Kahui household stays on politicians' radar

Judith Collins

The Kahui household may have not been on the Department of Work and Income's radar screen, but those at the Mangere house where two three-month-old twins died remained firmly on politicians' horizons yesterday.

On Monday, Prime Minister Helen Clark announced Winz would be investigating households with multiple benefit recipients under the same roof. The move follows questions whether all benefits paid to members of the Kahui household were legitimate, a matter departmental staff are still investigating.

National welfare spokeswoman Judith Collins said the crackdown on potential benefit abuse cases, while welcome, was too little too late, and it was unfortunate that it took the deaths of two babies to make the Government take the issue seriously.

The deaths of three-month-old Mangere East twins Chris and Cru Kahui remain unexplained and the subject of an ongoing investigation.

Mrs Collins said the Government had had seven years to do something about intergenerational welfare dependency but did nothing.

"Both Helen Clark and Social Development Minister David Benson-Pope have been talking over the past two days about these households slipping 'under the radar', as if it is just one of those things that happen," she said. "This sounds like another convenient excuse by this Government to deflect the blame, as if it were the fault of these families that they have somehow escaped the attention of the appropriate agencies."

Labour has previously taken umbrage at National Party statements on the deaths of the Kahui twins. Last week Helen Clark said it was unfortunate National leader Don Brash's first statement on the case - a series of parliamentary questions on a multi-party accord to address the issue of family violence - had been an attempt to politicise a tragedy.

Social Development Minister David Benson-Pope told the Herald that he did not want to enter into a slagging match with Mrs Collins, who he said was well aware that work to eliminate family violence had been under way for some time.

He said reducing welfare dependency had been a long-time Labour policy and had not been moved to the front of the agenda by the Kahui case.

"The issue has never been on the backburner. I guess a tragedy like that certainly highlights the need for the work but it hasn't triggered the work or triggered any real change of focus."

Green Party Maori affairs spokeswoman Metiria Turei said the debate over benefit recipients and family violence had descended into easy and unfair targeting of beneficiaries.

"There is public pressure for someone to blame and something to be done in the wake of the terrible deaths of the Kahui twins," she said.

United Future deputy leader Judy Turner said politicians should be discussing creative ways to help people struggling to pay for life's necessities.