Women’s Refuge comments on NZ Herald series Family Violence

Women’s Refuge comments on NZ Herald series Family Violence:

We’re better than this

“There is not much to get excited about in the world of domestic violence today. While changes to our legislation and the way government agencies respond to domestic violence are currently under consideration, New Zealand’s reputation as one of the most violent countries in the developed world where family violence is concerned is nothing to be proud of,” says Dr Ang Jury, Chief Executive of Women’s Refuge.

Dr Jury is commenting on the ‘Family Violence: We’re Better than this’, series about the disgraceful statistics around family violence in New Zealand by the NZ Herald. “We are really appreciative of the careful and thoughtful reporting by Anna Leask and her journalist colleagues, but the opinion pieces appearing alongside their work which support stereotypical victim blaming and accountability dodging by perpetrators seriously undermines their central messages” says Dr Jury.

While pleased and excited that the NZ Herald was bravely attempting to shine the light on our appalling statistics and attitudes around domestic violence why-oh-why did it’s editors consider a forelock pulling apology by Tony Veitch over his ‘one instance’ of domestic violence to be appropriate in the context of this series?” she says.

“His column, while on the surface appearing to be taking responsibility for his actions, was in reality the same self-serving and self-promoting rhetoric he's trotted out previously. Sad!”

Dr Jury points out that one thing well known in the world of domestic violence, is that ‘one instance’ is never one instance. The words, the looks, the opinions and verbal threats are part of a whole package that perpetrators use to control and manipulate their victims.

“Being ‘caught’ for one instance is minimising the crescendo of psychological, verbal and emotional violence (and often physical threats, shoves and demonstrations of power) that inevitably play a part in the domestic violence ‘package’ experienced by so many women across our country each and every day,” says Dr Jury.

The introduction to the Herald series stated that the intent was to encourage victims to have the strength to speak out and abusers the courage to change their behaviour. “By choosing to publish opinion pieces like that by Tony Veitch and the dismissive judgemental comments by Kerre McIvor today, the overall result is one that risks playing right into the core problem that fuels the appalling levels of violence in this country.”

ENDS

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