Towards a stronger safety net to prevent abuse of children – a second review
This afternoon we held a press conference with our oversight system partners - the Children's Commissioner and the Ombudsman to launch our second review - Towards a stronger safety net to prevent abuse of children.
This was our first joint press conference, demonstrating the seriousness of this issue to all of us.
Our review is in three parts
The review looks at the implementation of the recommendations of Dame Karen Poutasi following the death of Malachi Subecz.
The review also looks at whether government agencies have done the things they said they would in their own internal reviews. We look at how reports of concern are currently responded to, and if anything is changing after other children die.
We found tamariki (children) are still no safer now than when Malachi died
In October 2025 Government accepted all of Dame Karen’s recommendations and started a cross-agency work programme to implement them. Three weeks ago, a new inter-agency hub for children whose sole parents are in prison was established, and the first phase of mandatory training for core children’s workers got underway.
These are important first steps. Until change happens on the ground and across all communities, tamariki will continue to be no safer.
Of the 14 recommendations made by Dame Karen, only two are complete. One (recommendation 14) was our first review of implementation, the other (recommendation 11) was considered complete as no action was determined to be required.
In three and a half years following Malachi's death, 24 more tamariki were killed by the person meant to be caring for them
We found tamariki continue to fall through gaps in the safety net. Between December 2021 and June 2025, another 24 tamariki were killed by someone meant to be caring for them. Many were babies, most tamariki were under the age of five.
Half of the 24 tamariki were known to Oranga Tamariki – that is, someone had made one or more reports of concern about them. Most of the perpetrators were known to Police.
Even if the gaps are closed, we are not confident Oranga Tamariki will always be able to respond appropriately
We found that even if everything Dame Karen said was needed to close the gaps is done, we are not confident that Oranga Tamariki will be able to respond appropriately.
Beyond responding to Dame Karen’s recommendations, we need urgent improvements to the child protection system so it can respond effectively to reports of concern about the safety of tamariki. Put simply, Oranga Tamariki social workers need to be able to get in the car and go and see a child with their own eyes.
The people reporting concerns include community social workers, police officers, teachers and health staff.
On every monitoring visit we hear from people who are having to make repeated reports of concern to Oranga Tamariki before action is taken.
We also hear from frontline Oranga Tamariki kaimahi (staff) who tell us how concerned they are about the tamariki they are unable to get to. Every day they are making tough decisions, not based on the safety of tamariki but on who they can get to with the level of resourcing they have.
The data shows this too. Despite the number of reports of concern to Oranga Tamariki increasing, the number that local offices take action on has remained relatively constant over the last nine years – at around 40,000.
This is also reflected in the regional variation in response by Oranga Tamariki offices to reports of concern referred by the national contact centre for further action. Some offices take no further action on more than half of reports of concern referred to them for action by the national contact centre. Yet these are reports of concern that were triaged and considered serious enough to warrant a response.
In 2024/25, the Oranga Tamariki national contact centre referred nearly 81,000 reports of concern to local offices for further action. More than 32,000 of these had no further action locally.
New Zealand is far from having a comprehensive response to chid protection
What Dame Karen called for was a child protection system that is always able to respond when needed. She also called for a well-resourced community sector that can help ensure all reports of concern are responded to – providing early intervention, organising support for whānau and preventing issues escalating further. While there are prototypes and pilots demonstrating how this can work, New Zealand is far from having a comprehensive response to child protection.
Arran Jones
Tumu Whakarae | Chief Executive
