Act Party MP and Children's Minister Karen Chhour gives a response to the publication of the Abuse in Care report in Parliament New Zealand Herald photograph by Mark Mitchell 24 July 2024
The Minister for Children says the number of children dying at the hands of people meant to love and care for them is a “national shame”.
Two children were allegedly murdered in the first six days of 2025.
And violence against children is rising according to the latest Salvation Army State of the Nation report. The number of children hospitalised from assault and neglect in 2024 rose to its highest in 10 years.
Karen Chhour, who is also Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence, told The Front Page statistics for child deaths were not good enough.
“That is something that motivated me in the first place to put my hand up to be in this space to try and break that cycle of harm.
“It’s really important that we get to the crux of what’s actually causing these issues. When you look at family harm in this country, it actually should be our national shame how many people are being hurt and harmed,” Chhour said.
“One of the Government’s priorities in this space is to reduce the level of violent crimes and sexual violence crimes by around 20,000 people as our first target.”
Chhour said multiple agencies had a role to play and it was important they were all on the same page.
“Agencies are siloing and not speaking to each other, so there are gaps and people are falling through those gaps.
“Where I wanted to start was having a look at all these strategy plans making sure that they were achieving something. What I did find was the strategies were massive. There were lots of priorities, far too many, and the Government was trying to do way too much and doing nothing.
“That’s part of where we start as a Government... making sure we prioritise and make sure we get those basics right, so that when people walk through a front door of an agency, there is no wrong door. Every agency is on the right page and we can get these people in front of who they need to be in front of quicker and faster,” she said.
A 2022 police study of 63 children and young people involved in ram raids found more than 95% were linked to at least one family harm event before first coming to police attention as a suspect or offender.
Sixty-five per cent of the sample were linked to five or more family harm events, and 35% were linked to more than 10.
The Government reckons boot camps are one of the ways to rehabilitate them — a subject that has thrown up debate about their effectiveness.
This week, Labour accused the Government of a “cover-up” around the latest bootcamp trial and the extent of re-offending.
The comments follow Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, Chhour, and pilot lead agency Oranga Tamariki refusing to detail how many of the nine young men in the pilot have re-offended as claims suggest as many as six have returned to youth justice facilities.
“We’re not saying this is a magic bullet — what we’re saying is that this is just another tool in our belt to try and help these young people be the best that they can be.
“What they do with that opportunity is up to them but we can now say that we are doing this work,” Chhour said.
Listen to the full episode to hear more about how the Government hopes to help our young people.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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