Chester Borrows: Changing lives of young abused

The debate on the Green Paper released by Paula Bennett last week has got Labour saying: "We know all about child abuse and don't need to ask further questions." They're pointing to their Children Protection Bill, which was introduced three days after Parliament rose to the last election.
They had used most of 2008 bringing in the Electoral Finance Act to enhance their chances on voting day. The other side of the debate says: "If we know all the answers, why is New Zealand so violent towards its children? Surely there is more to learn."
It is a terrible situation that our children are abused so regularly and killed so frequently. About 13,000 children are reported to CYFS each year for abuse or neglect and about 1200 children are admitted to hospital with injuries caused in the same way.
These are children who are seriously assaulted, or who have food, care and medical treatment withheld by those charged with loving them. Some would insist they do love their children, yet have a strange way of showing it.
Of course, investigation shows they, too, were abused and rather than shun the possibility of bringing up their children in the same way, often abused people replicate their own upbringing.
One of the most publicised suggestions in the Green Paper is that the reporting of child abuse should become mandatory for people such as caregivers, social workers, teachers, nurses and doctors. The last time this was debated in parliament was 1994. At the time, there was a strong argument from the sector that their positions were those of trust and confidence and that they should not be forced to put this relationship at risk by betraying the trust of a person informing them of abuse by notifying authorities.
I am reminded of a young boy who burst into my kitchen one night and told me his father had been sodomising him.
It was late and he was stressed. He was immediately cared for, interviewed and his father spoken to. The father went to jail. The abuse stopped. The boy told an adult because he didn't want to continue being hurt. He is now a successful person with a family. I hate to think what would have happened if he'd been told to go home with no intervention at all. Obviously further abuse would have occurred. Maybe threats of what would happen if the boy ever disclosed would have been carried out against the boy.
The government has just introduced legislation to spread the accountability of adults living with vulnerable people, including children and the elderly. This is to stop people hiding behind the right to silence as with the Kahui twins and Nia Glassie cases. I believe it is appropriate to formalise mandatory reporting to protect children. There may be unwanted side effects. Some parents will be reluctant to seek help to avoid reporting. There may well be an escalation in reporting which requires further investigation so police and CYFS will require greater funding.
In the end, we have to make the choice based on the importance we place on children, the role of good parenting, and the community responsibility to care enough to report abuse and neglect and to take action.