What bothers me is that, having had the subject stated so extensively - with much of it utterly self-evident - more is not being done to alleviate child deprivation right now.
The paper tells us that Child, Youth and Family confirmed 21,000 cases of abuse and neglect in 2009-10, more than 30,000 students are truant from schools on any given day and more than 7300 school leavers left with no qualification in 2009.
It said there were more than 13,300 hospital admissions in 2008-09 for children under 5 which could have been avoided, 1286 admissions for all children were as a result of assault, neglect or maltreatment, and more than 47,000 children aged 16 and under were present, or usually residing with the victim, at an incident of family violence reported to police last year.
Thus it is not surprising that Mr Key, in his introduction to the paper, acknowledges that he is "very concerned" that in the past 10 years, despite hundreds of millions of dollars extra being invested in health, education, the benefit system and the justice system, "public services have too often failed the children who need them most ... Despite decades of good intentions from government, we're still failing too many of our kids."
Which gives credence to a statement by Family First national director Bob McCoskrie that "petty party politics is destroying any progress in solving the cancer of child abuse that is destroying our country. Politicians are not part of the solution with all their green and white papers, reports, and conferences."
In one of its more self-evident statements, the Green Paper says: "Children will thrive, belong, achieve when they are supported by parents, caregivers, family, whanau, hapu, iwi, community and the Government ... Responsibility first lies with parents and caregivers. Communities also have an important role. Government alone cannot protect vulnerable children or prevent more children becoming vulnerable."
And for this it blames such things as children growing up in an increasingly complex world, in an "environment characterised by a rapid pace of change, growing inequalities, global influences and diverse cultural norms", children being influenced increasingly by instant communication and young people reaching puberty earlier than previous generations.
Not a word about the fundamental causes of the vulnerability of children, which Mr McCoskrie manages to enunciate in just a few words: "Over the past 30 years we have allowed a succession of policies to diminish the importance of family structure and marriage. We have watched as politicians have given adults the right to silence, bail and parole while the rights of children to be safe have been ignored. We have allowed children to be raised in homes with an unacceptable level of drug abuse, family dysfunction and physical and emotional harm, while tip-toeing around the issues of our binge-drinking culture and half-hearted response to drugs.
"The ongoing rates of child abuse are a wake-up call that children will never be safe until we are honest enough as a country to identify and tackle the real causes of child abuse. An independent inquiry free of political correctness and point-scoring is essential."
Submissions on the Green Paper's suggestions close on February 28. Then, no doubt, it will be months before a final report is made. Then, for sure, the Government will pick and choose - as it has done with the Law Commission's report on curbing the harm done by booze - what it is politically and economically expedient to agree to.
I wonder how many more children will die, or have their potential destroyed, before anything significant is actually done.
garth.george@hotmail.com
