26 September 2023
James
[email address]
[FYI request #23997 email]
Tena koe James
Thank you for your requests of 29 and 30 August 2023 to Oranga Tamariki-Ministry for
Children (Oranga Tamariki) for information regarding the rapid review undertaken by Mike
Bush. Your requests have been considered under the Official Information Act 1982 (the
Act).
Our expectation is that all Oranga Tamariki facilities are safe, supportive, and
rehabilitative places for some of New Zealand's most vulnerable young people. This is
non-negotiable.
After being informed of two serious allegations involving staff and young people in
residences, Oranga Tamariki Chief Executive Chappe Te Kani asked former Police
Commissioner Mike Bush to temporarily join Oranga Tamariki as Deputy Chief Executive
Residences (Youth Justice and Care and Protection) and Community. This role was
established to provide assurance that tamariki, rangatahi and our kaimahi are safe and
the community can have confidence that we are doing the job we need to be doing.
Mr Bush in his DCE capacity commissioned a small independent team to undertake a
rapid review of our residences and our Oranga Tamariki-run community homes. The
report from the review, as well as our response, are available on our website here.
I have addressed each of your questions below.
All communications including but not limited to texts, emails, etc relating to Mike
Bush notifying Oranga Tamariki that he would be absent for 3 weeks of the rapid
review and the reason for his absence.
The date of when Oranga Tamariki was
first notified Mr Bush would be absent
during the review.
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Mr Bush advised Chief Executive Chappie Te Kani verbally on 18 June 2023 that he
would be overseas due to a prior commitment. This period was not considered an
absence as Mr Bush worked remotely. There is no written communication regarding this.
Date of when a draft report of the rapid review was completed.
Date of when Oranga Tamariki was provided with a copy of the draft rapid review.
Date of when the final rapid review was completed.
A working draft of the review was provided to the Chief Executive on 24 August 2023.
The final report was provided on 19 September 2023, the report was subsequently
released on 21 September 2023 and is available on the Oranga Tamariki website.
Under the OJA please detail the total cost of the 8 week Rapid Review of Oranga
Tamariki conducted by Mike Bush and his team.
As at 30 August 2023, the total cost of the review was $85,191. This includes travel
expenses associated with visiting residences and community homes, and consultant fees.
Please detail all fees, monies paid to Mike Bush or companies associated with
Mike Bush from October 2017 through to August 28th 2023.
Information regarding Oranga Tamariki spending on contractors and consultants for the
past five financial years was included in the responses to supplementary questions as
part of the 2023/24 Estimates for Vote Oranga Tamariki, which is published on the New
Zealand Parliament website here.
Please refer to the answer to Question 95 (page 146). In 2021 Bush International
Consulting was contracted for an independent review and report on Korowai Manaaki
Youth Justice residence. The contract had a total cost of $70,900.
Please detail the length of contract/term Mike Bush will be in the role of Oranga
Tamariki deputy chief executive.
Mike Bush is employed on a six-month fixed term contract which commenced on 23 June
2023.
Please detail any fees paid to Mike Bush for his role of Oranga Tamariki deputy
chief executive this should include weekly/monthly salary, any bonuses, special
pay etc.
Please detail if any fees were paid to Mike Bush while he was overseas recently
for 3 weeks, if so, what was
the amount and for what role/duties, and was
this was
amount reduced in any way to compensate not being being in NZ? If so,
what was
the rate paid reduced from?
Page 2 of 3
.
Mr Bush is not paid fees, rather he is on a fixed-term contract with Oranga Tamariki. To
protect privacy, Oranga Tamariki does not release information regarding an individual's
employment terms and conditions, including salary information. Therefore, this part of
your request is refused under section 9(2)(a) of the Act, as the withholding of this
information is necessary to protect the privacy of natural persons. I have considered the
countervailing public interest in releasing this information; however I do not believe this
outweighs the need to withhold this information.
To satisfy public interest regarding the salaries of Oranga Tamariki staff, the salary levels
of all staff (in $10,000 bands) are provided each year as part of Parliament's annual
review of central government organisations. Please refer to the answer to Question 94 of
the 2021/22 Annual Review of Oranga Tamariki, which is available on the New Zealand
Parliament website here.
I trust the information provided is useful. I encourage you to raise any concerns about this
response with us directly by contacting OIA [email address]. Alternatively, you are
advised of your right to also raise any concerns with the Office of the Ombudsman by
contacting them on 0800 802 602 or www.ombudsman.parliament.nz.
Naku noa, na
Phil Grady
Te Tumu Whakarae o Oranga Tamariki
Acting Secretary for Children / Acting Chief Executive
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Document Outline
