The Maori Party is defending the Government against an allegation of institutional racism after a Cabinet minister called on iwi leaders to pay towards improving child abuse statistics.
Social Development Minister Paula Bennett asked Maori leaders last Thursday to commit to a joint effort with the Government for dealing with child abuse.
The Future Focus Bill, which puts greater obligation on those getting the Domestic Purposes Benefit and who have children aged six and over to look for work, passed its final hurdle in Parliament last week and is about to become law.
Ms Bennett says Maori children make up roughly half of the cases of abuse seen by Child, Youth and Family in a year. There have been 126,000 notifications in 2010.
However, Ms Bennett also said it is not just a Maori issue, as 21,000 children of all ethnicities were found to be abused in just one year.
The Green Party says the Government's call for Maori leaders to take greater responsibility for child abuse is institutional racism.
Co-leader Metiria Turei says while the figures are serious, abuse is rife in all communities and the Government is making a scapegoat of Maori child abuse to mask its own bad policies.
However, Maori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell says Ms Bennett's speech did not attack Maori and child abuse needs to be frankly discussed.
"We're all looking at ways in which we can improve things for our people and highlighting the issues of child abuse for everyone to be involved with. And the more people talking about it, the better it is."
Mr Flavell says he does agree with comments made by Ms Turei that it is up to all ethnic groups to work on eradicating child abuse.
