Poto Williams

MP for Christchurch East

Spokesperson on Domestic Violence

MEDIA STATEMENT

13 September 2016

Government listens to Labour on family violence

Labour is pleased the Government has finally acted on strengthening a range of measures against family violence, says Labour’s spokesperson on Family Violence Poto Williams.

“Some of the latest changes including a new family violence offence of non-fatal strangulation is straight from a private members bill by Kelvin Davis.

“We are supportive of some of the changes around bail conditions being central to parenting and property order because they increase safety for women and their children.

“However the Government has failed to address how their own earlier changes to the law still make it difficult for offenders to access services which assist them to stop violence.

“Despite the provision that Judges can now make temporary protection orders in exceptional cases the threshold for victims being able to access legal aid to obtain a protection order remains prohibitive.

“On top of this, community providers in the family violence field have had no funding increase for the past eight years in spite of growing demand.

“Labour believes this is an okay start but a lot more needs to be done to make our families safe,” says Poto Williams.

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