Davis Kelvin: Vulnerable Children Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDavis Kelvin: Vulnerable Children Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 17 June 2014. Volume:699;Page:18597. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]KELVIN DAVIS (Labour):Tēnā koe Mr Chair. As a former principal and teacher I have a number of stories that I could tell about vulnerable children in our community up north. I would say that the vulnerability extends across all parts of the country. It is not related just to the north. Every community across the country sadly will be experiencing a number of things that have happened up in Kaitāia recently. I just want to touch on some of them and this is relevant to the Vulnerable Children Bill because these children in their vulnerability were let down by not only the adults in their lives but the services that are around.It is just interesting to note too that one of the outcomes of the Glenn Inquiry is that it too says that the services that are available such as Child Youth and Family Work and Income New Zealand and even the police have let down children who are the most vulnerable in our communities. The Pamapuria School case of James Parker is a case in point. The children who initially complained about the problems they were having or the abuse that they had suffered from James Parker were not believed. In fact there was a very shallow sort of investigation that went around the school there.Mike Sabin: No that’s not right. That’s not how it went.KELVIN DAVIS: No no there was a shallow investigation from the school.Mike Sabin: That’s not how it went Kelvin.KELVIN DAVIS: No from the school. The school did not—Mike Sabin: Well be specific then.KELVIN DAVIS: Well I am. The school did not do a very good investigation. In fact the principal in my opinion let down those children. When he was given a warning by the police that strange things were occurring he should have gone to the teacher and said to him: “These are the accusations against you.” He should have put his concerns in writing to that teacher. He should have then had regular meetings to follow up what was going on to make sure that the conditions that he imposed on that teacher were being followed and none of that happened.Those children were let down because when a problem was raised by the police with the principal he did not follow through with processes there. Those children who had made that initial complaint I am told were then made to go and stand in front of the class and apologise to the teacher for making the complaints. Then those young boys had to sit in that class for the next couple of years knowing that the person they had complained about was there in front of them. He carried on teaching and in fact the abuse continued. That is an example where the children who were the most vulnerable were let down by the system.There are a number of other stories relating to my time as a principal. I remember when some children brought some marijuana to school. I contacted the police and the police did a raid on this particular home. I was told by the youth aid officer that in the lounge of this home there were 14 places where marijuana was available. Most people might have a bowl of peanuts or whatever next to the armchair where you watch TV but in this house there was marijuana. It was so easy for this child to access marijuana and bring it to school and it was not until we reacted as a school that this was brought to the attention of the police and they raided the home. It just goes to show that vulnerability is not only about the services; it is actually about the environments that these children live in.Another example is when a girl came to me as a principal and she said she did not want to go home. I said “Oh why is that?”. She said “Oh because I get beaten up.” So I rang Child Youth and Family and I could not get through to them. This was after 3 o’clock and I said “OK we can’t get through to them. I know where the office is. Jump in the car and we’ll go down and you can tell the CYFs people your story.” When we got down there I was hauled over the coals by the Child Youth and Family workers. They said “No you can’t do that. You haven’t followed process Mr Davis. The process is you have to contact us and we come and interview the child in the school.” I thought to myself “Well that’s just nonsense really.”Here was a principal concerned about the well-being of a child who has expressed her concern about going home because she did not want to get a hiding and did not want to get beaten up. Apparently it was occurring regularly. So I took the girl to the agency because I could not contact them and instead I got told off for not following the process. I think “Stuff the process.” When a child is vulnerable and needs help the principal should put the rules aside and just do what is right for the child. In my view at that time what was right for the child was to get her in front of the professionals.What that meant was that there was a lack of cooperation amongst the agencies that are working with children. In that case we were not aware of what the process was for Child Youth and Family. It should not have in my opinion hauled me over the coals for not following process there. Its first concern should have been about making sure that that child was safe.As I have just come back as a member of this House I have not had a full overview of the Vulnerable Children Bill but I think it is really important just to raise some of these instances so that people are aware of actually how vulnerable our children are out there. The few anecdotes that I have given this evening are just scratching the surface of the vulnerability of the children of New Zealand.I think that we really need to take stock of the Glenn Inquiry. It has raised some brilliant points. Those points are actually backed up by my own experiences talking to people who have been victims of abuse. In particular it is difficult to access help—that is one of the points that the Glenn Inquiry made. It is even more difficult for people who have been abused to be believed. I have spoken to a woman in Kaitāia who has been struggling for 2 years to be heard about the abuse she suffered.I have received a letter since I have been back in Parliament from a man in prison who talks about how he was brutalised by his father over a number of years. As a result of that abuse he has done things that have landed him in prison but basically he was not believed and he was not listened to when he tried to tell agencies when he tried to tell police and when he tried to tell a number of people over the years about what was happening to him. He is dealing with those consequences.Just to round up I think there is a lot of work that can be done to support people and support our vulnerable children: agencies cooperating listening to people and believing people when they talk about the impacts and the abuse that they have suffered. I think that we should not ignore it. I agree with Sue Moroney. It was disappointing to hear that the Government is not interested in doing any cross-party work on this. I hope that attitude of the Government changes.