NZ Centre for Political Research

This week's poll asks:

Do you support a greater public policy focus on child abuse prevention?

*I always felt Chris Kahui was responsible for the murder act, why is he still not allowed to be alone with his daughter, but here again we had a lawyer defending the indefensible at great public cost so he never needs to learn to take responsibility.
Should people on welfare benefits have extra scrutiny? More education that parenting is a huge job. Monica

*Plunket as an independant organisation provided a support service to all new mothers. They were skilled, gained the trust of mother, recognized when extra support was needed, tracked progress of the child and condition of care..Visits were regular and babies flourished,, not neglected or abused at the rate they are now. Lois

*The methods by which a better public policy focus on child abbuse need to start somewhere. In your last paragraph "for the sake of our children a significant focus of future policy change is on strengthening the family – and marriage, which still remains the safest institution in which to raise children." Unfortunately, there is a bill before parliament which could ruin that statement by redefining the dictionary definition of marriage!!! What are they thinking. A government has no place in that. Neil

*Definitely not! We have had huge public policy in this area for decades, and the child abuse issue just keeps growing. More and more of our kids are growing up in abusive, dysfunctional, murderous homes, funded by the taxpayer. Govt funding is simply making the situation worse. Get the state OUT OF OUR FAMILIES! Caroline

*"Public policy" doesn't work. We need to work with individual people to educate them. Margaret

This week's poll asks:

Do you support a greater public policy focus on child abuse prevention?

*Absolute rubbish. If I was younger, I would be off to Australia. I am actually encoraging my children and their children to go. It is not all roses over there, but better then here. David

*Of course I support it but words are cheap and action more so. In NZ we have encouraged the growth of the underclass through the wrong incentives and I can't see it stopping anytime soon. No politicians with the guts and too many liberals and lefties making excuses for the behaviour of scum who should never have been born, let alone been allowed to breed. Murray

*Yes. The law should be made quite clear that both parents are responsible for the support and well being of their children regardless of whether the parents are together or not. Parents who deny their children care and the necessities of life should be punished. Peter

*Social attitudes in regard to abuse of young infants are a disgrace in NZ. Simon

*I think it's high time Maori who are getting massive pay outs and land deals admitted the problem is mainly Maori and pumped some funds and time into what is predominantly their problem. I definately don't suffer white guilt. This is an ongoing Maori problem and I don't see an end in sight. When the likes of Tariana Turia encourage young Maori girls to breed to increase their population with no regard to the health and safety of the children I realize it won't get better, it will continue getting worse. Polly

*This is absolutely urgent and imperative. Some causes - too-liberal DPB benefits; unemployment; non-biological parent/s; non-marriage; etc. Start dealing with all those first and we might start to improve the situation. Sheila

*If this means effective sustainable progress,....? Clive

*It's not more policy thats needed. Change what is in place. The DPB, long term unemployment benefit etc. Nigel

This week's poll asks:

Do you support a greater public policy focus on child abuse prevention?

*Doesn't matter what rules, etc you put in place. You need 2 things a culture of doing the right, honest thing and a legal system to punish appropriately. Unfortunately despite the fact the people have said we want these punishments handed out the judges take it on themselves to give lesser sentences. Richard

*Maori possibly have the worst child abuse rate in the world per capita. But regardless of race NZ needs to stand up for our children and crack down on abusive adults. Daryl

*Get rid of DPB for unmaried mothers to start with. Ian

*But no more money to be thrown at these useless no-hopers. Welfare is the cause of most of our problems. Bombard Key with e-mails demanding he listen to us and show some backbone and leadership instead of being "comfortable" with controversial issues. He is such a wimp! Carolyn

*We must stop abuse of the most vulnerable. Carolyn

*Yet the elites that govern and control daily life in NZ, refuse to look beyond their own political, philosophical and narrow partisan views, when refusing to consider the ever present law of unintended consequences. Continually 'our betters' make the same mistakes over and over again, yet their hubris prevents them from learning from past mistakes. In all fields of public decision making we see the same errors time and again. Individuals or small committees deciding on a course of action based on 'the first thought that comes into their head'. Or more worrying some privately held prejudice that is detached from the reality of the situation , followed by 'cherry picking' facts to support an already determined outcome. This craziness is endemic throughout NZ decision making both private and public. Traditionally this aberrant behavior is classed ... 'Situating the Appreciation' . It's lethal to logical decision making and has been the main driver of business failure and public policy fiascos. process'. Even worse if the basing of critical decision making on privately held philosophical standpoints that may have little relevance to the reality of a situation. That 'politicized' blinkered process is even more damaging than simple organizational stupidity when it comes to making logical and rational decisions based on ALL the facts. NZ has an unenviable reputation of making 'on the fly' decisions based on little except personal prejudice and pig head group stupidity.
Individual New Zealanders are legend in making irrational decisions based on little but 'I thought it was a good idea at the time' type thinking. Our elite betters however have raised this idiocy to truly massive levels and the whole society suffers as a consequence. Peter

This week's poll asks:

Do you support a greater public policy focus on child abuse prevention?

*If they can't feed them - they should be forbidden from breeding them. Adoption would be better for so many children who are currently with solo parents. Here they would have a higher chance of being given the stability that every child in New Zealand deserves. Delwyn

*Stop the low-life trailer trash breeding!!
Make it mandatory that you need a license to prove your suitability as a parent before you can breed, just like everything else in society that's licensed. What utter hypocrisy when you relate the scrutiny that adoptive parents are subjected to with the ease of any random sperm donor impregnating solo mothers on welfare. Tony

*Given the list of preliminary factors given by CYFS in your article there should be a case for legalized compulsory sterilization. Bruce

*If one can't be blamed the whole family should be held accountable. It is a whanau issue not a singular person problem. Sharon

*Employment
*Housing
*Marriage
All sacrificed to satisfy demand for Profit. Michael

This week's poll asks:

Do you support a greater public policy focus on child abuse prevention?

