Reform's Social Development Minister needs to front up, says Greens

"The Social Development Minister needs to front up to voters, and explain and defend their policies." says Social Development spokesperson /u/imnofox.

"They've cut Oranga Tamariki's funding by 29%, when we have a child abuse crisis in New Zealand, and the Minister for Social Development has refused to front up and justify this destructive cut to funding."

"We know that 14% of youth in Aotearoa New Zealand had witnessed grown adults physically hurting children. We know that in 2015 alone, there were an inexcusable 6,491 recorded instances of common and serious assaults on children, and another 1,982 recorded instances of sexual assaults on children. And these are just the recorded instances. 20% of girls in New Zealand and 9% of boys in New Zealand report unwanted sexual touching or being forced to do sexual acts."

"Despite these statistics, /u/dyljam has refused to front up when questioned, and refused to justify cutting Oranga Tamariki's funding by a third. Reform needs to come clean to voters."

"It is utterly shameful that Reform is gutting our necessary social services to support our most vulnerable children, just so that they can waste millions of dollars on unnecessary and unwanted war toys. Reform should be ashamed, and so should the rest of this government."