Goff visits in support of anti-violence campaign

Labour Party leader Phil Goff didn't have to look far for signs of the national pilot campaign "Family violence is not OK in Waihi" last Friday. He drove past one of the billboards on his way into town.
At his request, Mr Goff and list MP Jacinda Adern - Labour's spokesperson for youth affairs and youth justice - ended a day in the Coromandel with a shortened presentation of the July 2 project launch.
Deputy mayor Mary Carmine told the MPs that the three-month awareness-raising campaign was sparked by a Hauraki District Council "Better Futures" forum where police presented concerning statistics about family violence, alcohol and drugs in Waihi.
The project is also supported by the Hauraki Family Violence Intervention Network, police and Waikato District Health Board; and is the first in New Zealand to be financially backed by both the high-profile government campaign "It's not OK" and the Alcohol Advisory Commission's "Ease up on the drink". An ALAC-funded evaluation will measure the campaign's effectiveness, with a view to repeating it in other towns.
Mr Goff watched a slideshow featuring 12 local faces of the campaign, which is playing in Waihi supermarkets and liquor stores.
As well, key messages are being communicated on giveaway recyclable shopping bags, brochures and through local media.
But Rachel Harrison of the violence intervention network said the campaign team "didn't want to raise awareness without making sure that services were there to help. So we did a stocktake of the services available - and there's been so much demand for the directory listing them that we have to reprint it".
Sergeant Tony Mumford said police have received 60 per cent more reports of domestic violence since the campaign began, "though we think that's probably still only about 15 per cent of what's happening".
He said another senior police officer was approached in the street by a man who had seen the billboards, and asked where he and his partner could get alcohol counselling.
Mr Goff said that during a visit to the Waihi Budget Service on Friday morning, he'd heard that financial pressure is also impacting on local domestic violence.
The Waihi initiative dovetails well with the national campaigns, he said - he's keen to see funding continue for "It's not OK" - and with parliamentary consideration of liquor law changes.
Mr Goff is already planning to be in Waihi for the 100th anniversary commemorations of the 1912 miners' strike. He has personal connections to the town through his wife's family, he said.
"Her two sisters grew up here, and my nieces went to Waihi College."
He himself attended Papatoetoe High School, where Mrs Carmine taught for three of the years he was a student.