Minister for Children Tracey Martin was in the city yesterday to meet staff at the Dunedin office of the Ministry for Children (Oranga Tamariki) and also visited the youth remand home in Willis St and the Puketai Care and Protection Residence.
Both facilities impressed the minister.
"What I loved about what I’ve seen so far is that both of those facilities are entrenched in the communities so that they are surrounded by average everyday life."
It showed the Dunedin community was not frightened to be part of the solution for the young people at the two facilities, Mrs Martin said.
She was also impressed by the work going on with the young people at the two facilities.
They were well cared for, there was no graffiti and things weren’t broken and trashed, which is what not a lot of people would believeIt reinforced the idea that if young offenders were treated like young people, they would respond well, she said.
On Thursday, the name of the Ministry for Vulnerable Children was changed to the Ministry for Children, a move which drew criticism from the Taxpayers Union which called it political vanity.
But Mrs Martin defended the move and said it was what young people had asked for.
"If the whole philosophy of Oranga Tamariki and the change we’re trying to make is we are going to listen to young people, why would the first thing we do be to ignore the wishes of young people?"
As well as the name change, Mrs Martin said she wanted to give staff the opportunity to be flexible and think differently. As for the big news of the day, Mrs Martin said she was excited about Prime Minster Jacinda Ardern’s announcement she was pregnant.
"I think it’s awesome, I think it’s absolutely brilliant."
She also said the deputy Prime Minister and her party’s leader Winston Peters would have no issue filling in as the acting Prime Minister when Ms Ardern was on maternity leave.
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The difference that the name change will have is it will not be just vulnerable children that the ministry will be trying to control the lives of , but it may extend its power to try to control the circumstances of every child regardless of whether they need state assistance or not.