Oranga Tamariki to shut Te Oranga facility after leaked video of child assault

The Oranga Tamariki care and protection residence in Christchurch where a young person was reportedly tackled and held in a headlock will be temporarily closed.

The video posted this week on the Newsroom website showed a young person being surrounded by staff, tackled, restrained and held in a headlock at one of the ministry’s care and protection facilities.

Since then, some staff have been stood down and Children’s Minister Kelvin Davis admitted the system was broken.

The agency’s chief executive, Sir Wira Gardiner, said the leaked video was one of the reasons that led to the decision to close down Te Oranga.

… including preliminary investigations, I want to know what happened, why it happened and why our processes didn’t work and a range of other questions.

Sir Wira Gardiner

As we saw in the video earlier this week the restraints that was used by members of my staff appear to be excessive force and that’s being investigated by the police right now.

Sir Wira Gardiner

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