Pat Magill: Without a vision the people perish

Pat Magill

At the back of one of our Marine Pde freshly painted arches by the Veronica Colonnade/Soundshell, where Napier's citizens gather annual to celebrate the New Year, revel in Art Deco memories and to remember at each Anzac dawn, there originally was an inscription that read "Without Any Vision The People Perish".

Now more than any time since 1931, Napier needs a vision.

There is an urgent need for more local and visionary action to build a caring and supportive city. Eighty-eight thousand children are expected to be lifted out of poverty by 2021 by the Government's recent Families Package. Locally I'm calling on Napier City mayor and council to show similar leaders and evoke a vision of Napier as a Child Friendly City.

Build a business case that is based around the Unicef Building Child Friendly Cities, A Framework for Action. The framework translates the process needed to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

So how does Napier justify making children a priority? First, because it is a legal obligation: under the convention, states have an obligation under international law to ensure that the child's best interests are a primary consideration in all actions concerning children. Recognising and realising all other rights for children are also legal obligations, undertaken when the state ratified the convention.

Beyond the legal imperative, there are other compelling reasons why putting children first is in the interests of everybody in the city:

• Children are individual people - they have equal status to adults as members of the human race - they are not possessions of parents, products of the state, not people-in-the making.

• Children's healthy development and active participation are uniquely crucial to the healthy future of any city or society.

• Children start totally dependent. They grow towards independence only with the help of adults.

• Their dependence, and their developmental state make them particularly vulnerable - so they are more affected than adults by the conditions under which they live, by poverty, by poor housing, environmental pollution and so on.

• Similarly, children are more affected by the actions - or inactions - of government than any other group. Almost every area of government policy affects children to some degree, either directly, or indirectly. The state of children is a very sensitive barometer to the effects of social, environmental, economic and other changes.

• Children have no vote and play no significant part in the conventional political process. Without special arrangements, they will have little influence on the huge impact government has on their lives.

• Because of their status, there are particular and serious problems for children in seeking remedies for breaches of their rights.

From a strictly economic view point implementation will avoid the huge costs to society of not attending to children. It is a self-evident truth that what happens to children in the early years, within the family, within other forms of care, and even before birth in the womb, significantly determines their positive, or negative, growth and development. This, in turn, determines their cost or contribution to society spread over the rest of their lives.

The framework can be translated into a city-wide plan. From my discussion with interested parties in Napier (I've visited almost all early childhood centres and schools) it is clear that this vision is well supported. Adopting this will reduce wasteful central government spending on prisons and courts while building strong and successful communities:

Once the council commits to such a project, their first step will be to mobilise people from within our community who can provide advocacy services. There is a huge pool of talent in our community, many of whom are currently doing this on a voluntary basis.

I believe that these talented people should be employed to become points of contact for our families that need support.

The HB Today Person of the Year 2017, Minnie Ratima, is a great example of this huge untapped potential. Imagine the impact 30 Minnies supported by a visionary mayor and council can have on our city.

This is my vision for Ahuriri-Napier as a Child Friendly City.

Ki te kahore he whakakitenga ka ngaro te iwi - Without foresight the people are lost.

Pat Magill has been a Napier Pilot City Trustee since 1986. Views expressed here are the writer's opinion and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz