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“Child Abuse Really Upsets Me”

“Child Abuse Really Upsets Me”


Roger McClay
Commissioner for Children


If ever there was a gap that needed closing it is the chasm called child abuse! Sadly not everyone seems willing to accept that there is such a gulf in human behaviour.

None of us get to choose how we are going to die or when. Certainly James Whakaruru did not. He did not even get the chance to decide how he was going to live. I know our society grieves for James and the dozens of other small children whose lives have been taken by abuse and neglect over the years.

Too many of our children have been trying in vain, alone, in domestic concentration camps. Beatings, shouting, punishment is their lot. That is why I get upset. That is why I encourage people to speak up for these otherwise silent tormented little souls.

If you and I do not speak for them, perhaps no one will.

They do not deserve such unfair and horrible lives. Every one of them has a right to determine how they will live.

These children are societies future citizens. It is worth advocating for them. Our society needs every one of them… safe, secure, loved and appreciated.

Child abuse really upsets me… and we do not have to put up with it. Let us recognise the gaps and begin to fill them.

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