Child Abuse Not A Hot Button
Here we go again!
Lobby group Parent.org is not calling for ad hoc groups, cross party working groups, judicial reviews or a plethora of
other measures to combat child abuse in light most recent tragedies.
"We are beginning to sound like push button MacDonald's toys," asserts the groups chair, Steve Gore. "Every time
another incident of child abuse or neglect hits the media the same groups light up demanding more money to run various
programs. If money was the solution we would have cracked this problem long ago."
"Child abuse is not just a problem, but it is a symptom of lack of regard we have for parenting. We don't need more
anti violence programs, we need to fundamentally change the way government relates to all parents," claims Mr Gore. "we
need to change the parenting environment."
The group asks why it isthat business, which is doing very well, has 26 ministerial portfolios supporting its success
but parenting has none. Why is it that every New Zealander can name our top sports people, business people, political
and cultural leaders but no one can name our top parents? We can certainly name our worst parents, and half a dozen
have just joined the list, but when it comes to quality parenting government and the media just aren't interested.
The group asserts that we don't need studies or programs, but we simply need to change the parenting environment from
one where all the attention and resources is focused on failure to one where success is valued, validated and supported.
"If that seems difficult we just need to look to the transformation the business environment has gone through in the
last few decades. 30 years ago a successful business was one which could convince the government to give it subsidies
and place tariffs on the competition. Now enormous resources are put into innovation, quality practice and success and
the Prime Minister and her colleagues give awards for these on a weekly basis. At the moment the only award a parent
gets is from a judge.
One of the barriers is that we have traditionally thought of parenting as a social issue, when it is more properly an
economic issue. With the recent announcement that it costs $92,000 per annum to keep someone in prison (or put another
way, the labours of 12 or more taxpayers) we need to get desperately interested in parents raising children who can
connect successfully with society. We can't demand that of parents, we must inspire parents to achieve that. We need
to ask ourselves, "How can we get young father as interested in being a great father as he is in being a good rugby
player?".
"One thing we can be sure of," suggests Mr Gore, "political parties that offer substantial improvements to the parenting
environment will do very well at the next election."
ENDS