Government looks to eliminate family and sexual violence

Minister for Family and Sexual Violence Marama Davidson has today launched a national engagement process to prevent and eliminate family and sexual violence.

The engagement is set to help develop a national strategy and action plan and for the community to lead. It's about opening a safe and trusted space for all, allowing voices of the community and particularly those with lived experience to be heard.

Davidson told a hui in South Auckland today, "there's no room for violence in our lives".

"There is no place for family violence or sexual violence in our whānau at all. I have always and will always take a whānau-led approach which is why we are all gathered here ahead of discussions across the motu," Davidson said at Ngā Whare Marae.

The Government is hoping to engage with tangata whenua, victims or survivors, people who use violence, disabled people, Pacific peoples, migrants, refugee and ethnic communities, and rainbow communities.

Wahine Māori are also disproportionately represented, Davidson says, with more than 1 in 3 being survivors of family and/or sexual violence.

Davidson says based on this evidence that it is "crucial for Māori leadership and Te Ao Māori thinking" and to include Te Tiriti framework to transform the system.

The engagement will officially begin on Wednesday, May 12 and run until the end of June.

It will include closed invitation community-led hui, anonymous online survey engagement, email and free-post submissions (in writing, by voice or video). All online and email channels will be safe, secure and confidential.

The Government's integrated approach to addressing violence involves 10 agencies that have come together in a Joint Venture.

The Joint Venture will work to eliminate family violence and sexual violence in Aotearoa New Zealand in partnership with tangata whenua and working with the family violence and sexual violence sectors.