KEY POINTS:
The head of the country's social services has lashed out at adult New Zealanders, saying it is time they took responsibility for child abuse and stopped blaming Government departments for events like the death of the Kahui twins.
Peter Hughes, chief executive of the Ministry of Social Development, said no department could have prevented the deaths of 3-month-old South Auckland infants Chris and Cru Kahui.
Until adults accepted responsibility for situations like those Child, Youth and Family encountered, "we will not solve this problem", Mr Hughes said.
"Those children were killed by an adult New Zealander - they were not murdered by a Government department." The Kahui twins died in the Starship hospital on June 18 of serious head injuries.
Mr Hughes' strongly-worded comments came during a marathon 2 1/2-hour appearance before Parliament's social services select committee yesterday.
He was answering questions from National MPs about Child, Youth and Family, which merged with his ministry this year.
Asked if the agency had any interaction with the Kahui family before the twins were born, Mr Hughes said "not the family unit".
There had been some involvement with other members of the family previously, he noted, but "CYF was not involved in any way".
When National MP Anne Tolley asked in an exasperated tone why there had not been any involvement, Mr Hughes said he wanted to respond to the "rhetoric" that had been in the media about that.
"I've been involved now with CYF for nearly 12 months, and the thing that I see constantly that is more remarkable to me, is the way in which adult New Zealanders refuse to take personal responsibility for these situations," he said.
He said some adults had repeatedly in the media expressed "deep and profound understanding" of the Kahui family's situation.
"Yet not one of those adults acted to intervene in that situation to enable us to help," Mr Hughes said.
"Not one of them even picked up the phone and phoned us."
Adult New Zealanders needed to "stop pointing the finger" at Government departments and other people, and take personal responsibility.
"All that is required is a phone call, an anonymous phone call - unless individual New Zealanders do that we will never get in front of this problem."
Mr Hughes was accompanied by a staff member who said that there had been, at some point, a conversation between a CYF social worker and other social workers about families at risk.
No names were exchanged during the conversation, but the Kahui family was one of the families that was discussed.
Mr Hughes said that there was certainly no conversation or information exchanged that would have enabled the ministry or CYF to act in "any way" to prevent the Kahui situation.
The twins' father, Chris Kahui, 21, has been charged with their murder.
