"the media will paint two narratives, the drug addict mother, the man with no choice. And the mother with the custody order, whose children were taken."
I don't think any media are going to be going with the "desperate dad with no choice" view. That gives major "look what you made me do" abuser vibes.
"we will now never know. and I do think there are huge questions to be asked of the police historically, and the family court system."
What questions? Why did they take so long? If he hadn't had the children with him he would have been lifted years ago (if he was committing the armed robberies, if not they would've probably just left him alone). The kiwi tactical cops and the NZ SAS regiment are pretty handy I believe.
But the children changed things, the situation had potential family annihilator written all over it, they had to try to avoid sparking that or worse still, an Aramoana style disaster. I suspect they applied a bit of pressure to the family to help achieve a peaceful resolution- hence the sister's appeal a couple of month's ago. When that didn't work they probably put the stinger up on a bush road away from habitation , when he only had one child with him, deliberately as minimising the chance of harm and it worked, the elder child was unscathed and the younger ones were old enough to manage on their own at a pinch, coming into spring for a few nights. Pity the poor cop took a bullet to the head from the nutcase during the op but it could have been much worse.
As for the family court- with hindsight it was an excellent decision not to give him any custody as it turned out he was the kind of person who would do that. (Not talking about the baby rumour, hopefully that's just a load of made up crap). I mean depriving his children of contact with their mother, friends and the wider world for years, an education and the social and practical skills to live in society, at a time period crucial for their mental and social development. What a shitty, arrogant abuser.