on Maori communities and unemployed New Zealanders.
In July, in a household occupied by twelve members of the Kahui Maori tribe, twin babies were killed Police suspect murder and this could well be the case. The Kahui family have been under strong media attack. It has been suggested that they know who the killer is and are protecting him (or her) from the police and are not co-operating. There is no serious basis for this.
Also serious are the social conclusions politicians and the media are drawing. You see the problem is large collective households which they describe as clusters. Helen Clark has announced her government�s resolve to deal with the problem of clustering.
There is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that clustering leads to child murdering. Many children are killed in nuclear families. Clarks reactionary problem will not solve the problem. It will only lead to social breakup of Maori families. Unemployed people live in clusters because they can�t afford rent which is exorbitant in New Zealand as it is in Australia. Breaking up collective households will mean more poverty. It will lead to more social dislocation and more domestic violence.