New Zealand is now ranked as the worst developed country in all OECD countries for family violence and that’s with one in three cases not reported.
Clearly schools have a vital role in prevention. What must be brought back is district nurses in conjunction with principals and the police as a coordinated team go into homes where abused children (the first signs of family abuse is taking place) and remove the offending person, in most cases the adult male, into either mental rehab facilities or prison.
All else is just so much fruitless, puerile sabre-rattling and political point-scoring which the burgeoning numbers of victims whose lives are being ruined could do without.
Gary Hollis
Mellons Bay
