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Sunday Star Times
August 4, 2002
Crèche case New Zealand's shame
Letter to the
Editor
by Gordon Waugh, Auckland
Frank Haden didn't go nearly far enough (July 28) - Christchurch's
shame over the crèche case is New Zealand's shame. Worse, it is parliament's
shame.
The evidence in Lynley Hood's book is compelling, but politicians seemingly
lack the moral courage to rectify this dreadful miscarriage of justice.
Instead of its deathly silence, the counselling "profession" must
find the honesty to publicly debate the causes. It is self-evident that
without credible, external corroboration, counsellors cannot pretend to know
whether sexual abuse occurred, or interpret what a child thinks or knows.
Using absurd assumptions, ACC perpetuates those unscientific and unacceptable
counselling techniques. Without right, privilege or authority, ACC and
counsellors have combined to usurp the function of the criminal court to
determine who may have committed sexual abuse. Their use of flawed belief
systems has ruined tens of thousands of families.
We need to return the issues surrounding sexual abuse to a proper scientific
and judicial footing and attempt to repair the enormous damage done by poorly
trained, unprofessional, unregistered, unlicensed, unaccountable
"counsellors".
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