4. Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour) Link to this
to the Prime Minister
Does he stand by his statement at question time last week that “Members on this side of the House care about abused kids.”?
Hon JOHN KEYDoes the Prime Minister stand by his statement made last week: “We are going to do something about abused kids,”; if so, why did he allow the termination of the community liaison social worker role, a role that is front-line in educating others to recognise child abuse, raising awareness and promoting early detection of child abuse?
Yes. I think it would help if I explained some facts to the member. Child, Youth and Family is closing—
Hon David CunliffeIt looks as if the problem is spreading, actually, across the front benches, but that is OK—diseases often can. Child, Youth and Family is closing 12 administrative service centres, which affects 80 positions. The majority of those administration, support, or management roles will be absorbed into four existing Child, Youth and Family regional offices. The other positions are the 18 community liaison social workers, which the member mentioned, whose work involves promoting awareness of child abuse. The chief executive has decided that this educational role should be performed by a wider range of staff from across all 60 Child, Youth and Family offices, and that the priority for qualified social workers should be front-line social work. Savings from these positions are to fund extra front-line social workers, on top of the 90 front-line social workers that Child, Youth and Family is currently looking to hire. In other words, some people who were employed to promote awareness are being replaced by a much greater number employed to promote prevention.
Does the Prime Minister agree with Christine Rankin, the newly appointed Families Commissioner whom he described as having an incredible record in the area of child abuse, who said last week that the children and young persons service is already too busy and cannot respond for 6 weeks; if so, can he guarantee that the already busy social workers who are required to pick up the extra work will not end up facing rising numbers of unallocated cases?
I do on this occasion find myself agreeing with Christine Rankin, which is exactly why the Government is putting 90 extra people into front-line services. This is what this Government is all about: increasing the front line and reducing the back office.
If the Prime Minister is so keen to do something about abused kids, why has he sanctioned cuts to parenting courses, budgeting services, 12 Child, Youth and Family service centres around New Zealand, and the community liaison social worker role, as well as sanctioning the future demise of the family violence task force, to name just some of the cuts to services that help to reduce child abuse in New Zealand, while at the same time he has enough money to spend on a big party in Auckland during the Rugby World Cup?
I do not agree with the assertions made by the member. I will say this, because I think it is worth noting: notifications of child abuse and neglect have increased hugely in recent years. [ Interruption] That is the point. The problem is not awareness any more; the solution is prevention and doing something about it, not promoting more awareness of it.