Deep south ‘forgotten by Government’
“Invercargill is a high-needs area forgotten by this Government,” Labour MP Ingrid Leary says. The buddy MP for Invercargill made the statement after news that a hiring freeze had left Oranga Tamariki with no lawyers in Gisborne or Southland. The Southland lawyer had resigned from Oranga Tamariki for personal reasons and an Oranga Tamariki spokesperson said the region was being supported by the Dunedin legal team. But Leary said the team, who are based 2½ hours away, were already under pressure. Oranga Tamariki employs lawyers who work with vulnerable children across the country, often in the youth and family courts. The ministry was among those going through a formal organisational change proposal that involved 632 roles being disestablished – including 70 vacant roles – with 185 new roles created. Almost all government departments have been asked to find savings of between 6.5% and 7.5%. The Law Society and Oranga Tamariki staff have warned the hiring freeze would put children at risk as the team was regularly called on to urgently respond to child safety concerns and abuse in state care. Many legal teams were already short staffed, staff said. Oranga Tamariki did not answer questions about how many lawyers it should be employing in Southland. People culture and enabling services deputy chief executive Caz Anderson said when vacancies came up, the ministry would assess the level of work and resources required before deciding the appropriate course of action. “In some cases, work is redistributed across the workforce. For example, the Dunedin Legal Team is supporting our Southland site, while our Southland lawyer transitions out of employment with Oranga Tamariki,” Anderson said. Legal Services played an important role in advising the statutory options available and what was necessary to protecting children’s wellbeing, but social workers were ultimately responsible for assessing the wellbeing of tamariki and addressing care and protection needs, she said. “To do this, they draw on our organisation’s practice, policies, guidance, and tools. The safety of tamariki and rangatahi will always be our absolute priority.” Law Society family law section chairperson Lauren Pegg told RNZ that the society held “significant concerns for the impact of these proposed changes on vulnerable children and young people, as well as the proper functioning of the Family Court”. “The services these lawyers provide cannot simply be carried out by others in the organisation, for example social workers, who already face complex and heavy workloads,” she said. Pegg said affected lawyers and their colleagues would also be stressed by the cuts and that presented an “ongoing risk to their wellbeing, and the wellbeing of those who may be left to deal with the aftermath of such decisions”. Leary said she was working with a Southland parent concerned about a child living outside the family, but added, “social media here is also going off”. One frustrated Southlander took to Reddit, writing about having to give the state partial custody of a child with significant mental health needs to make sure she could get access to the support she couldn’t get at home. “Lawyers from outside of the region are having to take turns filling in on cases they’re unfamiliar with to make sure that tamariki still get a good outcome when it goes to court,” the person posted. Lawyers often worked into the night securing court custody and care orders when children were in imminent danger, Leary said. She pointed to research by Te Rourou One Aotearoa Foundation that showed 23% of rangatahi in Invercargill experienced deprivation and exclusion in 2021; above the national average of 20%. “Many have complex needs and often involve OT intervention including lawyers representing their interest,” Leary said. The hiring freeze also impacted on the proper functioning of Family Court, she said. “We need informed and timely decisions. This National Government has once again forgotten the people of the deep south.”