So another year is over. It's been a tough year for our children, our tamariki, with several appalling cases of child abuse in the headlines.
The Christmas-New Year period is a time when we often become reflective, both about the year that's gone and the year that's coming. It's also a time usually spent with family, and a time we may think about families less fortunate than ours, and what we can do to help them and their children.
We know the names of children who have been killed through mistreatment, sometimes almost as well as we know the names of our own children. Those most recently in the media are names such as Chris and Cru Kahui, JJ Lawrence, Serenity Jay Scott, Cezar Taylor, Terepo Taura-Griffith, and 5-year-old Sahara Baker-Koro who died four days before Christmas 2010. But these are just the names we know. They are only a tiny representation of the thousands of other New Zealand children who silently live with abuse and neglect each day.
Each year, on average, 10 children are killed by family members - people who should have protected them. In New Zealand it's estimated that 160,000 children are considered "vulnerable", which means several factors in their lives reduce their chances of reaching their potential. Such factors include living with family violence and having parents with health and mental health issues, particularly drug and alcohol dependencies.
Children in New Zealand are marginally safer than children in Mexico and Turkey. That's hardly a corroboration of our country's continued self-congratulatory, self-endorsed myth that New Zealand is "a great place to bring up kids".
