Eight years – 94 child abuse deaths.  These were the numbers reported this week at the inquest into the violent death of three year old Moko in 2015. Family “diversity” isn’t working.

Little official attention will be paid to the the family background of these 94 child victims. However it is highly likely that most came from family situations which our socially liberal establishment likes to describe as “diverse” or “fluid”.  The Government’s 2011 Green Paper on Vulnerable Children took this approach. Its primary outcome has been a new Ministry tasked with better co-ordination of social workers and agencies responsible for intervening to protect “at-risk” children.

The Ministry may well be necessary to deal with existing problems. However to reduce the number of “at risk” children in future generations we need to find the moral courage and intellectual honesty to face the truth about what is driving this crisis.

As I noted at the time in my Green Paper submission the research is very clear that the move away from married two parent families is one of the the primary causes of increased child abuse and neglect. The evidence from New Zealand was also clear. Of the 23 child deaths in the three years before that submission, 17 involved an adult who was not biologically related to the child – primarily mum’s boyfriend. That’s nearly 75%.

No doubt the same would be found for the 94 child deaths reported this week. It is now five years since the Green Paper discussions. We have a new Ministry but we still have an establishment in denial. Diversity isn’t working.

Ewen McQueen
October 2017