Govt has radical plan on child abuse

Under the new move, piloted at National Women's Hospital, any woman who answered 'yes' to one or more of the three questions would be further questioned to find out if she was pregnant and if there were children at home.

Mr Maharey said the move was among several measures being taken.

"Frontline health workers of hospitals will be working with all people who come through hospitals in future, children, families to look at whether there is violence in the family, whether there's any kind of assistance that can be given," Mr Maharey told Radio New Zealand.

While it will now be formal policy many hospitals are already doing something similar.

In March Bay of Plenty District Health Board announced it would become latest DHB to automatically screen all women over 16 for signs of family violence.

Most DHBs from around the country had adopted the programme over the past four years.

The move was one of a range of initiatives including a previously announced $14 million campaign starting in September to send a message violence was unacceptable and tell people how to get help.

There will be a helpline that will direct people to assistance.

Mr Maharey said the announcement was planned before two recent cases hit the national headlines.

On Saturday a 12-week-old Rotorua boy was taken to Starship Hospital with head injuries and three-year-old Nia Glassie remains in the same hospital six days after being treated for serious injuries following allegations of abuse which include being hung from a washing line and spun in a clothes dryer.

Auckland District Health Board family violence co-ordinator Kathy Lowe said nurses were required to ask the first three questions of every woman aged 16 to 65 and every caregiver of children even if they came to hospital for something like an ingrown toenail.

Yesterday social groups and politicians called for stronger tackling of child abuse.

Four people – three men and a woman – reappeared in Rotorua District Court court yesterday accused of abusing Nia and were further remanded.

A fifth man also facing similar charges and police have not yet ruled out further arrests.

The unrelated Rotorua cases have reignited the debate about New Zealand's high rate of child abuse, little over a year after the death of three-month-old twins Cru and Chris Kahui in Auckland sparked a similar debate.

United Future leader Peter Dunne said Maori needed to face up to child abuse problems in their community.

Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples said he was ashamed to hear about every case of child abuse among Maori.

He said problems of child abuse stemmed from a dysfunctional culture which happened among poverty-stricken and underachieving communities, a group in which Maori were too highly represented, and that Maori needed to take ownership of the problem and working towards solutions.

National Collective of Independent Women's Refuges chief executive Heather Henare said the cases were shocking but warned against "Maori-bashing".

"We need to make sure we are not alienating whanau and that increased support goes into preventing such abuse from happening.

"The overwhelming majority of Maori are sickened by child abuse, and deserve support and encouragement to face the challenge of breaking the cycle of violence within their hapu and whanau."

Prime Minister Helen Clark called for people to act when they knew of abuse.

"I cannot believe that a child subjected to that level of horror, sadism, torture – that nobody knew," she said.

"I can't believe that and people have got to start turning in those who frankly are maiming and killing our children."

National welfare spokeswoman Judith Collins said Miss Clark's Government had done little to stop child abuse since the death of the Kahui twins.

"What we do know is that Helen Clark's promise to identify clusters of at-risk families was never carried out and that the cross-party talkfest on child violence ended up largely being a repackaging of policies which Labour was already rolling out," she said.

"Our record on child abuse is a national disgrace. If Labour thought smacking legislation was the answer they were mistaken."

Non governmental Groups called for increased education and greater community involvement.

- NZPA