11. SIMON POWER (National—Rangitikei) Link to this
to the Minister of Justice
Does she agree with the statement by the Minister of Police that “there have been increases in violence in New Zealand. I can also confirm that most of it is driven by reported domestic violence.”; if so, what responsibility should the justice system bear for this?
Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister of Justice) Link to this
Yes, I do agree, because those are the facts as presented by the statistics. The responsibility for domestic violence in New Zealand lies fairly and squarely with the perpetrators, and to blame a system is an attempt to deny that we have a problem.
How does she reconcile that statement with the fact that there has been a 25 percent decline in temporary protection orders granted since 2000 and a 30 percent decline in final protection orders, and does not this suggest that if reporting is occurring in greater numbers, victims of domestic violence have less confidence in the justice system, and that it will protect them, since her Government came to office?
No, I do not agree with that and it is certainly not what we hear from those working with victims of domestic violence, nor from the police, nor from almost anyone else I know of. In fact, urgent action and taking family violence seriously in its early stages is likely to lead to a better outcome than waiting until the situation has become so bad that people are applying for protection orders.
How could she agree with the Minister of Police that increases in violence are being driven by reported domestic violence, when the number of applications for protection orders was 4,511 in 2007, compared with 6,520 such applications in 1999?
I can agree with the Minister of Police because the facts are as I have set them out. Reported violence has gone up considerably; it has almost doubled—
Hon Dr Nick SmithI resent the comment made by Dr Smith, that I am making this up. The statistics come from the New Zealand Police. I do not make them up. National members might not like them, but they are the statistics.
I am sorry, but these are the statistics. Reported domestic violence in New Zealand has increased hugely over the last decade. Fortunately, reporting has as well, but also so has prosecution of those people who commit family violence. I think we have to get our heads around the fact that when people report domestic and family violence, it is a good thing because we are starting to get an idea of the level of family violence in our society. I cannot understand why members opposite want to minimise reported domestic violence.
Kate WilkinsonWhy should the public believe she is serious about domestic violence, when nearly 2 years ago the Government was alerted by Women’s Refuge to the severe shortage of family lawyers in Blenheim, which led some women to give up on taking out protection orders, and now that Nick Smith, the Nelson Women’s Centre, the Nelson Bays Community Law Service, and the Nelson District Law Society all wrote to her last month to alert her to the same problems occurring in Nelson, when will she do something about it?
I am assured by the Legal Services Agency that it is certainly addressing those issues. The people of New Zealand can take comfort from this Government taking it seriously, for a number of reasons. First of all, we did set up a multiparty family violence team. I am pleased to say that we have members on that team from the Progressive party, United Future, New Zealand First, the Māori Party, the Green Party, and the ACT party. People will note that there is one party missing. It is the National Party. It was asked to join the group but withdrew in September 2006. National was again invited to join in August 2007 and again it declined. If anybody is not taking family violence seriously, it is the members of Parliament opposite.
What practical difference will be made to the lives of victims of domestic violence by the recent appointment of members to a Criminal Justice Advisory Board, including the person who cleared the Electoral Finance Bill of any New Zealand Bill of Rights concerns, when the purpose of the board is to “advise justice sector Ministers on further improvements to the criminal justice system”, merely confirming that Labour has well and truly run out of ideas on how to deal with this issue?
To the contrary, this Government established the task force on family violence. It was established in 2005. Let me just read out a list of the achievements that have come from that task force from its first programme of action: the launching of the successful It’s Not OK campaign—something the member said in the press statement he did not think had been going for long enough to make any difference, but that was contrary to what people like Ms Henare from the Women’s Refuge said. We have also had a new police area and district family violence coordinator set up, a new police prosecution service for family violence policy, increased legal aid eligibility thresholds for orders under the Domestic Violence Act 1995, and four more Family Court violence courts—three in Wellington and one in Auckland. Madam Speaker, I know that you want me to stop because this answer is long, but the list is also very long.