*Sex is for reproduction not entertainment but all this sex education seems to forget that. Mary

*State Public Policy has deliberately undermined the family, demoralised parents, and encouraged destructive and abusive lifestyles. The State now wants more Public Policy! Alan

*We are long overdue for a complete revision of the social engineering which has led to this situation. Amongst other things, the state should be looking toward policies which strengthen rather than destroy the family. In this — while having some sympathy for other views — my personal view is that a healthy family which will give children their best chances of a balanced and healthy development must, almost invariably, be a heterosexual one and that the present government's intention to legalise gay marriage will likely compound our child welfare problems. Rob

*I say no, because the problem IS the government. More hand-wringing and "policy" won't change things a jot. Our governmental system needs to go, and for NZers as a whole to agree that socialism is the cataclysmic disaster that it looks like. Until then, we're just hamsters on various treadmills / wheels. Peter

*There is no doubt that over rigorous social policies of the past have helped to creat this type of situation, the family breakdown and making it too easy for young women to became solo mothers as unsupported teenagers. Under 18 year old mothers should be supported by their families, no DPB. Perhaps 6 monthly compulsory checkups of children under 5 years (like a WOF for a car) could identify problems earlier. If there was a no- show of the child there would be consequences. Maori seem to be the biggest perpetrators so why is it that they always claim to be Maori even with a fairly minimal percentage of ancestry, but there never seems to be any marae based help or monitoring to be able to provide help. About time Maori spent some of the money being gained thru Waitangi claims payments to specifically help and monitor those with young children and to educate them in the requirements of bringing up children. Peter

*As long as there is someone resposible if proper action is not taken. Malcolm

*With emphasis on the family with a mother and a father! David

*There is a definite line between disciplining a child and abusing a child. Gary

This week's poll asks:

Do you support a greater public policy focus on child abuse prevention?

*Need to ensure the socialists and greenies do not take over the process as their agenda is even more extreme than the present SNAFU. Peter

*Yes, but there must be far greater effort than that feebly applied by the likes of CYFs. The natural family unit is under constant attack. For decades by feminists, now by gays who demand equal rights to marry and adopt children, as if their way of life is to be regarded as an equally valid and desirable alternative to the natural family unit of a man and a woman who procreate and care for their offspring. And now we are told that the demands will not stop at legalising gay marriage - with John Key's full amd disgraceful support. No, next is to be a demand for legalisation of polygamy - then what ? There will be more and more absurd demands for recognition of alternative versions of accepted "normality" unless church and state leaders develop the testicular fortitude to say NO. John

*Yes, BUT only if it attacks the real cause of the problem - subsidising solo parenthood. Peter

*Until these “poverty stricken” families priorities change from cigarettes, booze and drugs to feeding and clothing their kids the problem will remain, as mentioned before, kids that are the result of a drunken or drug fuelled bonk are seldom going to do well, what is the answer? stop blaming everyone else and own up to the problem, but under the current “I have an excuse and it’s someone else’s fault” regime we will go on wringing our hands waiting for the next one, as Bradford so often regurgitates "everyone has the right to breed". John

*A rather dumb question, which 99% will answer with YES. Jacoba

*When more people are involved or are observers, less abuse may happen. Vivian

*Men and women who fail to look after their children without harming them, should be sterilised. To cries of "NAZI! I ask: who are the nazi's here? The inadequate parents or the politicians who pass a law to prevent any future children from harm? Eneka

*But only if the State will have the guts to strengthen marriage and to stop having policies which are destroying society. We need to stop the move towards same sex marriages which will only make matters worse. Abortion is another influence on lowering respect for human life. For a start lets stop supporting any more de facto relationships. Alan

This week's poll asks:

Do you support a greater public policy focus on child abuse prevention?

*Sick of being told that PC drivel that its not maoris fault but everybodys/the communitys fault. I have never abused my kids nor has anyone I know done it. There are none so blind as those that do not want to see. Funny how it seems set in stone that only maori know how to love their family and how sacred it is to them. Non- maori of course do not understand the complexities of the sacredness of maori families! Can somebody tell these racist PC morons to open their eyes and smell the roses!!! Derek

*No - instead, I support a focus on ensuring that all officials who interface with small children, be expected to report any concerns. That the Body who they report to be charged with taking EFFECTive action to educate, rehabilitate the parents. If that is failing, then remove the children, and remove thier State benefits as well.Almost inevitably these people will be on a Benefit of some sort. Hugh

*It's common sense. Karen

*It is time something IS done, there is too much talk and no doing! Theo

*Of course marriage and the family should be strengthened, but I bet the politicians won't do it! Max

This week's poll asks:

Do you support a greater public policy focus on child abuse prevention?

*Yes, it is long past time that steps were taken to undo the damage caused by welfare and other left wing social policies that have undermined the family to such a great extent that a child abuse crisis is on our hands - we urgently need more ambulances at the top of the cliff. Sue

*No doubt the feminists will campaign against cuts to the DPB if they look like they are going to be effective. Pat

*The high rate of child abuse reflects the high number of children growing up without their biological father to protect them. Put dads back into the family home and things will rapidly improve. Peter

*Don't the politicians have the brains to see what their reforms have done? How can it have got to this stage? Michael

*It is time that leaders of all shapes and sizes started to instruct their young people about the value of marriage. And that includes iwi leaders in particular. Brian

*The DPB should be abolished and support given through the unemployment benefit as proposed by the welfare working group. That would start to solve the problem. Patsy

*Most governments only pay lip service to these issues - will Paula Bennett and the National Party be any different? I hope so. Jim