Parents Against Negative Intervention by CYFS
PANIC
Director: PO Box 9078 Palmerston North
Home email: jktonson@inspire.net.nz;


19 July 2001


LETTER TO EDITOR


Legalised kidnapping

Recently Australia was shamed to learn that officials had abducted aborigine children decades ago and placed them with white families. The Australian Government was asked to apologise and when it refused, was attacked with world wide condemnation. Media coverage dubbed it The Lost Generation.

Most New Zealanders will be amazed to learn that the same thing is happening in their own backyard by the Child Youth & Family Service. Only we do it much better than the Australians because our Government takes no notice of race, colour or creed.

CYFS is indeed an equal opportunity legalised kidnapper of New Zealand children. It gets away with it because the Family Court is legally protected against media scrutiny. CYFS uses that cover to consistently break the law, deny basic human rights and deny justice to the families involved.

What’s worse is that numbers of young people and adults every year attempt suicide because of the heavy handed approach taken by CYFS.

New Zealanders need to demand action now to curb the illegal practices of CYFS, not ten or twenty years down the track. The Minister of Social Services, Steve Maharey, should apologise to the many victims and at the same time order a full Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate these matters.

The Royal Commission should have the powers to call past and present social workers to give evidence and also to recommend Police action against any social worker proven to have broken the law whether or not they are still employed by CYFS.

John Tonson Director
Parents against negative intervention by CYFS
Palmerston North