In this week's Focus on Politics, Political Reporter Lillian Hanly examines the coalition policy of repealing section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act, and the resulting backlash.

"I don't know why we ended up going to select committee if there was no intention to listen to the experts" - Tracey Martin

The repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act was front and centre at Parliament this week, with former Minister in charge of the legislation Tracey Martin telling the government to rethink its approach.

After the mammoth Abuse in Care report, she and many other voices are calling for 7AA to remain.

Reports and studies over the years have outlined how the state child protection service had been failing Māori especially. Section 7AA was added to the Oranga Tamariki Act in 2019 to directly address this harm.

It imposes an obligation on the ministry's chief executive to recognise Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and to develop strategic partnerships with iwi and Māori organisations. This means aiming to prevent Māori children coming into care, or ensuring those who do retain connection to their whakapapa - and reporting publicly on that each year.

The move to repeal 7AA is ACT party policy, its website calling for "colourblind, child-centric state care". It claims children have been removed from safe homes because their foster parents were "the 'wrong' race" due to 7AA. But analysis by Oranga Tamariki says that is not the case.

Submitters to the select committee argue the problems ACT points to are caused by a lack of funding, not legislation or policy. Children's Minister Karen Chhour (ACT) says the ministry is going through a restructure to help with that, and "what they also need to be very clear is that safety and wellbeing comes first". …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details