Changes are being made to reduce the number of child removals approved by the Family Court without first giving the child's parents a say.
The head of the Family Court, principal Judge Jacquelyn Moran, gave a statement to 1 NEWS on the progress made following yesterday's Whānau Ora report into baby uplifts by Oranga Tamariki.
Yesterday on TVNZ1's Breakfast, Lady Tureiti Moxon talked about her anger and desire for change after the Māori inquiry into Government agency Oranga Tamariki.
One of the things talked about was ex parte - a legal term for "without notice" - removal of children.
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Lady Moxon said families were "being treated like terrorists", with many babies uplifted from their whānau without any knowledge of anything wrong.
"They come by sleuth in the night and they just uplift and basically this is theft. They're stealing our children from their beds. They're stealing our children from the breasts of their mothers. They're stealing our children from their own whānau, from their hapū and from our iwi."
Judge Moran agreed the system needs to change. She told 1 NEWS they are in the process of making amendments which could allow respondents to be heard on appropriate cases.
"Some months before concerns were highlighted publicly about the case of a Hawke’s Bay mother and baby , which has become the subject of numerous inquiries into Oranga Tamariki processes, as Principal Family Court Judge I had taken steps to change the way the Family Court responds to certain care and protection applications," she said.
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For urgent matters, a Family Court Judge may consider a "without notice" uplift under section 78 of the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989.
Before early last year, under a system designed to ensure swift access to the court for pressing care and protection cases where a child may be in danger, judges dealt with applications remotely using an electronic platform called eDuty until a full hearing could be arranged locally.
"Early last year I determined this should change," Judge Moran said.
"This was particularly in light of what were at the time impending amendments to the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 which came into force in July 2019. These amendments emphasise obligations on the state to engage with whānau, hapū and iwi about potential alternative care arrangements."
The changes included the removal of section 78 urgent applications from the eDuty platform so that wherever possible, the application could be dealt with at local court level from the outset. Each court has a duty judge who is responsible for considering any section 78 applications filed.
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"It means that in appropriate cases, the judge pursues other options for dealing with the application than granting it on a without-notice basis on the papers," Judge Moran said, adding that the change was set in motion early last year and had been rolled out as resources became available to schedule the hearings.
"Although the new process had not been fully implemented at the time, the Hawke’s Bay case came to court through an urgent application from Oranga Tamariki and it was first dealt with on the eDuty platform. For that family a second hearing was convened involving all parties within a matter of days.
"While the new legislation places extra obligations on the court to ensure whānau, hapū and iwi have been given an opportunity to care for babies and children at the centre of these proceedings, I regard the requirements as an opportunity for the court to improve the way it serves the diverse needs of our communities.
"Māori representatives are joining senior judges and me in co-designing further improvements to court processes in care and protection proceedings to ensure that what we do works for Māori families and communities, and that they are, wherever possible, part of the solution."
On Breakfast this morning, Napier lawyer Caroline Hickman, whose specialist area of practice is family law, said "without notice" decisions apply to the Care of Children Act, the Family Violence Act and the Children, Young Persons, and Their Families (Oranga Tamariki) Legislation Act.
However, she said they had been "more readily granted than perhaps they ought to have been".
"I know that the change has been made and implemented to the processors of the Family Court by the principal Family Court judge are designed to try and make sure that every chance is given to have these dealt with letting the parties know if at all possible."
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About 50 ex parte applications are made throughout New Zealand every day in the Family Court, without about three judges scheduled on each day who split up the applications.
Ms Hickman said those judges read the cases on a screen and make "reasonably quick decisions" on whether they meet the criteria.
"In terms of section 78, the principal Family Court judge has said these need to come off the eDuty platform and be dealt with by local judges in a more considered way, and this allows the judge to provide a more nuanced response, to see if there are other ways of dealing with the application.
"In particular, there is an ability for a judge to hold what's called a 'pickwick hearing'. So it's a short snappy hearing within a short time so that parties get heard but a quick decision can still be made to keep a child safe.
"It's definitely an improvement because it means that judges are having to halt, read the applications, spend some time with them, know the local people and decide if there's a different way of dealing with them."
Ms Hickman said Judge Moran and senior judges were also working with Māori representatives to co-design better processes for the Family Court.
"So while the Family Court is governed by legislation, and laws can't be changed by the court, as much as possible the court is looking to see what it can do to improve processes for whānau and children."
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