Tania Williams Blyth
The original 1989 Oranga Tamariki Act (formerly the Children, Young Persons and their Families Act) is considered by many, including Children’s Commissioner and former Principal Youth Court Judge Andrew Becroft, to be a worldleading piece of legislation.
It placed great importance on Ma¯ ori being raised within wha¯ nau, hapu¯ and iwi, and recognised Ma¯ ori culture as part of the solution.
But perhaps the law was too ambitious. Partnership with
JOHN COWPLAND/STUFF
Ma¯ ori, on the scale needed to effect change, did not happen. Proper funding did not eventuate, and by 2013 the number of Ma¯ ori children in state care had ballooned by 20 per cent. Conversely, more white people were now getting to keep their children; Pa¯ keha kids in care dropped by 20 per cent.
Meanwhile, there had been no meaningful government drive to address child abuse and neglect.
This changed with the Children’s Action Plan in 2013, when a raft of changes ostensibly designed to protect children from abusive parents was passed.
The new law reversed the burden of proof, introducing the idea of ‘‘subsequent children’’ that a parent must demonstrate they can care for. It also gave foster parents the right to restrict birth parents’ access to children, through special guardianship orders.
Around then, Rotorua family lawyer Tania Williams Blyth realised her clients were often the fourth generation of families with experience of state care.
For Williams Blyth, a lawyer