PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2 OCTOBER 2007

New Police Statistics Raise Important Questions
About New Zealand Society

After seeing the crime statistics released earlier this week, Tau Huirama, Jigsaw CEO Strategic Relations wants all New Zealander’s to ask themselves whether or not they think New Zealand is a violent country.

Police statistics released yesterday showed that there has been 53,000 violence offences reported in the last year, which meant an average of 145 calls per day.

Mr. Huirama thinks that these statistics show the seriousness of the situation in New Zealand and hopes it makes New Zealander’s think about whether their actions are violent.

“These statistics show that a large proportion of New Zealand is violent and this is not good enough. I hope the high number of violent incidents make everyone sit up and take notice. It might make people realise that what they do in their lives is violent and it is not ok.”

Mr. Huirama believes that it is every New Zealander’s responsibility to reduce the high number of violent acts in New Zealand.

“Everyone needs to work together to make children and families in New Zealand safe. Every New Zealander must work with the Government, community agencies, Maori leaders and other community leaders to make New Zealand a safe place. It will only happen if we realise that it is everyone’s responsibility to look out for each other.”

Mr. Huirama sees positives in the increase in reporting of domestic violence.

“The 4.4% increase in reporting of crimes shows that more people are realising that it is not ok to hurt or harm people in anyway. New Zealand will be safe once all New Zealanders realise that it is not ok to hurt people. It is important that if anyone knows of any domestic violence in their family or in their community, that they report it immediately.”

Mr. Huirama knows what he would like to see in the future.

“In the next twelve months I would like to see two things from all New Zealanders. I would like to see the number of domestic violence incidents to drop. I would like to see an increase in the number of people reporting incidents of domestic violence. If these two things improve each year, it will make New Zealand a safer place for children and families in New Zealand.”

ENDS

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