Larry Williams Drive

Tell you what—I'm not feeling terribly hopeful about the situation for vulnerable kids in this country after reading the coroner’s recommendations following the death of Malachi Subecz. You’ll remember the case of Malachi. I’m not going to go through the details again; sufficient to say it happened about four and a half, nearly five years ago, and it fired up public anger because of the number of times his wider family tried to warn authorities that something was going to happen—and yet he was not protected. One of the recommendations the coroner has made today in her report is that Oranga Tamariki—OT, formerly CYFS—run a public awareness campaign to help people identify possible signs of abuse and understand how to take action. To be fair to her, that idea isn’t new. It came from an earlier review. She’s simply pointing out that it still hasn’t happened, and is reiterating that the campaign should go ahead. But really? Is that what we need in this country—a public campaign to tell us what child abuse looks l