Oranga Tamariki – New Zealand’s Ministry of Children – says it has been making plans for the Phillips children since they went missing with their father four years ago.

Tom Phillips and his children – Jayda, 12, Maverick, 10, and Ember, 9 – had been missing for almost four years, with only a few occasional sightings.

Yesterday morning, Phillips, who was with one of his children, was shot by police after breaking into a store in Piopio.

It was one of Phillips’ children that alerted police to the firearms at the campsite where they were staying.

Oranga Tamariki said it had been working alongside our police for four years in preparation for the children being found.

“We have a plan in place,” Warwick Morehu, Tamariki and Whānau Services Regional Commissioner Waikato and Bay of Plenty, said.

Morehu said Oranga Tamariki could not disclose further details, but the sole focus was on ensuring the privacy and wellbeing of the children.

“We acknowledge the understandable public interest in this case, but that does not – and never will – outweigh our duty to protect these children’s privacy.”

The campsite where the children were found

Speaking on RNZ today, Police Commissioner Richard Chambers said the campsite where two children were found was one police weren’t familiar with.

It was in deep bush about 2km from where Phillips was shot, he said.

Chambers said the child they picked up earlier in the day “helped us with the information that we needed to ensure the safe approach”.

The child told police there were guns at the campsite.

Chambers said police went to the campsite and dealt with the situation very cautiously, “because we knew there that there were firearms”.

He told Morning Report that police “needed to ensure that the way we approached it yesterday continued to ensure their safety and also safety of my staff”.

Chambers said that Phillips and the children had spent some time at the campsite, and there were some structures found.

Asked if Phillips’ had been staying at the campsite for a while, Chambers responded it was hard to tell.

“Well we know Mr Phillips has been moving around this very vast region frequently, so he hasn’t stayed in one location for the entire time.”

Police Minister Mark Mitchell was making his way to Waikato this morning along with Chambers.

Speaking to RNZ, Mitchell said Phillips had “multiple high-powered firearms” and was “very unstable in his thinking”.

He described the incident as a very complicated situation.

“I think the whole country has seen play out in the last 24 hours just how dangerous the situation was and how it could have ended an even worse tragedy, and that would have been the loss one, two or three young lives,” he said.

Chambers told the NZ Herald this morning there would be some people in the community who would try to defend him but “he was not a hero”.

Officer shot in head by Phillips

Chambers said the officer who was shot in the head by Phillips was “doing well” but faced a long recovery ahead.

He said he would be visiting him when he got to the Waikato region today.

He had come back from Melbourne, where he was yesterday.

Chambers said the officer spent “a good chunk” yesterday in surgery with serious injuries to his head and shoulder.

“It was very, very close for him.”