9. TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua) Link to this
to the Minister for Social Development and Employment
What announcements has she made to better protect New Zealand’s vulnerable children?
Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development and Employment) Link to this
Sadly, there are no easy solutions to New Zealand’s child abuse problem. Last week I announced that the Government will be focusing its efforts on our most vulnerable under-2-year-olds. As part of an evolving body of work, we want to ensure the protection of our most vulnerable infants. We announced a nationwide campaign that has a pretty simple message: never ever shake a baby. More than 23 babies a year are hospitalised because of shaken baby syndrome. We will do everything that we can to bring that number down.
Hon PAULA BENNETT Link to this
We are beginning to put in place a number of initiatives. As I said, this is the start of an evolving body of work. One initiative in particular is the first response pilot. This programme will follow up on some of the 40,000 domestic violence police notifications that are not currently investigated by Child, Youth and Family. No matter how low-level those cases are categorised as being, it is a priority for this Government that those are followed up. We have to ensure that these incidents are not precursors to further domestic violence or child abuse. A pilot will be launched in November through a non-governmental organisation called Shine, an Auckland-based family violence prevention group. We anticipate that this will assist about 700 children in the three pilot areas.
Carmel SepuloniDoes the Minister stand by her statement last week that increases in spending on Working for Families under a Labour Government were a reason for an improvement in child welfare statistics; if so, how can John Key’s view that Working for Families was “a massive expansion of the welfare state” and “communism by stealth” be true?
Hon PAULA BENNETT Link to this
When we looked at the OECD report that came out last week, we saw that some of the families that are struggling are getting a bit more money under Working for Families. That is simply what that statement from me was about.