HON MICHAEL WOODHOUSE List MP in Dunedin

Last year the Government issued a Green Paper seeking public feedback on a broad range of solutions to help protect vulnerable children.  We received 9985 submissions from New Zealanders, including more than 2000 from children.

These formed the basis for the White Paper for Vulnerable Children, the most significant advancement in child protection this country has seen. The White Paper was released last month and included a Children’s Action Plan of 30 new initiatives.

Too many New Zealand children are seriously abused and neglected.  Last year there were 21,000 substantiated cases of abuse and neglect of children, a number that has encouragingly come down recently but there is more work to do. What should horrify all of us the most is the number of children who have died, often at the hands of the people who should protect them. More than 50 children have died in the past five years because of extreme abuse.

Our plan is targeting the 20,000 - 30,000 of our most vulnerable children.

A new Child Protect Line will triage calls appropriately because many people are concerned about children but don’t want to call Child, Youth and Family. This new line will be the first point of contact and ensure the right response.

And a Vulnerable Kid’s Information System will be set up to hold information on children in one place. It will be accessible to relevant professionals who work with children.

Other initiatives in the Children’s Action Plan include:

• Contracting non-government organisations to offer on-going support to families who take in a child.
• Expanding the number of specialist trained caregivers for high-needs and high-risk teens.
• Extra financial help to grandparents raising grandchildren and kin carers.

So many of you made a submission on the Green Paper. Now I’d like to hear what you think about the Children’s Action Plan. I’m holding a public meeting to discuss the plan on Tuesday 20th November at 5.30pm at the Age Concern Otago meeting room, 9 The Octagon.  I do look forward to seeing you there and hearing your thoughts.

ENDS

National MP Michael Woodhouse has welcomed today’s announcement of over $67,000 in funding for the Otago Peninsular Biodiversity Trust.

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It has now been two years since Christchurch and Canterbury were devastated by the first earthquake on September 4 2010. This has been followed by over 10,000 further quakes in the on-going seismic event

As our second-largest city, and the economic powerhouse of the South Island, the rebuild of Christchurch and the Canterbury region is one of the Government’s four main priorities. In June this year the Government unveiled the Recovery Strategy, which embodies a vision to develop one of the best modern cities in the world.

The Government’s commitment of $5.5 billion to the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Fund has given certainty for the rebuild, and real progress has been made.

Our commitment to the rebuild of Christchurch is unwavering. We have many opportunities to look forward to and we will do it right the first time. Together, we will get the job done.

But, it is also important to reflect on what else we can learn from the devastating Christchurch earthquakes. It would be hard to deny that while many of us are more aware of the risks associated with earthquakes, we are not necessarily aware of the right actions to take in an earthquake.

That’s why New Zealand is having its first nationwide ‘ShakeOut’ earthquake drill. The Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management aims to have one million people do the ‘drop, cover and hold’ drill at 9:26am on Wednesday 26 September.

New Zealand ShakeOut has been created to raise awareness and encourage people to get better prepared for earthquakes. This is also an opportune time for businesses and organisations to examine and review their own emergency preparedness arrangements.

The success of New Zealand ShakeOut will depend on participation by members of the public, and mobilising people in all regions of New Zealand. Your support and commitment to ShakeOut is critical to achieving this. My Dunedin Office has registered and I urge you to do the same and get involved by going to www.shakeout.govt.nz.

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In the last Parliament, I was a member of the Transport and Industrial Relations Select Committee that considered the Land Transport (Road Safety and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. That Bill, now passed into law, implemented a number of policies to improve safety on our roads. Among them was a zero blood alcohol content (BAC) limit for divers under the age of 20 and for recidivist drink drivers.  Another feature of those changes was the introduction of alcohol interlocks, devised for repeat drink driving offenders.  Courts can allow or direct repeat drink drivers to apply for the devices which prevent a car starting if there is alcohol in the driver’s breath.  Another measure was a special ‘zero-alcohol’ license which requires drivers to be completely sober for three years.

Many said those policies wouldn’t work. They were particularly critical of the Government for not reducing the BAC from 0.08 to 0.05, citing a plethora of studies that showed accident risk increased with each unit of alcohol a driver has consumed.  In accepting that general principle, the Government felt it didn’t have sufficient evidence to conclude that those driving between 0.05-0.08 BAC were involved in serious accidents where their blood alcohol was the cause of the accident.  It is collecting data to establish whether that is in fact the case. I‘m sure that, if the evidence is clear, the Government will act.  In the meantime, it has focused on what it was confident would work.

And it has worked. Police figures released recently showed a dramatic drop in the number of drivers under seventeen years of age caught drink-driving, from 630 in 2007 to 305 last year.  Alcohol interlocks are being introduced next month and I expect this, combined with the zero limit for recidivists, will drive the road toll further down.

I have every confidence that these policies will continue to deliver the improvements in road safety and reductions in death and serious injury that we have seen over the last three and a half years.  The important thing is to implement policies that work.

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Third-party businesses that collect on behalf of charities will have their transparency and public accountability increased after a bill sponsored by National MP Michael Woodhouse was unanimously passed into law today.

“It is important that the public have confidence that the proportion of their donations going to charities is appropriate,” Dunedin based MP Mr Woodhouse says.

“It was my pleasure to shepherd this important legislation – the Fair Trading (Soliciting on Behalf of Charities) Amendment Bill – which was originally introduced by my colleague Hon Amy Adams in 2009.

“I commend the Minister for her foresight in bringing this Bill to the House and thank her for entrusting me with the role of completing the work she started.”

Data from the Charities Commission indicates that there are more than 25,000 registered charities in New Zealand, and in the past year the sector received more than $1 billion in donations.

“New Zealanders are increasingly concerned about how much of the money they give gets to those it is intended for,” Mr Woodhouse says.

 “There is a concern that an undisclosed and disproportionate percentage of donated money may be kept by third-party collectors to cover costs, and that the members of the public making the donations are not aware of this.

“Media reports have highlighted that it is not uncommon for professional telemarketing and street-collecting firms, which are used by many charities, to retain 75 per cent of what they collect, and even up to 90 per cent.

 “This bill is important as it raises awareness that these types of fees are being charged, and encourages members of the public to have more information when donating to charities.

“In providing more information on commissions we may discourage third-party collectors from charging charities exorbitant fees for their services.

“Though there is unquestionably a cost to raising funds, the rights of consumers to be given accurate information must not be forgotten.”

ENDS