Government attacked over Maori child abuse

By KEVIN TAYLOR political reporter

The Government is under fire for failing to reduce the number of Maori notified to Child, Youth and Family as potential child abuse victims.

Act's social welfare spokeswoman, Muriel Newman, said despite four years of Labour promises about closing the gaps and reducing Maori inequality, the number of critical notifications for child abuse to CYF for Maori had stayed the same.

In 1999 the department categorised 3598 notifications as critical - meaning they have to be seen within 24 hours - and 1371, or 38 per cent, involved Maori.

Four years later the number of Pakeha children involved had dropped 18 per cent but notifications for Maori had stayed about the same.

Dr Newman denied that the figures, obtained through a parliamentary question, had anything to do with Act's campaign to highlight the $5 billion it says Maori get from the state each year in special funding.

Act released research last week which said Maori get $5 billion more a year from the state than they contribute in tax, a result of "race-based" policies that rewarded dependency and penalised working people.

Dr Newman cited the research in attacking the Government on Maori child abuse notifications.

She blamed the Government for failing to address "entrenched welfare dependency" and associated problems like violence, neglect and drug and alcohol abuse afflicting a disproportionate number of Maori families.

"Labour is leaving too many children in a situation of critical risk. Slick talk of closing the gaps through special race-based taxpayer funding is simply a public relations technique to buy Maori votes."

It would not save a single Maori baby from harm at the hands of parents who "see welfare as an entitlement to fund a dysfunctional lifestyle".

Duty Minister Trevor Mallard said he was amazed Act was now trying to make out it cared for Maori when just days ago it was slagging Maori off.

He said Dr Newman had failed to point out that the number of Maori under 17 had risen by 6.7 per cent, from 230,910 at June 1999 to 246,330 at June 2003. In real terms notifications for Maori children had fallen by 3.7 per cent, from 1371 in 1999 to 1320 in 2003.

Mr Mallard said the Government recognised real solutions to inequalities that had developed over decades would take more than four years to fix.

Just before Christmas Prime Minister Helen Clark accused Act of being "fanatics" for holding a caucus meeting on December 23 about its new Maori-issues strategy, which she described as an attempt to "blast race relations apart through the summer".