‘Cognitive dissonance’ over social services cuts

From climate activists and environmentalists to iwi and hapū, the coalition has no shortage of hostile audiences at present.
But a room full of social services providers who are staring down the barrel of as much as $139 million in government funding cuts was about as forbidding as it gets for Karen Chhour.
The Minister for Children, and for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence, was tasked with defending some of the coalition’s most controversial policies at the first day of the National Social Services Conference in Christchurch on Monday.
Chhour started well enough: it was hard to argue with her commitment to “an unapologetic focus on our children and whānau”, nor a suggestion that meant they needed “to live a life free of violence, where homes are filled with love and care”.
The minister also offered cross-party praise to Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson, her predecessor in the family and sexual violence prevention portfolio; Chhour’s statement that Davidson had “started a very important conversation” was somewhat surprising, given Act Party leader David Seymour last year suggested the Green minister was missing in action.
But Chhour’s repeated refrain that “change is hard” started to falter when she fielded questions from the audience on the scale and impact of the Government’s cutbacks.
“We got given more than we gave back – we do not have one dollar less than when we started, so there are no cuts,” the minister said as a number of people in the audience shook their heads.
There was palpable frustration when Chhour said she was unable to comment on concerns about a lack of consultation before cuts were made, or explain how decisions had been made, saying some contracts were still under negotiation.
Asked about the Government’s planned repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act, which requires the agency to uphold the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi through work with iwi and hapū, Chhour said: “No matter who they are, no matter where they come from, all young people, best interests and safety should be the first thing that we’re considering.”
“Our culture is safe,” one audience member yelled out in response, with others joining in to voice their disapproval.
It was little surprise that Social Service Providers Aotearoa chief executive Belinda Himiona opted for the term “cognitive dissonance” to articulate the gap between what providers were being told and what they were seeing on the ground.
Speaking to Newsroom, Himiona expressed gratitude to Chhour for showing up and taking part in a “robust” discussion, but said many organisations remained in the dark on what services the Government intended to fund and to what end.
“We’ve got providers losing contracts where they can show that they have made a massive difference to improve the lives of children and families,” she said, in contrast to the Government’s promotion of an evidence-based ‘social investment’ approach.
Himiona was optimistic about social investment more broadly, but the sector needed to be involved and provide practical input at an early stage.
“The model is one that makes a lot of sense to our sector … it’s in our DNA that we feel we’re doing a good job, but actually being able to prove that to other people is really terrific.”
At the extreme end of the spectrum of cuts is the Family Start programme, with the early home visits initiative set to lose $14m in funding as part of the budget cutbacks.
Kirikiriroa Family Services Trust chief executive Dr Nicole Coupe told Newsroom the 48 providers caught up in the cuts were still figuring out how they would each be individually affected, having not received any new contract terms or started negotiations.
At present, 107 full-time equivalent frontline workers – many early in their careers – were set to lose their jobs.
Coupe said it was hard to square the cuts with Chhour’s insistence that family and sexual violence prevention services had been specifically excluded from funding reviews, with the Kirikiriroa trust set to lose six full-time workers explicitly focused on intensive interventions.
“These are kids that we know … there’s a belief that there’s harm come to them, and that we’re working with them intensively to stop them going into care – so the maths isn’t working out.” 
Wesley Community Action director David Hannah, whose Wellington-based organisation is among those facing cuts, told Newsroom the process had “severed” important relationships between the organisation and the state that were critical to its work. 
However, Hannah said the upheaval had also strengthened relationships within their community, and there was a shared desire to make it through tough times. 
“It’s a luxury to get on and moan: we’ve got whānau really under stress, so we owe it to them to be as creative and innovative and agile as possible.”
While he had sympathy for Chhour given the difficulty of her role, there was a sense of disbelief at her failure to listen to what social services providers were telling her.
“The care system has never been so vulnerable and so under strain as it is now, and I’m speaking 20-plus years’ experience, so we [have to] just create a way forward that just gets some better things on the ground for them, some stability.”
Also hanging over proceedings was the Government’s perceived hostility towards Māori and Te Tiriti, at a time when many social services providers are moving towards a kaupapa Māori approach.
At one point, Chhour was asked how she could speak in front of an array of organisations with Te Tiriti as the base of their work when she didn’t believe in its importance: “I’ve never said I don’t respect the Treaty, and I do respect that, but my job is to take care of all children and that’s what I will do,” the minister replied.
Dr Luke Fitzmaurice-Brown, a law lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington, said the sense of a “siege on all things Māori” was compounding specific issues with resourcing, with a network of iwi and Māori organisations waiting to be called upon to help.
“When the Government talks about needing the prevention part of the child protection system to be supported, there’s a whole Māori infrastructure there that could do that and isn’t currently being supported.”
Fitzmaurice-Brown said the Government’s framing of Te Tiriti compliance being at odds with the safety of children showed how it misunderstood the issue, with the Royal Commission inquiry into abuse in care making it clear that much of the abuse would not have happened if Te Tiriti had been upheld.
Despite the grim climate, there were some signs of optimism.
Coupe was hopeful the Government could be persuaded to change its mind through negotiations, while Himiona said the conference was about fostering a sense of kotahitanga – unity, or togetherness – and establishing a joint strategy.
“We work together with government every day, and there’s an enormous amount we can achieve if we do that together.”
Whether Chhour will make good on her own talk of close collaboration, and how the coalition handles the ongoing negotiations over the provider funding cuts, remains to be seen.