Rich irony in today's Agenda for Children demand

There appears to be real irony in the Commissioner For Children's urgent call for action on the 'Agenda For Children', says National Party Welfare spokeswoman Katherine Rich.

"It's come on the same day that we read about a 14-year-old boy caught driving his drunk father around New Plymouth, when the teenager himself was three times the legal alcohol limit, and held no licence.

"The fresh call to action by the Children's Commissioner comes a week after statistics showing New Zealand now has the world's third worst child death rate from abuse.

"Cindy Kiro has every right to be frustrated by a lack of action on children's issues and the National Party agrees with her demand that Steve Maharey needs to 'get his A into G'. (The Press 08 October)

"She has also slammed Government policy as 'a little piecemeal in respect to children and young people' but the National Party is urging her to think again if she believes the 'Agenda for Children' will solve anything.

"This will end up being a mythical ideological document that's big on rhetoric and short on real, measured results.

"When the best the Government can come up with while defining a family is any group with a psychological attachment - the Children's Commissioner must know there is little hope of the 'Agenda' having any real impact.

"When the Government flirts with the idea of creating female fathers and when it is happy to allow girls under 16 years old to get an abortion without parental consent - Cindy Kiro shouldn't hold her breath.

"Real parents and real kids need real policies, not PC language on a page that will never be actioned," says Mrs Rich.

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