Significant progress has already been made in making the needs of our families a central issue in this year’s election with 80% of the signatures collected to hold a referendum.
Will you help finish the task?
Hardly anyone would dispute that our families in New Zealand at the beginning of the 21st century are under increasing stress and in danger of breakdown at a greater rate than 30 years ago. Our alarming rates of child abuse, family violence, teenage pregnancy, children growing up without the daily care of their fathers or mothers, child poverty, drug and alcohol abuse and high abortion rates present us with a daunting challenge if we want our children and grandchildren to inherit a better world.
When I launched the petition to challenge, by way of a referendum, the ill conceived plan to deal with child abuse by repealing sec 59 of the Crimes Act, I was deeply concerned that we should not just oppose Sue Bradford’s legislation. I felt it was also imperative to move public opinion and government policy towards real solutions to address our national shame.
I believe we cannot address child abuse without also looking at the broader subject of Family breakdown.
In the 2006 CYFS report on ‘Children at increased risk of Death from Maltreatment and Strategies for Prevention’ statistics showed that children living in households with an adult unrelated to them were almost 50 times as likely to die of an inflicted injury compared with those living with two biological parents.
The report identified parental factors such as poverty, low education, unemployment, being young, having poor mental health, including drug and alcohol abuse, being the victim of family violence and a history of criminal offending as the key contributing factors of child abuse. Focusing on these issues and doing all we can to strengthen adult marriage relationships will do more to address child abuse than the current legislation changes.
A Royal Commission with broad terms of reference would be able to understand these impacts on family life in New Zealand, and then make serious recommendations to Government for changes designed to rebuild a healthy marriage and two parent family culture in NZ.
Larry Baldock
Petition organizer
Leave a Reply