Hon Judith Collins
Minister of Justice

Hon Paula Bennett
Minister for Social Development

4 July 2014

Labour offering nothing new on Family Violence

“Labour’s announcement today on family violence is just smoke and mirrors and victims deserve better,” Justice Minister Judith Collins and Social Development Minister Paula Bennett say.

“Throwing money at the issue and a hastily drafted action plan will not protect New Zealanders from violent offenders,” says Ms Collins and Mrs Bennett.

“Their big initiative is to have family violence led by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. This will come as no comfort to the victims of family violence. We need to focus on the victims and on prevention services that actually work.”

“We need effective services, stronger laws, and continued investment in new technology to support our Police to make a real difference in making homes safer and free of violence.

“This Government already invests nearly $70 million on contracted family violence services, this is on top of the nearly $35 million we invest in sexual violence services as well core spending within government services,” Mrs Bennett says.

“Labour is offering is nothing new – in fact it’s out of date. This Government is ensuring money spent on family violence services is effective and that they actually get results,” Ms Collins says.

Earlier this week we announced a comprehensive cross-Government package to break the cycle of violence and achieve intergenerational change. This has been developed in response to the Report of the Expert Advisory Group on Family Violence.

We will:
• Strengthen primary prevention programmes that prevent family violence from occurring and change attitudes and behaviours
• Increase early intervention to identify and support people at risk (both victims and perpetrators)
• Sharpen our focus on victim safety, holding perpetrators to account, and breaking the intergenerational cycle of violence

Initiatives planned already include:
• Establishing a nationwide home safety service and mobile GPS tracked personal alarms to help victims who want to leave a violent relationship and help them remain their own homes.
• Introducing legislation to stipulate GPS monitoring of high-risk domestic violence offenders.
• Establishing a Chief Victims Advisor to the Minister of Justice to advise on the needs and views of victims of crime, including family violence

ENDS

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