Budget 2023: Funding to tackle family, sexual violence “brilliant” but system needs to change

Patsy Henderson Watt, of Whangārei’s Miriam Centre, says the extra funding is “brilliant” but she has concerns it’s too siloed and won’t get to where it’s most needed. Photo / John Stone

A leading Northland family therapist says extra government cash to combat violence is “brilliant” but the current competitive funding system needs to change.

Just under $75 million has been earmarked in Budget 2023 for schemes the Government hopes will reduce family and sexual violence.

The funding focuses on community initiatives aimed at preventing violence in the first place, as well as better support for people who have suffered violence. That includes a new scheme to protect disabled people at risk of violence, a specialist kaupapa Māori sexual violence service, and funding to support children staying in Women’s Refuge centres.

There’s also extra funding for areas affected by Cyclone Gabrielle, where officials expect family harm to increase.

Marama Davidson, the Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence, said the victims of family or sexual violence had long complained that the trauma of going through the legal system was worse than the original violence.

“For those who have to go through the challenge of being in court, or a dispute resolution process, there will be better support to get them through the experience safely and without being retraumatised,” she said.

More than $3.9m over four years would be set aside for a new “insights hub” to measure progress and allow better information sharing so people didn’t have to repeat traumatic details over and over to different agencies as they sought help.

Other initiatives include:

■ $8.6m over three years for kaupapa Māori specialist sexual violence services;

■ $6.1m over four years for a partnership between health services, police and disability advocates to develop a safety plan for disabled adults at risk of violence;

■ $5.9m for child advocates to support children in Women’s Refuge centres and help them through the court and family dispute resolution systems.

Patsy Henderson Watt, director of the Miriam Centre, works with victims of violence and their families all over Northland.

She said the funding was “brilliant” and the current Government was listening in a way no Government had for many years — but the money was still siloed and divided up among different government departments.

Each department put its own spin on it how the money was to be used or in some cases hijacked it altogether.

Funding should instead be based on primary and secondary prevention, allowing organisations to intervene and address the immediate crisis while also working with the family to help them “heal and move on in non-violent directions”.

The problem lay in the way funding was allocated, with different frontline services having to compete against each other for a slice of the pie instead of working together as a team.

“As long as they keep the funding in a competitive market model, it will never work.”

However, the Miriam Centre would continue to do its work and find funding anywhere it could.

“If only services like ours could be funded so we could do what’s needed without worrying in the middle of the night about how we’re going to pay our staff.”

Henderson Watt welcomed the disability funding and the recognition of the trauma children suffered during the court process, something she was familiar with because in the 1990s she had worked with children who had to give evidence in court.

“It was appalling then and it’s appalling now,” she said.