The two inquiries focused on what became known as the ‘Hastings Uplift’ by Oranga Tamariki. This involved an attempted uplifting of a baby without notice under a section 78 custody order in May 2019. The mother’s first child had been taken into care and despite her attempts throughout the pregnancy to prove to Oranga Tamariki that she would be a good mother, Oranga Tamariki staff went to Hawke’s Bay Hospital to take the six-day-old baby from her.
A Waitangi Tribunal report later described the attempted uplift as follows: The ’notify–investigate model – coupled with a child rescue imperative – inevitably results in over-surveillance and disproportionate intervention and harm to whānau Māori, and to other communities who may be struggling with entrenched inequality and poverty. We have tried to describe how such a system can also lead a range of State employees (including Māori staff) to act on occasion in harmful and apparently inhumane ways, simply because they have a court order to implement.’[i]