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Weekly Media Roundup

September 14, 2017 at 4:26 PM

Benefit sanctions actually linked to long-term welfare dependency

Newshub can reveal the Government has no evidence to suggest that benefit sanctions on solo parents do anything to encourage wayward fathers to pay their share of child support.

In fact, it means the families are at higher risk of hardship and long term welfare dependency.

Currently people on a solo parent benefit can have their payment docked if they don't name the other parent of their child. In 98 percent of cases that's the father.

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Insight: NZ's Mental Health at Breaking Point?

Mental illness is on the rise. In the last two years, the number of people seen by a GP with a diagnosed mental health issue has increased by 22 percent. And it's expected to get worse. The World Health Organisation predicts that depression will be the second leading cause of disability in the world by 2020. What are New Zealand's services doing to keep up?

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Waru: The Kiwi film "born out of heartache, love and passion to protect our children", makes its international bow

A Kiwi movie that shines a light on our country's appalling rates of child abuse has received a warm reception on its international debut at the Toronto Film Festival.

Featuring eight different stories, written and directed by nine Maori women, all thematically linked by the death of a boy, Waru played to a near-packed audience on Sunday evening in Canada.

Kerry Warkia, who was joined at the screening by her co-producer Kiel McNaughton and eight of the nine filmmakers, said it was an incredible experience to have a "full room and such an engaged audience".

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Oranga Tamariki needed extra $22m to set up

The government underestimated the cost of setting up its flagship agency Oranga Tamariki by tens of millions of dollars, documents show.

The government launched the Ministry of Vulnerable Children - Oranga Tamariki at the end of March as part of a fundamental overhaul of the child protection system.

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Should HR support employees who are violent at home?

Most employers are ready and willing to help victims of domestic violence but when it comes to supporting perpetrators, some aren’t so eager – here, one HR head explains why both groups deserve care and attention.

“We provide support for people who come forward to us and say they’re using violence and would like to make a change,” says Anna Campbell, chief people officer at the Warehouse Group.

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Labour promises 100 extra nurses for vulnerable families

More Plunket and Tamariki Ora nurses would be funded by Labour, extending a current Hawke's Bay trial of support for parents and babies.

Labour leader Jacinda Ardern says 100 additional nurses would be funded at a cost of $10 million a year to help vulnerable young families.

Ms Ardern said she was inspired by a trial programme in Hawke's Bay.

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NZ's underbelly of forced sex trade involves Kiwis as young as 12, researcher says

Girls aged 12 or under are being forced into sex work in New Zealand, according to a Wellington-based researcher.

Natalie Thorburn spoken to dozens of teenaged sex workers for her masters degree in social work at the University of Auckland, and said they told her of their lives on the streets selling sex when they were aged between 12 and 16.

"It was very difficult to hear their stories," said Thorburn, who is working for Women's Refuge while completing a PhD.

The rise of sex trafficking had seen teenagers, and in some cases children, become exploited, she said.

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Exclusive: 'Adults setting up kids to be repeatedly raped, and making money from it'

You might think selling young girls and forcing them into the sex trade only happens in places like Asia or Eastern Europe, but 1 NEWS has learnt Kiwi girls as young as nine are being forced to sell their bodies in ordinary houses on our streets.

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Prostitutes' Collective questions report on child sex trafficking in NZ

Claims Kiwi children as young as nine are being sex trafficked are being questioned by the Prostitutes' Collective. 

A report, released by University of Auckland researcher Natalie Thorburn, claims child sex trafficking is prevalent in New Zealand and children as young as 12 were being exploited for money and drugs. 

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Michelle Duff: It's 2017, and there's sex trafficking in NZ

OPINION: It started with the smallest thing. We were sitting in her room, and she pulled out a bundle of $20 notes. "Where did you get that?" I asked. She laughed.

I had been friends with Stephanie* for years. But all of a sudden she had a new friend; a girl from a neighbouring city who was older and more streetwise. They were hanging out a lot in the weekends, catching the bus down to Wellington together.

