The inquest into the death in 2007 of Rotorua three-year-old Nia Glassie has been adjourned until September 28 for one further witness, the former national head of Women's Refuge, Merepeka Raukawa-Tait, to be heard.
It had been anticipated the hearing would run for most of this week but Coroner Dr Wallace Bain said proceedings had been shortened by counsel involved collating evidence and filing submissions at relatively short notice.
At today's sitting evidence was heard from Nia's mother Lisa Kuka, two police officers involved in the investigation into Nia's death, the children's commissioner, the acting chief social worker for CYF, Rotorua paediatrician Johan Morreau and the district's mayor Kevin Winters.
Dr Morreau, who chairs the New Zealand Paediatric & Child Health Division of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, said New Zealand had a lot of work to do on the issue of child abuse.
"As a country we have to face up to it and acknowledge we have got a problem, if we don't we will go on getting these sort of problems that we are dealing with in increasing umbers."
He called for data sharing between agencies and the reporting of suspected abuse by schools, pre-schools, kohanga reo and the health sector.
Earlier Kuka told the inquest that she considered wrestling moves she saw brothers Wiremu and Michael Curtis apply to her daughter to be play fighting.
Questioned by her counsel Panama Le'au'anae, Kuka said had she considered Nia had been hurt she would have intervened "and that would have been the end of that".
Kuka denied her love for Wiremu Curtis was more than her love for Nia.
Probed further whether her love for work as a supervisor in a kiwifruit packing factory was more important to her than her role as a mother, Kuka said that as a mother she needed to work to support her children.
The court heard that a child from one of Kuka's previous relationships had been admitted to hospital with severe injuries. Child Youth and Family had investigated but no charges were laid.
That child had been in her father's care and she was at work when the injuries occurred.
Referring to her relationship with Wiremu Curtis, 14 years her junior, Kuka agreed he was far too young to care for children of Nia's age.
The head of the police investigation into Nia's death, Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Loper, agreed with Dr Bain that it would be helpful if schools and pre-schools alerted police about children suffering from bruising and similar forms of abuse.
Nia suffered massive head injuries after being kicked in the head.
She died in Auckland's Starship hospital on August 3, 2007, nearly two weeks after she was taken to Rotorua Hospital in a coma.
Wiremu and Michael Curtis were convicted by a jury in the High Court at Rotorua of murdering and wilfully ill-treating Nia. They were sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17-1/2 years.
Kuka was found guilty of manslaughter and jailed for nine years.
Oriwa Kemp and Michael Pearson were convicted of ill treating Nia. Pearson was jailed for three years and released last month. Kemp was jailed for three years and four months.
