Jo Moir
Political editor
The
Prime Minister has apologised to both the mother and her
children who spent almost four years isolated in the bush
with their father, Tom Phillips.
A fulsome report by
Honourable Justice Simon Moore KC was
made public on Tuesday, more than a year after Phillips
died in a police shootout in rural Waikato.
It found
the concerns of maternal whānau of the children were
“minimised or overlooked by agencies for significant
periods” and a more collaborative approach from Oranga
Tamariki (OT) and NZ Police “could have prevented the
children’s disappearance and brought them back
sooner”.
Christopher Luxon did not attend the press
conference at Parliament alongside minister in charge of the
inquiry Louise Upston, Police Commissioner Richard Chambers,
and OT chief executive Amanda Malu.
On Wednesday
afternoon on his way into Question Time he told reporters
the inquiry had made clear some of the actions by the
agencies involved hadn’t been handled well.
“So there
were missed opportunities, and we’re sorry about that, and
we’re sorry about the impact that it’s had on those
children.”
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Luxon said he had read the 200-page report
and it was clear there were opportunities “for us to
improve”.
When it was put to him that the mother of
the three children had spent years warning agencies about
Phillips and hadn’t been listened to, Luxon said for that he
was sorry.
“I’m genuinely sorry about that.
“I’m
genuinely also sorry about the children that were let down
through this process that spent four years in the
bush.”
This week Luxon spoke on the phone with the
police officer who was critically wounded in the shootout
with Phillips, who is still undergoing a long
recovery.
Asked why he hadn’t met with the mother of
the children involved, Luxon said “it’s entirely appropriate
that the operational heads of the agencies do so”.
He
said both Chambers and Malu had made it clear they were
“comfortable sitting down with the mother and meeting with
her” and that was the best way to deal with
that.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins told reporters on
Wednesday he still hadn’t read the full report but the
“lowlights” he had seen were “very sobering”.
On
whether Luxon should have fronted the apology and press
conference on Tuesday, Hipkins said he would have if he was
prime minister.
“What he does is up to him… he’s
failed to show leadership for the last three
years.
“I’m not sure why New Zealanders would expect
that from him now,” he
said.
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