Shane Reti: Family harm in Whangārei up 51 per cent on 2019 during level 4 lockdown

For the four week period of Level 4 lockdown this year, there were 592 family violence related incidents in Whangārei. Photo / Getty Images

FROM PARLIAMENT

While we were under lockdown level 4 in Whangārei, my office and I dealt with a tsunami of constituent issues that, like many social services, kept me in the office nearly all day every day.

At the April 2 Epidemic Response Committee, [former] Police Commissioner Mike Bush seemed to downplay family violence implications of lockdown, at that point anyway, although he acknowledged there was probably more sitting underneath that the data wasn't reporting.

I seemed to be seeing a lot of family violence issues through my office during lockdown and I could only imagine what others such as police and Women's Refuge were seeing. During these past few weeks, I have done a deep dive into what happened with family violence in Whangārei during the four weeks of lockdown.

For the four week period of level 4 lockdown, there were 592 family violence-related incidents, a 51 per cent increase from the same period last year where there were 391 incidents.

Clearly level 4 had been really hard on families in Whangārei.

To validate these numbers I spoke with our local Women's Refuge, which is more than just a safe house but also provides a wide range of relationship and social services. They confirmed the massive impact level 4 lockdown had in Whangārei.

They tell me that in one week during level 4 they had 1000 calls in Whangārei, more in that one week than their contract volume for a whole year!

They describe how the first week of lockdown was alcohol-related issues as people drank their way through what they had stockpiled. The next few weeks were influenced by drugs, especially methamphetamine withdrawal and addiction.

Our local Women's Refuge also highlighted the huge importance of telecommunications and how families couldn't reach them when the Spark and Vodafone networks crashed around the time lockdown was announced.

They also describe abusive partners breaking cellphones requiring the organisation to buy lots of cheap cellphones for women at risk and placing them in ziplock bags so they could be hidden outside from a violent partner, forced by lockdown to stay at home.

Under lockdown potential calling areas with free Wi-Fi such as McDonald's were closed and unavailable.

This is a big shout-out to Women's Refuge and other organisations that helped us during lockdown. Thank you. Ministry of Social Development and Civil Defence stepped up with funding. Thank you. It was explained to me that for every crisis call there was a community helping-hand who knitted, transported and accommodated. Thank you.

For those who are able, I would direct you to the Givealittle page for Tryphina House, Whangārei Women's Refuge. To all organisations and community people who helped us through level 4 lockdown, thank you.

Shane Reti's Parliamentary questions and answers for the four-week period of level 4 lockdown.

Reply 9208 (2020) has been answered to Dr Shane Reti
Portfolio: Police (Minister - Stuart Nash)
Question: How many family-violence-related incidents, if any, were reported to police during alert level 4 in Whangārei?
Reply: I am advised that there were a total of 592 family harm investigations in Whangārei policing area between March 26, 2020 and April 27, 2020.

Reply 10961 (2020) has been answered to Dr Shane Reti
Portfolio: Police (Minister - Stuart Nash)
Question: In response to reply 9208 (2020), how does this number of family-violence-related incidents compare to the same period in 2019?
Reply: I am advised that the number in reply 9208 (2020) is larger than the number of family harm investigations in Whangārei policing area between March 28, 2019 and April 29, 2019.

Reply 12391 (2020) has been answered to Dr Shane Reti
Portfolio: Police (Minister - Stuart Nash)
Question: Further to reply 10961 (2020) what was the number of family-violence-related incidents for the same period in 2019?
Reply: I am advised that there were 391 family harm investigations in Whangārei policing area between March 28, 2019 and April 29, 2019.

• Dr Shane Reti is the Member of Parliament for Whangārei.