It seems nothing has changed at all with child abuse statistics in the past ten years, despite marches, hand-wringing and legislative changes.
Jared Savage has written a lengthy piece at The NZ Herald but the upshot is nothing much has changed.
Picking the eyes out of the article it seems that no one is prepared to address the ‘arewhana‘ in the room.
Here is the clues to where the actual problem lies:
The problem to be fixed was the disproportionate number of Maori children in the abuse statistics.
Nearly 60 per cent of children seen by CYF by the time they are 5 are Maori, according to the Rebstock Review, with Maori children disproportionately represented in families with high levels of need.
Basically if you remove Maori from the statistics then we don’t have a problem.
If you look at the long tragic list of dead children the percentage appears much larger.
However, we are told by all and sundry that this problem is the nation’s problem. It isn’t, it is a Maori problem and the majority of the bad statistics stem from their community. It is some they need to fix.
It is obviously cultural and systemic. There is no other answer. You can’t blame poverty, there are plenty of other poor people who aren’t abusing their kids.
This is actually a shameful Maori problem and one they need to own.
People were outraged over the cartoon at the top of this post. What they should be outraged over is the appalling statistics that show Maori are disproportionately represented when it comes to child abuse.
The anti-smacking laws haven’t worked, increased penalties haven’t worked. Something drastic needs to happen but this is not a nation wide problem. This is a Maori problem.
The sooner Maori show leadership on this issue the better.
In the meantime I fully expect to be called a racist, yet again, for telling the truth.
-NZ Herald