We were 15 years old, at high school in a typical New Zealand town. In our spare time we played netball, or went to each others' houses. We got friend's older siblings to buy us Purple Goannas and Miami Coolers and we went to parties and smoked the odd joint.

It was midway through fifth form (Year 11) when I found out the reason Stephanie could afford so many new clothes was because she was employed as a sex worker.

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A different school of thought

At risk teens are having their lives turned round from an unremarkable weatherboard villa in Nelson. Stu Hunt talks to teacher Emma Hunter who is using her vision to make a real difference.

When Emma Hunter started at Nelson College for Girls the school's deans grabbed her and asked for her help.

She says there were kids they did not know what to do with as they were not at school.

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In-home Porse child carer shook baby twice causing possible permanent brain injuries

An in-home carer "seriously out of her depth" shook a 5-month-old baby girl twice, leaving her with brain injuries, a broken arm and detached retinas.

Emma Pieta Marie Dengel, 24, who was looking after three children at her Christchurch home, initially denied hurting the girl, but when police re-interviewed her she admitted shaking her in two separate incidents.

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A father's life sentence: 'I killed my own flesh and blood'

A guilt-ridden dad who fatally shook his toddler says the jail time he's serving will never be long enough for killing "my own flesh and blood".

Dane Blake, 32, admits he was ill-equipped to be a father and had a "serious brain explosion" when 15-month-old Leith Allen Hutchison would not stop crying one night at his Greymouth home.

"No length of sentence will be enough, because I took the life of a child – my own flesh and blood," he says.

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Police change strategy to deal with increase in mental health calls

The number of police calls out for suicide and mental health issues has risen by nearly a quarter in the last five years.

And while they're often the first port of call, police say they don't receive specialist training to deal with severely mentally ill patients.

Police have added mental health as one of their core "drivers of demand", which are at the heart of the police "prevention first" operating strategy.

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Maori men urged to show true leadership at home

More community groups should be formed and regular meetings held in Northland to tackle issues facing Maori men such as violence, depression and men's health.

That was the message Steve Kenny and Lee Luke of Mana Tane National Collective gave at a health workshop in Whangarei yesterday on achieving changes in men's lives.

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Infant girls beating boys in language learning - study

A new study of language development of New Zealand toddlers has revealed a gap between the skills of boys and girls.

The research, part of the Growing Up in New Zealand longitudinal study, found 87 percent of two year olds are combining words into simple sentences in at least one language.

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Mother suffocated newborn son, then recorded him while he struggled to breathe, Crown alleges

An Auckland mother allegedly abused her two children by intentionally making them ill so they would have to undergo invasive medical treatment, a court has heard.

The Crown alleges she suffocated her newborn son, then recorded him while he struggled to breathe, and made her son and daughter swallow a battery and a coin.

She also allegedly overdosed them on prescription medication.

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Pregnant woman punched, grabbed by neck, dragged along ground

Joseph Matarere Tipene was gripped in a fit of rage when he punched a man who gave his pregnant partner a ride home – and then he viciously assaulted her.

It was a sustained series of violent acts that brought the 29-year-old Hamilton man to the Hamilton District Court on Tuesday, where he was jailed for a year by Judge Robert Spear.

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Man 'abused and emotionally-depraved' as a child went on to share child porn

An Auckland man who had an "abusive and emotionally-depraved" childhood has been sentenced to jail after an undercover detective caught him supplying child pornography online.

Paul Michael Robinson, 28, shared 15 digital video files with the covert detective through a peer sharing application in early June 2016.

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Dunedin will be the first city in New Zealand to trial a youth housing facility to keep at-risk youth, including those who engage in prostitution in exchange for accommodation, off the streets.

Yesterday, the Methodist Mission and Minister for Social Housing Amy Adams announced a transitional youth housing facility would open in the city in January. Mrs Adams was in Dunedin on an election campaign visit.

The Government would provide about $700,000  over the next two years to convert an existing property and pay service delivery costs for a pilot programme for 48 of Dunedin’s most vulnerable youth.

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Category: News Media