Kiwi Kids Keep Suffering Cindy

Candor Trust (Campaign Against Drugs on Roads) supports Save the Childrens calls to action on child welfare in the wake of yet another damning report which has aligned our performance with regions devastated by war such as Croatia.

Save the Children NZ has reiterated it's call for the Government to produce an annual child wellbeing report so that child welfare in New Zealand can be addressed effectively, " said Save the Children Director, John Bowis today.

He said that without yearly statistics it is difficult to fully analyse progress and address the many issues facing children in New Zealand. Candor Trust say they believe the Childrens Commission is under-resourced and Cindy Kiro can't be expected to perform.

Save the childrens international comparison report just released, shows New Zealand has a long way to go in protecting children. Out of 43 more developed countries, New Zealand ranks 20th in child wellbeing.

"Evidence of the Childrens Commissions under resourcing is shown by the Commission Offices failure to return messages, and the fact that we wrote to the Commission about a child at immediate risk from impaired drivers 3 weeks ago, and have had no response"

Candor Trust believes the Governments reason for obscurating what ails our children (via lack of primary data collection and yearly analyses), is that the Government is likely aware that discovering that, would show up just how wrongly focussed the work of the Childrens Commission has been - to date.

"We have advised the Childrens Commission that the real problem as our statistics clearly show is road violence with drink and drug impaired drivers at the forefront of all the killing and other serious harm perpetrated on under 15's," says Rachael Ford for the Trust.

"Their website incorrectly states that children are not suffering from inequality in the realm of road safety, but we believe that as in the U.S.A. children from lower socio-economic households do suffer road trauma at 3-4 times the rate of others."

The Trust's Board have publicised and have recently raised our concerns direct with the Commissioner, given that 3.3 kiwi kids die in crashes per 100,000 yearly versus 1.2 dying due to domestic violence perpetrated at home.

"We're not sure why the Commission hasn't picked up on it and is not giving priority to the are of greatest harm. All that is happening is a token cycle safety campaign, even though that is the rarest way for kids to die on roads".

Usually they die as passengers of impaired drivers, which is the current campaign that Candor Trust is running without any Government support in the offing, as perhaps the subject is seen as opening a can of worms.

"It was made clear to the Government where the real damage is being done when the OECD Child Traffic Safety Report slammed us as being among the worst 4 countries in 2004 - yet nothing has changed".

Our under 15s are killed at twice the rate per capita of those in countries with the safest drivers and the trend is ever worsening.

"It is a veritable bloodbath - In 2005 676 under 15s were badly injured enough to warrant an averafe 4 day hospital stay, and the deaths have more than tripled in 5 years"

"We do get frustrated at all the fuss over smacking as DUI drivers battering kids with a ton of heavy metal is where the real action is at - and what is numerically the greatest threat to at risk kids".

Yet CYPFs (which loses quite a few clients this way) and the Commission could not be more disinterested. A yearly report as requested by "Save the Children" would flush out the real enemy to child well being, and perhaps prompt some action.

"But given the current political climate and the wish to mould some public perception that child abuse is the biggie while related legislation is considered, it sems there are deliberate moves to suppress and de-emphasise the crux issues. One of which is that our roads do resemble war zones".

ENDS

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