Katene Rahui: Urgent Debates — Ministry of Social Development—Job Cuts 
Katene Rahui: Urgent Debates — Ministry of Social Development—Job Cuts 
[Volume:655;Page:4821] 
RAHUI KATENE (Maori Party—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
 Earlier this month the 2009 Global Peace Index results were released which measured 23 indicators of peacefulness. To our amazement Aotearoa was named as the most peaceful nation in the world. That is amazing because we recall that not too long ago the Unicef report ranked New Zealand as being 23rd out of 25 OECD countries for child deaths and as being 25th out of 25 for child injuries. 
No one in this House would deny that our international status in confronting the crime of child abuse is deplorable. Also no one in this House would deny the horrendous and harrowing impacts of child abuse. The short-term and long-term outcomes of child abuse have been revealed in a tragic list of consequences which span physical aggression antisocial behaviour mental health issues sexually inappropriate behaviour violent offending suicide and a host of emotional and behavioural problems. The challenge I believe is one that all parties are united on: the challenge indeed the responsibility to ensure that all our tamariki are loved and grow to their full potential. The debate is not about the why; it is all about the how. 
The previous Labour Government put considerable focus on social marketing and communications campaigns. The Campaign for Action on Family Violence with the primary focus on the concept It’s Not OK has been a very effective strategy for raising awareness about what family violence is and who is affected by it. Recent research tracking surveys and media audits have revealed some fairly staggering results. In November 2008 tracking revealed that there was a 95 percent awareness of the campaign. The highest recall of the campaign was by Maori females and Maori males at 99 percent and 98 percent respectively. One would not think there could be better evidence of a successful campaign than those statistics but the key sticking point to progress is in the fact that only 22 percent of the people who were surveyed said they had taken some action as a result of the campaign. If only one in five people reported taking action as a result of having seen the advertisement clearly we still have work to do in order to translate words into action. 
If we were to look over to the education sector we would see that there are many awareness campaigns such as Keeping Ourselves Safe Eliminating Violence - Managing Anger He Whanau Piripono He Iwi Pakari and the buddy programmes to name a few campaigns. Although the evaluations are fairly consistent in recording the success of child abuse prevention programmes in equipping children with skills and knowledge what is not known is exactly how effective this new knowledge is in real life in actually helping children to draw upon those skills to address real-life situations. The evidence is lacking as to whether children even when equipped with an impressive knowledge base can carry the new behaviour over into high-risk situations. 
The complex nature of child abuse cannot possibly be responded to by any one fix or solution. There is no one answer no right response that fits every situation. The announcement yesterday to disestablish the administrative service centres is part of an approach by Child Youth and Family to put more investment where it counts: at the front line. The 18 community liaison social workers have done an excellent job of promoting greater awareness of child abuse but it is time now to look for another strategy and to move from the awareness campaign towards making a difference in behaviour. As a first point the challenge now is to mainstream the awareness so that in effect every social worker in Child Youth and Family every front-line worker and every member of the family knows exactly what to do when child abuse is suspected. 
The New Zealand Family Violence Clearing House has been a key proponent in advocating for a focus on preventing violence and abuse that demands wide-scale ownership and cooperation. It talks about a need for multi-agency coordination with a consistent and comprehensive response to services for individuals families and whanau. The impact of the recession has made it even more critical that we take a responsible look at all of the strategies and interventions that are being promoted in the name of preventing child abuse. Paramount in our considerations must be how whanau ora is maintained so that collectively families are able to meet their responsibilities to create positive futures for our children. I mihi to the amazing organisations out there that do the mahi every day in terms of protecting the well-being of our whanau: groups like Amokura with its family violence prevention strategy the National Network of Stopping Violence Services Project Mauriora the Stop services the Safe Network WellStop Te Kahui Mana Ririki and others. They do an incredible job of supporting families to take ownership of these critical issues that face our nation. We must mobilise all of our energy towards ensuring that our whanau can find their own solutions to addressing the horrific issues of abuse and violence. It is about everybody taking responsibility and acting now. 
I want to make it quite clear that there will still be key advocates for children caught up in the storm of family violence. Although today’s debate has a focus on the 18 community liaison social workers based in the administrative service centres I do not think we should overlook the vital and continuing presence of some 45 fulltime-equivalent advocates who sit within community agencies and who have a single focus on children who are affected by family violence. These advocates provide independent advice and support and are determined to ensure that children and young people who are exposed to family violence are protected from witnessing or experiencing further abuse and to minimise the risk of poor outcomes later in life. 
Probably the most significant strategy that any State could employ is to realise that the key advocates for protecting and investing in children are the cause champions whom we can find in every family. An Auckland study of women’s attempts to be free from abuse showed that many Maori women continue to look first to their whanau for help. Our investment must be focused on families taking action and on families being empowered to make the difference that counts. We have done well in raising awareness and encouraging the recognition that violence and abuse is not OK. But clearly we are not achieving the progress we need via awareness campaigns alone. We must be bold and take action. 
In the whanau summit held last year entitled E tu! Taking Action Moana Jackson in his inimitable way laid out the steps towards building a strong whanau and hapu base in order to address the issues that afflict too many whanau especially the issue of violence. He issued the challenge: “Stop the hurt; explore the reason; deny the presumption; and address the causes”. We must all rise up to the opportunity for leadership whether within our families or across our communities in knowing that we can make a difference in addressing all aspects of violence. We must not leave it to community liaison workers to take on the task of achieving well-being. We must not sit nohopuku in front of the TV and ignore issues that are bringing our families down. We must take action that shows it is not OK to sexually abuse children to destroy their futures and to damage their life chances. We need to start from families up—transforming our homes into sites of safety encouraging the family champions to stand up against abuse—and to invest in the protection of our precious children. If the restructuring of the Ministry of Social Development helps to make that happen then surely all parties across the House would extend unanimous support to taking the action required to put a stop to the horrendous levels of abuse that shame us all. Kia ora.