During my time with the police, I agreed to complete the Family Violence Death Reviews. The aim was to review the police files in order to understand what could have been done to save a life. This information was fed back to the Family Violence Death Review Panel. The one thing that stood out for me was that some people fall between the cracks.
The local doctor knew what was happening, the teacher was concerned, neighbours had called police but there was no way to join up this information. Good information sharing could happen at a local level but we needed a national plan to detect people at risk from violence and to prevent the hurt happening in the first place. New Zealand is a small country, we should be able to ensure that people don’t fall between the cracks. No one can argue the fact that we all want to stop women and children being hurt and killed in their own homes.
Ginny Andersen. Photo / RNZ, Samuel Rillstone
Our Government set up Te Aorerekura under the Ministry for the Prevention of Family Violence and Sexual Violence in 2021 to provide a solution that would take time, 25 years at least. The whole point of Te Aorerekura was to shift us away from a crisis-only response. By investing in organisations on the ground so local help can be stronger and be more focused on prevention.
Programmes such as E Tū Whānau, It’s Not OK, Bodysafe, Pasefika Proud, Atu-Mai and Mates and Dates have laid the foundation for primary prevention and they are proven to work. These programmes focus on preventing family violence and sexual violence through changing attitudes and behaviours and growing sustainable community leadership. This is about building networks so that people are far less likely to fall between the cracks.
They are an investment in the future of our children to live lives free from physical and sexual violence. I really hope that these family violence prevention programmes are not considered “back-office waste” by Nicola Willis and cut to deliver tax cuts for this Budget.
There are no quick political fixes to stop or solve family violence. The Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence, Karen Chhour, says there is no specific target for family violence in the Prime Minister’s priorities. This is because the Government is putting family violence in the “too hard” basket. Information released under the Official Information Act shows that it was not an area able to be changed within a three- to six-month period. This is a Government of three different agendas, all clambering over each other to stamp their mark and claim what they have delivered to the voters before the next election, not to make actual positive change.
Like a lot of things with this coalition Government, it is going to take us backwards on the prevention of family violence. You would think that for a Government that campaigned so hard on reducing crime would have more interest in measuring family violence as one of the main causes of crime in New Zealand.
When I was Minister of Police, I saw that more than 80 per cent of young people involved in serious offending were from homes that had high rates of family violence reported – there is a direct link between youth offending and family violence. However, there is absolutely no evidence that boot camps are a long-term solution to address the high levels of family violence that some children and young people are being repeatedly subjected to.
Realistically, there is limited scope for enough co-operation and foresight to deal with complex, intergenerational issues such as family violence. I have grave fears for those people who fall between the cracks. When I asked Karen Chhour if she would fund the sexual violence helpline, her response was that this was the responsibility of the Minister of Police. Meanwhile, police are stepping back from family violence call-outs. Instead, the Minister of Police is “laser-focused” on enforcing his gang patch ban – which does nothing to address the causes of crime. It’s pretty bleak, and it will just take us backwards.
If we are serious about stopping the deaths of children in their own homes, if we are serious about preventing the next generation of young people having violence normalised, then we must implement a long-term plan that has no political colours attached to it. It is not easy, there is no simple target to reach, it will take time and it will cost money.
This Government has a big call to make this Budget. If they do decide to axe critical funding to Te Aorerekura and in return give a $2.9 billion tax cut to landlords, then they must be held accountable. Ultimately, their failure to act will not only contribute to a rising crime rate, it will also cost lives.
