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Failure to disclose child abuse could be punished by three years in prison if the National Party is elected in October.
National MPs Louise Upston and Alfred Ngaro were in Hamilton on Friday to further elaborate on the party’s child policies, re-announcing the party’s intention to create a new punishment for failing to disclose child abuse and vowing to redefine the Party’s child poverty goals. Labor.
Upston, the party’s social development spokeswoman, has vowed not to set aside the Labor-led government’s child poverty measures, but to focus on a new target of material hardship yet to be determined.
Union leader Jacinda Ardern says National wants to cut payments to families of young children, contradicting its purported focus on reducing material hardship.
CHRISTEL YARDLEY / Waikato Times
National MP Louise Upston, a spokeswoman for the Social Development Party, elaborated on the party’s children’s policy in Hamilton on Friday.
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National declared in February that it would create a new crime for failing to disclose child abuse, after a 4-year-old boy was brutally beaten in Flaxmere and a detective said police were not being given “crucial information” about what happened.
The incident sparked a debate about the “right to silence”, which allows people to refuse to cooperate in criminal investigations, including cases of child abuse.
“When people know that abuse is happening, make people realize that it is an offense not to reveal it,” Upston said. Stuff.
“We have several cases in my own constituency, the case of the baby Moko a few years ago … If you look at many cases after the fact, it turns out that someone knew and did not speak.”
National would also move away from the Labor-led government’s “no-nonsense” child poverty targets tied to the median wage, to focus instead on one of the current targets used: material hardship.
“The nine measures at the moment are very complicated, they are not that significant for New Zealanders, and the one that really makes the difference is the material difficulty,” said Upston.
“This is why we want to present a goal that is more meaningful and we can focus on that.”
The party had not determined what its new goal would be, and Labor’s current goals were not intended to be scrapped entirely, “but final decisions have yet to be made.”
CHRISTEL YARDLEY / Waikato Times
National MP Tim Macindoe hosts a public meeting, with guest speaker, National MP Louise Upston, in Hamilton on Friday.
Family violence and sexual violence would also be measured and a reduction goal would be set, as has been done with child poverty, under any National Government.
“We successfully used the Best Public Service goals as a way to focus on what New Zealanders cared about. We will have a goal in this area, but we have yet to determine what that number will be. “
National also wanted to review and expand Whānau Ora’s “reach”, but did not want to fund it further. The Whānau Ora model has independent agencies that allocate funds to Maori healthcare providers, who provide services and support to whānau.
“The work has driven it, we think it is a really important investment, but the challenge right now is that there is an inequity between Pasifika and other families, so we want to address that.”
Ardern, speaking to reporters on the West Coast on Friday, said reducing the support available to children would not reduce the number of people living in material difficulties.
“When it comes to material hardship, that’s a measure of children’s access, for example, to things like healthy meals. We have a school meal program that I didn’t hear from National’s support, and yet that’s one of those. the practical things we can do to improve the well-being of children. “
National has said it would partially cancel Labor “Best Start” payments – $ 60 a week universally given to families with a newborn in their first year – by making the scheme resource tested from the beginning. first year.
Instead, the party would provide each family with $ 3,000 in health funds to spend on prenatal and postnatal services.
