The "Care and Protection" chapter was extensive, having been around for many, many years, full of content and with its own structure. To achieve a change to section-by-section commentary under the Oranga Tamariki Act, the existing chapter would need to be extensively reviewed and edited and the resultant content placed under the relevant sections of the 469-section Act; all this whilst maintaining ongoing updating throughout the year or more that the task would probably take. And in the meantime, would a new Bill come in to potentially replace the Act we would be using and undo all the hard work?

When Shelley Stevenson, author of the chapter, came in as a new author, she asked if we could do something; the existing arrangement didn’t seem intuitive to her as a busy practising family lawyer. We discussed all the issues and options; a new discursive chapter or using the Act itself, the length of time and difficulty that would be involved, the ongoing need to keep the current chapter updated through the year, the possibility of being snookered in the middle of it with new legislation. She listened and then, like pilot Sully Sullenberger, doing his emergency landing on the Hudson River, she said “We’re going in”.

Shelley convinced Ruth Williams, Associate at Ford Sumner Lawyers, that this would be a good activity to do together over all their weekends and holidays for a year and that is what they’ve done. Together, Shelley and Ruth have achieved section-by-section commentary for the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 and an Introduction to the Act, which are now showing online in Westlaw and have replaced the "Care and Protection" chapter. If a new Act ever does materialise, it will be a lot easier to get usable commentary more quickly into the new Act then it would be to start all over.

Because we currently have an excellent discursive chapter on Youth Justice, authored by Dr Nessa Lynch, we have chosen not to double up on commentary for the Youth Justice section (pts 4 and 5 in the Act) and leave commentary on that to the "Youth Justice" chapter.

We are so very glad and proud to have this chapter in Child Law to make life a little easier for people working in the field. We are grateful and indebted to Shelley Stevenson and Ruth Williams for the work they have done and commitment made to undertake this huge task.

To all those who work in family law, whom we seriously couldn’t admire more, things don’t always get worse.