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A Government scheme to tackle violence against women and children is being criticised as political parties voice outrage at the latest case of toddler abuse.
Acting Social Development Minister Steve Maharey has confirmed that from tomorrow all women visiting a public hospital will be asked about family violence.
He said frontline health workers in hospitals would try to find out whether there was violence in a family and whether any kind of assistance could be given.
Parties are focused on the issue because of the case of Rotorua three-year-old Nia Glassie, who is critically ill in hospital after allegedly being hung from a washing line and spun in a clothes dryer.
And on Saturday a 12-week-old Rotorua boy was taken to Starship Hospital with head injuries.
Act MP Heather Roy said today another "plan" would be meaningless unless serious issues of family breakdown and welfare dependency were tackled head-on
"Enough is enough. The time for fiddling around the edges is over," Ms Roy said.
"Only tackling the root of the problem - no matter how hard this might be - will have any effect at all."
Prime Minister Helen Clark has called for people to act when they know of abuse.
"I cannot believe that a child subjected to that level of horror, sadism, torture - that nobody knew," Miss Clark said of the Nia case.
"People have got to start turning in those who frankly are maiming and killing our children."
But National's welfare spokeswoman, Judith Collins, said the Government had done little to stop child abuse despite promising action after the death of the Kahui twins.
"Helen Clark's promise to identify clusters of at-risk families was never carried out...the cross-party talkfest on child violence ended up largely being a repackaging of policies which Labour was already rolling out," she said.
United Future leader Peter Dunne said today all that had been achieved since the death of the Kahui twins last year was "a large amount of handwringing and navel gazing".
"It's time to stop pretending that the kind of child abuse suffered by Nia Glassie and the Kahui twins is not a Maori problem," he said.
"Within some families there is a culture of cover-up and collaboration that condones long-term child abuse."
The Green Party said more money was needed for community groups which supported families in trouble.
MP Sue Bradford also called on the Government to make a serious commitment to end child poverty and sub-standard housing.
Mr Maharey said welfare staff were already being training to recognise abuse and intervene early.
Police and non-governmental organisations were working together on the problem and teachers were being helped to support victims.
"It will come down in the end to what we all know - there has got to be a shift in the values that we hold to in this country," he said.
"We've tended to treat violence in a home setting as a private matter."
- NZPA
