The New Zealand Disability Rights Commissioner and Children’s Commissioner both have a statutory mandate to report to the Prime Minister on certain matters. This statutory mandate is not used often and invoked only where concern is of sufficient magnitude to warrant bringing to the attention of the Prime Minister.

The matter the authors wish to draw attention to through this report is the lack of appropriate progress on providing greater support for those with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) and their whānau and on implementing the cross-agency FASD Action Plan.

While feedback from some agencies on this report indicates work occurring that may benefit those with FASD, some of it remains future-focused and appears to lack overall coherency. Work does not appear to be co-designed with those with FASD and their families, be tailored specifically for those with FASD, nor have the active cross agency governance required to make a strategic difference.

It is the authors' view that New Zealand may be in breach of its international and domestic obligations and Tiriti commitments, a matter they both wish to raise through upcoming examinations of New Zealand’s performance against the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).