5. Hon PETER DUNNE (Leader—United Future) Link to this
to the Prime Minister
What advice, if any, has she received from the Minister for Social Development and Employment or other Government agencies about the policies needed to curb the rise of family violence in New Zealand?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN (Deputy Prime Minister) Link to this
The Prime Minister has received many reports from the Minister and from Government agencies on this matter, including, of course, the advice from the Justice and Electoral Committee that there is an urgent need to repeal section 59 of the Crimes Act.
Does the Prime Minister share the concern of many, many New Zealanders that rising family violence is now virtually endemic and relentless, and that the time has come for action rather than talk; and instead of calling for more reports, will she bring together groups like Plunket, the Families Commission, and Barnardos, which have an interest in this area, to develop a strategy for concerted action that this Parliament can have within the next 3 to 6 months to act upon to curb this mounting problem?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN Link to this
A great deal of that has already occurred, and a number of initiatives are under way right now. There will soon be a very major programme designed to change community attitudes towards violence and abusive behaviour—$11.5 million will go into the community prevention programme. The family violence prevention social service in last year’s Budget received very significant increases in its funding, and there is funding of $14.8 million going towards the Strategies with Kids - Information for Parents—SKIP—programme, which funds some 89 community groups to teach positive parenting and alternatives to physical discipline. At the end of the day this is a community issue, a community problem, and the Government has to work with communities to try to seek solutions to this.
Does the Prime Minister accept that the perception of many in the community is that, despite the initiatives referred to in the earlier answer, the problem is mounting and is close to getting out of control, and that many New Zealanders are sick and tired of every Monday morning waking up to hear of the latest horrific attack that has occurred on children in a New Zealand family; if she does accept that proposition, how does she see the nexus being broken between what look like worthy programmes, on the one hand, and a mounting public concern that nothing much is happening, on the other?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN Link to this
What that comes down to is a number of very difficult issues. Clearly there is mounting public concern. That can be seen as a good thing, in the fact that the public is less accepting of family violence than would have been the case 25, 20, or 15 years ago, when people commonly made remarks that accepted some levels of family violence as being normal. It is not clear that overall there are actual increases in the levels of family violence—there is always the problem of how much of the increase is from reporting changes and how much is from actual change in the incidence of family violence. What the House and the Government can do is make those moves that are within their competence. This House has a chance next Wednesday to make one very clear statement—that it does not support the current section 59 of the Crimes Act, under which kids have been beaten with large lumps of wood, riding crops, and what have you, and people have not been convicted because section 59 provides an excuse for that. It is a simple thing. I will not argue about some of the details of the bill itself, but I state quite clearly to vote for the second reading so that the House can then work through some of the detailed issues subsequently. If the National Party votes against the bill en bloc, as it has said it will do, then the public will draw a conclusion about what that means.
Hon Annette KingCan the Prime Minister confirm that reporting of family violence has doubled in the last 10 years, and does she agree that increases in reporting of family violence should be encouraged?
Judith CollinsHon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN Link to this
The Opposition spokesperson says “For goodness’ sake!”. The Minister is quite right. Incidents of family violence should be reported. It is only by getting more and more reporting of what is actually occurring that the community as a whole can make its own statements about the unacceptability of family violence.