "abdicated her responsibility to her portfolio" with a throwaway comment like that.
- 8 June 2020: Children's Commissioner Andrew Becroft releases first part of Te Kuku o te Manawa report detailing the experiences of mothers whose children have been taken from them. Dame Tariana Turia calls for Moss to resign. Moss and Children's Minister Tracey Martin refuse to be interviewed about the report.
- 12 June 2020: A Māori trust and a senior health board member say they stopped a removal at Waitākere Hospital that morning.
- 1 July 2020: Newsroom reports claims from multiple anonymous sources that the culture at Oranga Tamariki is toxic and staff do not always put children first. The ministry says there has been a major drop in the number of Māori taken into state care, but advocates say little has changed.
- 3 July 2020: Dame Naida Glavish renews calls for Moss to resign.
- 30 July 2020: Moss's office reports Oranga Tamariki has had its lowest rate of Māori taken into state care since 2004.
- 6 August 2020: A report by the Chief Ombudsman, 'He Take Kōhukihuki, A Matter of Urgency', finds that Oranga Tamariki was routinely taking newborns without whānau consultation by using emergency court orders. Moss tells RNZ she was "deeply sorry". Māori leaders say they have no faith in the agency and call for Moss to resign.
- 13 October 2020: Oranga Tamariki's Kaitaia office is barricaded and staff work from home after verbal abuse and intimidation from protesters who want the agency shut down.
- 7 November 2020: Children's Minister Kelvin Davis declines to say whether he has confidence in Moss.
- 23 November 2020: Children's Commissioner Andrew Becroft releases second part of the report Te Kuku O Te Manawa, calling on Oranga Tamariki to end urgent removals of tamariki and pēpi Māori from hospitals, urging the government to commit to a transfer of power to Māori and detailing a slew of personal reports from midwives.
- 25 November 2020: Moss again refuses to resign, but acknowledges that Oranga Tamariki is yet to eliminate structural racism or fully adopt the recommendations of a 1998 report.
- 26 November 2020: Davis rebukes Whānau Ora minister Peeni Henare for speculating in a television interview two days prior that Moss "may be vacating in a couple of hours".
- 14 December 2020: Oranga Tamariki deputy chief executive Hoani Lambert resigns, but Moss says she is staying on and has the full confidence of her team.
- 22 January 2021: Moss steps down.