National says violence talks going nowhere

Judith Collins

National is threatening to pull out of a cross-party family violence group formed after the deaths of Chris and Cru Kahui unless a clear plan of action is put on the table.

The party's welfare spokeswoman, Judith Collins, expressed frustration that the group, including representatives from most political parties, appeared to have little direction eight weeks after its first meeting.

She said the group had its second meeting three weeks ago and neither she nor her colleague Anne Tolley had heard anything since.

"We've had two meetings, we've had two reports released - both of which should have been released anyway," Ms Collins said.

"In the meantime nothing seems to be happening. I'm going to have to start asking some questions about this stuff."

The group first met in late June shortly after the deaths of the 3-month-old Kahui twins.

Police are still investigating the deaths and have yet to make an arrest.

The twins' violent deaths created a storm of controversy and Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia called for members of all political parties to come together to work on reducing family violence. After putting aside politics at their first meeting, MPs were broadly positive about the idea.

But that could now be falling apart. Ms Collins has written to Mr Horomia and Social Development Minister David Benson-Pope to say she is "concerned that following two meetings there does not appear to be a schedule of meetings and target outcomes".

Mr Horomia's office was unable to confirm to the Weekend Herald that it had received Ms Collins' letter.

A spokeswoman for Mr Benson-Pope said he had received the letter but had not yet considered it.

She said the group would meet regularly, and noted it had made a contribution to the recent report of the taskforce for action on violence within families.

"The multiparty group is there to support, be informed by, and have a contribution into that taskforce," she said.

Ms Collins said that if the response was inadequate or missing altogether, National would "re-evaluate whether or not we wish to be part of a cone of silence".

National has launched no political attacks in the area recently but her comments suggest that could change.