May: When Systems Shift, WhAnau Must Stay at the Centre
As we move through 2025, new policy settings are being introduced that will shape how our most vulnerable communities are supported — or, in some cases, further stretched. At Fathers For Families, we sit at the coalface of whanau restoration. Every day, we walk alongside men navigating trauma, justice systems, and the long road back to trust.
This moment in time presents both a challenge and an opportunity: to reflect on whether our national systems are walking with whanau — or simply walking over them in pursuit of targets.
Below is a reflection from our Operations & Programme Manager, Eli Tulafono, who shares his whakaaro on how change can be approached with compassion, accountability, and cultural grounding — values that sit at the heart of everything we do.
Opinion Piece: When Policy Punishes Pain – A Call for Compassionate Reform
When you work alongside men navigating family violence, trauma, and broken systems, you come to realise something quickly: behaviour is always a response to pain.
At Fathers For Families (FFF), we’ve seen what’s possible when men are met not with shame, but with hope. We and many other NGO`s walk with fathers who’ve been written off — by their families, the courts, even themselves — and help them rewrite the story. The changes we witness are real: safer homes, reconnected whanau, tamariki who are finally proud of their dad.
That’s why the Government’s newly announced welfare reforms give us pause. While the intention to support people into employment is clear, the tools being proposed raise concerns about how well they reflect the lived realities of the communities we work with.
From 26 May 2025, Jobseeker Support recipients may face new non-financial sanctions — including restricted payment cards, mandatory community placements, weekly reporting, and compulsory upskilling — all enforced under the risk of benefit cancellation. While framed as supportive, these measures may place unintended pressure on whanau already navigating complex barriers.
We believe it’s important to ask:
Are these changes creating meaningful pathways, or simply moving people through more hoops?
For many of our fathers, it’s a system that echoes past wounds. These new requirements risk becoming more about surveillance than transformation. The risk is not non-compliance — it's disconnection.
We already know who stands to be most impacted: Maori and Pasifika men, solo parents, the disabled, those healing from violence or struggling with addiction. In our experience, change comes through trust, support, and dignity — not pressure and performance.
Imagine being a single mother balancing training, community placements, job applications, and child-rearing — without transport or childcare. Or a father recently released from prison, trying to rebuild whanau ties while also satisfying weekly compliance tasks. These are not hypotheticals — they are our daily realities.
We know the value of supportive systems. We see it every week:
We see it when a man completes our 14-week family harm programme and says, "This is the first time I’ve seen myself clearly." When our Walk & Talk group becomes the only space where a father feels safe to open up.
When tikanga, spiritual grounding, and honest accountability come together to strengthen the whole whanau — not just the individual.
We also understand the importance of economic participation — but we know it must be built on a foundation of readiness, wellbeing, and relationship.
The Government has projected that 50,000 fewer people will be on Jobseeker Support by 2030. However, with Aotearoa’s birth rate in decline for several years, fewer young people are entering the workforce naturally. The target may well be met, but not necessarily through transformative change — more likely through policy settings that shift people off the register rather than into meaningful employment.
We must ask: Are we reducing poverty, or just the appearance of it?
As a nation, we have an opportunity to do this differently.
To resource whanau-led, peer-supported, kaupapa Maori, kaupapa Pasifika and faith-informed initiatives.
To walk alongside our people, rather than lead with compliance.
To measure success not only in reduced numbers, but in restored relationships, safer homes, and stronger tamariki.
We’re not opposed to reform — we’re in favour of reform that works. Reform that listens. Reform that includes.
Our ask is simple: ensure that policy is grounded in real-world insight. Engage with those who live this mahi. Trust community providers who have walked the journey of transformation with our people.
Let’s not build systems that ask, “How can we monitor them?” — let’s build systems that ask, “How can we walk with them?”
Blessings one & all.
Eli Tulafono
Programme Manager, Fathers For Families