Turner Judy: General Debate 
Turner Judy: General Debate 
[Volume:632;Page:3999] 
JUDY TURNER (Deputy Leader—United Future) 
: 
 How ironic it is that just yesterday MPs stood on the steps of Parliament to receive a petition calling on the Government to reinstate PlunketLine so that parents of young children can be a phone call away from help and advice. This event was separated by only days from the news that had the nation reeling; the news of the death of two more children raised within—and I think I am quoting the co-leader of the Maori Party here—“a dysfunctional family environment”. 
As the country reaffirmed through a petition of 53000 people the urgent need to ensure that every support is provided to families with small children we have to recognise that a number of good community agencies which specialise in the work of early intervention with such families were a walking distance away from the home where these twins lived and these twins died. Did agencies that were geographically so close to the problem fail? Did Government departments fail? Did neighbours fail? It was pretty obvious that in this case the family failed. But when families fail how do we ensure that somebody knows because our safety net has holes. These holes are created when agencies are disconnected from each other and from appropriate Government agencies and the agencies are disconnected because they scramble and compete with each other for the scarce funding that is handed out. 
If we are going to engage in some cross-party problem-solving—and United Future welcomes that idea—I imagine that we will find areas in which we can agree so that we can provide clear decisive and unified leadership from central government to communities looking for solutions to our appalling record on family violence. We will—of course—have to wait I imagine until the report on family violence is put out. But then we need to decide together what we agree on. We certainly agree the problem is there; what we need to find also is where we can agree on the solution. 
I suggest there is one area that we could rally around and that is the area of supporting the work of the third sector. The previous speaker Martin Gallagher complimented the many non-governmental organisations in his community that do a great job in reducing family violence. I also mention one in Christchurch—the Family Help Trust—that has been doing an amazing job with some of the most at-risk families in that community for years and years. It failed to get the needed Government assistance to expand its capacity to continue to make a difference. The voluntary the charitable and the not-for-profit organisations make a huge difference. If we could all agree to support—not undermine—the third sector I think we could see some real reduction in the figures that appal us all so much. This sector which links New Zealand families and the State is like the glue that holds this country together. Government agencies focus on high-risk cases but non-governmental organisations need to be empowered and resourced to continue their competent work with those identified as medium to low risk cases. 
So what do these agencies spend all their time doing? They spend a lot of time raising money and filling in application forms and compliance reports; they are up to their elbows in administrative work. If we are going to seriously work to depoliticise this issue and work together on issues we could agree on I think supporting the third sector is an area where we could all rally around and make a huge difference. I spend a lot of time in my electorate during adjournments meeting some of these agencies and hearing their concerns. They say it is sometimes difficult for them to take up the offer of Government money because of the strings attached. The very ethos of who they are is threatened because of the price that comes if they accept Government money to do the work they are doing. 
I met with an agency in Christchurch the other day that is doing amazing work with offenders. When the offenders come out of prison they are found accommodation and paid work. Why does this organisation not take Government money? It does not take Government money because if it does it has to take every prisoner who is put in its direction.