A new review by Aroturuki Tamariki - the Independent Children’s Monitor has found tamariki are “still no safer now than when Malachi died,” revealing a further 24 child deaths at the hands of carers since 2021.
The second review into the implementation of recommendations made by Dame Karen Poutasi following the death of Malachi Subecz found significant gaps remain in the child protection system.
Between December 2021 and June 2025, another 24 tamariki were killed by someone meant to be caring for them, the review showed.
Many were babies, and most were under five years old. Half of the 24 tamariki were known to Oranga Tamariki, and most of the perpetrators were known to Police.
Aroturuki Tamariki Chief Executive, Arran Jones, says progress has been slow.
“18 months on from its first review, three years on from Dame Karen’s report and four years on from Malachi’s death, work is just beginning,” he said.
Of the 14 recommendations made by Dame Karen, only two are complete.
“These are important first steps. Until change happens on the ground and across all communities, tamariki will continue to be no safer,” says Mr Jones.
The review also found that even if all recommendations were implemented, confidence in the system remains low.
“Our review also 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.”
Jones says urgent frontline improvements are needed.
“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.” Jones said.
Data in the report shows that while reports of concern to Oranga Tamariki have increased, the number acted on has remained relatively constant at around 40,000 per year over the past nine years.
In 2024/25, nearly 81,000 reports of concern were referred to local offices for further action, but more than 32,000 had no further action taken locally.
‘Our babies are unsafe’ Opposition MPs respond strongly to the findings.
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer says the review “shows that the state is still in a disgusting position, that our babies are unsafe.”
She says the current system is failing vulnerable children.
“Nothing that Karen Chhour [Minister for Children] or anyone else is doing at the moment is going to stop that type of suffering and pain and risk that we see for our children.”
Ngarewa-Packer says responsibility should be devolved to iwi and communities.
“The government isn’t the right place, the state isn’t the right place to be looking after our babies, and it needs to be devolved out to iwi and out to the communities as fast as possible.
“We were involved with Malachi’s family at the time in 21, and nothing has changed. Nothing has changed,” she said.
Green Party MP Kahurangi Carter says the report confirms ongoing inaction.
“The report outlines again that there has been no changes since he was killed. This is not good enough. Our tamariki are our most precious taonga, and we need to take that seriously.”
Carter questioned the wider impacts of recent funding decisions and staffing cuts.
“We saw the report last week from the Salvation Army, which showed that violence against children in Aotearoa has increased since the Minister slashed funding to child safety organisations and to Oranga Tamariki, cutting around 400 staff.
“Is this a minister who is taking child safety seriously? Well, we only have to look at these reports to see that our kids deserve better. and they deserve to be safe in Aotearoa. What kind of country are we if we can’t protect our most precious taonga, our Tamaraki?” Carter said.
However, ACT leader David Seymour defended Children’s Minister Karen Chhour.
“All I know is that until New Zealand gets to the stage where we live up to our rhetoric when it comes to protecting children, then we’re failing. And Malachi has become a very sad emblem of that national failure.”
Seymour described Chhour as “the most caring Minister for Children we’ve ever had.”
“She’s the only one that’s visited all 58 facilities of Oranga Tamariki. No one has done that before, and yes, she is implementing the parts of that review.”
He added that differences between reviewers and frontline workers and officials are inevitable.
“The person that writes the review is going to have one list, and the person that has to do the work is going to look at that and say, yeah, we’ll do that, no, we won’t do that, and that’s where you get to a result,” says Seymour.
However, Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi questioned the harm and implications of not implementing all of those recommendations.
“That’s not caring at all. What that tells us is that you’re just going to continue the agenda of your government and this particular coalition that continues to hurt, you know, vulnerable children in those particular spaces.
“It’s just a continuous conveyor belt of pain and suffering that our families have to face and that we know for a fact, we’ve been calling for it ever since we’ve got into Parliament, is that what we need to see an end to Oranga Tamariki and those resources given out to our communities to be able to do a lot better job than the state has been doing for a long time,” Waititi said.
