ACT Maori Affairs and Education Spokesman Donna Awatere Huata today said that the Child Safety Foundation was wrong in calling for the legal minimum age of babysitters to be raised from 14 to 16 years.

"The Foundation's well-intentioned call comes after the tragic house-fire in the Far North.

"The answer, however, is not legislation. It is education.

"Changing the law would never stop parents leaving a young one in the hands of a 14-year-old. Only education can achieve that.

"We desperately need to teach skills to parents. And we urgently need to teach our kids how to become good parents when they are older," Donna Awatere Huata said.

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