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August 23, 2019 at 12:54 PM

Stuff: The lifelong impacts of neglect on a child 

A young girl dies in a suspected suicide. A child and her baby sister's lives are cut short in a horrific car crash.

Three Taranaki children are dead and the common factor in the two cases is how the action, or inaction, of the adults in their lives created a chain of events which resulted in their deaths.

Physical violence and the obvious risk this poses to a child's safety can dominate the conversation around harm done to one of the most vulnerable members of our population.

But sometimes it is the complete lack of care, attention and regard adults show to the children they are supposed to be looking after which causes just as much harm.

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1 News Now: Businesses urged to add domestic violence leave to their policies

Businesses are being called on to implement plans for domestic violence leave with concerns less than a third of small and medium sized businesses have done so despite the law changing almost five months ago.

The law allows for 10 days paid domestic violence leave but in a recent survey of 300 small to medium businesses; only 30 per cent had implemented the policy to manage domestic violence leave, 47 per cent hadn’t made any changes, and 23 per cent didn’t know or preferred not to say.

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Stuff: Abused and suffering in the care of Oranga Tamariki: Karisma Emery's story

At the stroke of midnight she was taken.

Karisma Emery was five years old and asleep with her two little sisters when police and Child, Youth and Family (now Oranga Tamariki - Ministry for Children), burst through the door of her mother's Waikato home.

"That's when everything changed," she said.

"That's when everything turned to s…"

Emery shared her story at a Whānau Ora-led inquiry into children in state care, in Hamilton on Monday.

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Stuff: State care abuse not just 'historical', inquiry told

Abuse survivor advocates have urged a Royal Commission not to see state abuse in care as a purely "historical" problem.

Some of the worst cases of abuse had occurred since 2010, lawyer Sonja Cooper told the commission on Monday. 

She said she wanted the commission to hear from younger survivors, whose time in care might sit outside the inquiry's timeframe. 

The inquiry into historical abuse in state care and faith-based institutions was primarily expected to examine cases of abuse from 1950 to 1999, although it had the discretion to investigate cases from before or after that time span. 

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RNZ: Tūhoe sign agreement with Oranga Tamariki

More families will be putting their hand up to provide safe homes for children after Tūhoe signed an agreement with Oranga Tamariki, an iwi leader says.

Under the agreement, Oranga Tamariki will notify the iwi of any tamariki with Tūhoe whakapapa coming into their care.

Te Uru Taumatua chair Tāmati Kruger said Tūhoe could provide better insights into wider whānau and hapū connections than state agencies, and find safe homes for the children.

He said the agency had not trusted the iwi's knowledge of their own people in the past, but that was changing.

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Newsroom: An innovative approach to family violence

Government agencies are using innovative processes to remove barriers to addressing family violence. Laura Walters takes a look at the latest projects in the pipeline.

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RNZ: Young people facing dual-court process despite law change - lawyer

Lawyers and justice advocates say a law change last month to bring 17-year-olds into the Youth Court is not working the way they had hoped.

The legislation came into effect on 1 July.

Part of the new law requires that the most serious crimes - punishable by 14 years' jail or more and called 'Schedule 1A' charges - must be transferred to adult court.

All lesser offences can remain in the Youth Court.

Government documents obtained under the Official Information Act show that just three months before the law change, officials realised there was a problem.

Anyone facing "mixed charges" - for both the most serious schedule 1A crimes and lesser ones - could lead to someone facing two trials - one in each court.

The documents stated it would be bad for the perpetrators, victims, witnesses - and would waste court time and resources.

Their suggestion, which the government adopted, was to allow judges to order all related charges to be heard in the adult court.

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RNZ: Helping people stay in tenancies a 'critical' step toward ending homelessness

The government's new plan to prevent homelessness is being described by service providers as a critical step towards ending the problem.

It is spending $54 million to help people with complex challenges like mental health, addiction and family violence stay in their tenancies.

The Downtown Community Ministry (DCM) has been part of a two-year trial helping people with complex problems stay in their homes.

This programme will expand from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch to five other regions.

DCM's director Stephanie McIntyre said once people lose a tenancy it was tough to get back into housing.

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Stuff: Slain woman Taylor-Jade Hira, 22, 'had so much left to give'

Just six days have passed since Taylor-Jade Hira was at this Hastings home, full of life and boisterous as ever.

On Tuesday friends and whānau gather here waiting for her body to return from Wellington.

The 22-year-old died in Wellington Hospital on Sunday from injuries inflicted in an assault on Thursday morning.

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NZ Herald: Ariah Roberts murder trial: Stepfather allegedly killed child 15 minutes after mum went to supermarket

Details of how a man allegedly murdered his stepdaughter at Mangawhai a year ago have been revealed in court for the first time.

Aaron Archer, 30, is accused of killing 2-year-old Ariah Dawn Roberts at Mangawhai on August 22, 2018 while her mother was at the supermarket buying dinner.

He allegedly inflicted "catastrophic" and "multiple" head injuries to the child within 15 minutes of her mother leaving the house.

The fatal injuries were compared to the child being involved in a serious car crash or falling at least two storeys.

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Stuff: Auckland teen tried to stab ex-girlfriend to death after relationship broke up

A teenager used a fake Facebook account to lure his ex-girlfriend to a lunch date, where he repeatedly stabbed her in the street.

Micah Shannon Santos appeared at the High Court in Auckland on August 9 where he admitted a charge of attempted murder.

His mother and father, and the woman he tried to murder, were in the public gallery for his guilty plea.

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Stuff: Northland father faces 2020 trial for murder of four-week-old Kaitaia baby

A father will go on trial next year accused of murdering his four-week-old baby.

Jahcey Ngahere, 23, is alleged to have caused the death of Maree Takuira-Mita Ngahere on February 19.

Maree, from Kaitaia in the Far North, died as the result of a brain injury and bleeding to her brain.

After a police appeal for information, Ngahere was charged with Maree's murder, as well as an assault on a toddler.

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