One year on, we still don't know how Tom Phillips hid his children in the bush for four years

One year on and it's still not known how Tom Phillips hid his children in the bush of Waikato's west coast for four years.Phillips died following a shootout with police after they were called to reports of a burglary in the early hours of 8 September, 2025.He had spent 1358 days in the bush with his children by that point and shot a police officer several times during the confrontation.Child Matters CEO Megan West said the question on everyone's lips a year ago today was how this could have happened, and people were still waiting for answers.In November, former attorney-general Judith Collins announced a public inquiry would look at whether all practicable steps were taken by government agencies to ensure the welfare and safety of Phillips' children.It was received by the government in July, with the expectation it would be released in mid-August. A week later, the deadline was extended by a month "to clarify a matter"."Without the answers to these questions, we cannot start putting the necessary safeguards in place to prevent a situation from getting to this point in the future," West said on Tuesday."While every situation involving children is unique, and this one even more so, many of the risks and warning signs are the same."Police at the location of one of the campsites near Waitomo where Tom Phillips and his children had been hiding.Dean Purcell/New Zealand Herald via Getty ImagesShe said it needed to be asked at what points the child protection system, consisting of multiple agencies, failed in this case, and how the system could be improved."Those working at the frontline of child protection are constantly balancing risk, unknown factors, parental rights, and children's needs."This inquiry shouldn't be an attack on individual workers, rather a robust critique of a wider multi-agency system that isn't providing the right training, funding, or support to enable sound decision-making."West said the Phillips case reinforced that children could be known to the system, but not safe."More needs to be done to enable agencies to work collaboratively and close the gaps that are allowing children to fall through the cracks."Despite being known to the system, ultimately the Phillips children's needs became invisible to health, education, justice, and child protection agencies, the error only being realised once it was too late."She said releasing inquiry findings was the crucial step needed to identify specific failings and start building a safer, more robust network around vulnerable children, including immediate and extended family, community, and government."Without this, more children will become invisible to the system that is meant to help them."West said the Phillips case wasn't alone in highlighting the need for systemic change, referring to a review into the killing of baby Mustafa Ali by his father Mukzameel Ali.An Oranga Tamariki office, whose handling of the baby's death was the subject of the scathing internal review, also managed the Tom Phillips case."The internal baby Mustafa review identified several failings, including minimal analysis of risk, insufficient monitoring, and a lack of basic knowledge of practice and legislation among some workers. Again, multiple agencies were involved and questions remain on how this case unfolded."This is undeniable proof that we need an integrated, information-sharing system that goes beyond words on paper and genuinely implements legislative and child-centric frameworks."Oranga Tamariki said it had made a number of changes at both a site and regional level and has recently appointed a Waikato commissioner.