Roy Heather: Appropriation (2006/07 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Roy Heather: Appropriation (2006/07 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:633;Page:4593] 
HEATHER ROY (Deputy Leader—ACT) 
: 
 It is hard to understand and comprehend exactly what could have brought anyone to inflict the type of violence on the Kahui twins that caused their brutal and what must have been incredibly painful deaths. It is hard not to think at least in passing that those beautiful baby boys are probably better off dead than having to endure a lifetime of violence and abuse from a seriously dysfunctional family. The list just seems to go on and on: James Whakaruru “Lillybing” Coral-Ellen Burrows and the Kahui twins. It is time that New Zealanders said “enough”. 
There is nothing good to be said about the Kahui twins’ case but it has allowed New Zealanders to have a discussion not just about family violence and child abuse but also about welfare dependency. For far too long now it has been decided—usually traditionally by the left—that poverty is the problem. A diagnosis of poverty seems to have been made for every single terrible case we have heard about. But if poverty was the problem then surely money would have been the answer. Over a series of decades money has been thought of and provided as the answer. Welfare has been introduced and enhanced in this country yet over the same time that that money has been handed out by the State to more and more families the number of children who have been abused or killed or who have had to grow up in seriously dysfunctional families seems to have risen and risen. The answers to parliamentary questions that I asked last month were glaringly obvious. The number of children about whom Child Youth and Family had been notified had gone up yet again and the highest months on record were February March and June of this year 2006. 
So why has this problem not been fixed when more and more money has been handed out? The answer seems pretty clear to me and it is something that we in ACT have been saying for quite some time. It is something that only one other party has had the honesty to talk about: the Maori Party. The real problem is welfare dependency. Making people dependent on the State for their income does nobody any good. Rather than welfare being used as a safety net it has turned into a hammock. There is nothing safe about it. The difficulty is that the people who are really in need—those who really need State assistance and really need a hand up—cannot be found amongst all the others who actually choose to be in that safety hammock. 
I get a bit sick of hearing the criticism from the media and others about Child Youth and Family. New Zealanders need to wake up and have a realistic attitude to that agency. Child Youth and Family social workers are out there doing their very best. They are required by law to place children with whanau when that is not necessarily the safest option. Far too frequently as we have seen many children to their detriment have been taken from one very unsafe whanau environment and put straight into another equally unsafe if not worse environment. Child Youth and Family social workers have had nowhere to place children. At 4 o’clock on a Friday afternoon when a Child Youth and Family social worker is faced with removing a child from a family home and placing him or her somewhere else there may be no safe environment to place the child in. 
We need to change significantly the way we operate. Child protection units are the answer whereby multiple agencies—police welfare health and justice—work together so that children can be placed in a safe environment. It is not rocket science and it is time we saw some action not just talk from this Government.