King Annette: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
King Annette: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Volume:655;Page:4713] 
4. 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour) 
 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 KEY (Prime Minister) 
: 
 Absolutely. 
Hon Annette King 
: Does 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? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: Yes. I think it would help if I explained some facts to the member. Child Youth and Family is closing— 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: His nose is growing again. 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: It 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. 
Hon Annette King 
: 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? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: 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. 
Hon Annette King 
: 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? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: 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.