Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey. Photo / Supplied
Attempts to change the behaviour of violent adults will never solve the "community curse" of child abuse, a candle-lighting remembrance service has been told.
MPs, civic leaders and others lit candles in an Auckland church yesterday to remember children who had been killed or harmed by violence.
Up
to one child a month is admitted to the Starship children's hospital in Auckland with brain injuries caused by abuse.
Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey told the service at St Matthew-in-the-City: "I've actually given up trying to talk to the guys who are criminally violent about their violence at 20 - or 25. I don't think it's going to work [even at] 16 - I'm winding it back.
"I think the solution is early childhood intervention."
"Early childhood intervention should mean taking serious, drastic and immediate action. When dysfunctional families are spotted - and they are - in hospitals and birthing rooms, we must act. I believe that some newborns should not be allowed to go home.
"The Kahui twins could have been saved if that was the case."
The first service at the church to highlight the tragedy of abused children was held eight years ago. Six years ago, Dr Patrick Kelly, the head of the Starship's child abuse team, pleaded for the Government to create a national database to flag at-risk children so they could not be lost in "the system".
"Now, after all these years and so many more deaths," said Cheryl Love, one of three women who founded the service.
"The Government announced it is going to spend $16 million on an advertising campaign to make family violence unacceptable. That in itself is unacceptable. People have got to stop turning the TV up and closing their windows when they hear the cries of a child in distress.
"We need to take a stand against child abuse. And to make this an election issue."
Former Youth Court judge Mick Brown told the service the Treasury and Reserve Bank must be reminded of their human responsibilities as well as their statutory mandates.
While progress had been made, he said, Government agencies must guarantee every child under 5 security for health, pre-school education and state protection against violence, abuse and social deprivation.
