Simon Power MP National Party Law & Order Spokesman

17 August 2006

Labour embarrassed by family violence failure

"Labour is so embarrassed at the doubling of family violence cases that it has been forced to crank up its spin machine to control the damage," says National Party Law & Order spokesman Simon Power.

"Labour is so callous that it delayed answering serious questions about the level of family violence until a busy news day, then provided damning figures to the media late in the afternoon accompanied by a healthy dollop of flimsy spin.

"I asked for these figures back in April. I am appalled that Labour would try to sweep the serious issue of family violence under the rug in such an unscrupulous way."

Mr Power says the answers to his written questions arrived at 4:30pm yesterday. They were four months overdue. Police Minister Annette King issued her own statement revealing the figures at 3:46pm.

"The Minister claims that the dramatic increase is due to society becoming more open to reporting family violence, but the truth is she can't be sure."

Reported family violence occurrences have increased from 31,654 in 1999 to 63,685 in 2005, with arrests increasing from 9,311 to 18,305 over the same period.

"This is a shameful record. It's an issue worthy of proper discussion and debate. But all Labour wanted to do was bury it as quickly as possible," says Mr Power.

ENDS

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