A discussion on how to stop child abuse is the "single most important debate this country can have", says Social Development Minister Paula Bennett.
No one is likely to disagree with that statement, so the Minister was hardly putting herself out there when she made it at the launch of the
Government's Green Paper on Vulnerable Children yesterday.
The paper begins a year-long consultation aimed at reaching a national consensus on protecting children.
Despite the statement of the obvious by Ms Bennett, the Green Paper at last promises a concerted, cross-agency effort to tackle our national disgrace.
Questions arise: Why have we waited so long for this discussion? And, do we really want to wait another year before taking action?
Sadly, readers of Hawke's Bay Today are all too familiar with the extent of child abuse in our region - two recent instances resulting in deaths. We are not the only region blighted.
New Zealand's child abuse statistics show two children are physically, sexually or emotionally abused every hour and 1286 children are admitted to hospital because of assault, neglect or maltreatment every year.
This is truly an issue for all New Zealanders.
The Green Paper's proposals include:
Priority treatment for parents to access a range of services.
Mandatory reporting of abuse including for doctors, teachers and nurses.
Reconsideration of the preference to send children removed from their homes to relatives.
Better sharing of information even when there were privacy issues.
There will be eyebrows raised in some quarters over these suggestions. It is, however, past time that we let go of the notion that individual and family privacy should be prized higher than children's safety, and that extended family are necessarily the best carers for children removed from their homes.
The minister made another statement about child abuse yesterday that we also have no argument with: "It has to stop. We have to make a concerted effort to protect children from the lifetime of harm abuse can cause."
Perhaps we should get on with it now
