Shine delighted with new Government joint venture to address family and sexual violence
Today Government is announcing that a “new way of working will bring chief executives together in a joint venture to
deliver an integrated, whole-of-government approach to family violence and sexual violence. This will create a single
point of accountability and leadership, as recommended by the sector and experts such as the Law Commission and the
Family Violence Death Review Committee. The joint venture will enable a strategic overview of prevention, early
intervention, crisis response and support for long-term recovery that will be set out in a national strategy and action
plan. Its role is to lead, integrate, and provide support for everyone involved, to ensure an effective
whole-of-government response to family violence and sexual violence.”
Shine is delighted with this announcement. According to Shine’s General Manager (GM) Jane Drumm:
“Previous Governments have attempted to set up structures to assist with developing and implementing a coordinated
approach to family violence across Ministries. These were positive initiatives, but clearly haven’t yet provided the
impetus to invest significantly in solving this massive societal problem nor enough accountability to ensure each
Ministry and Government Department does its part to address the issue.
“This Government initiative shows the greatest promise of creating meaningful change in terms of an effective,
system-wide response to domestic violence that prioritises safety and wellbeing for adult and child victims, and which
holds perpetrators accountable while motivating and supporting them to change their behaviour.
“It’s positive that consultation and collaboration with Maori is a critical component of how this joint venture will
operate, especially since Maori are disproportionately affected by family violence.”
New Zealand has unacceptable rates of family violence and sexual violence which severely undermine the lifetime
wellbeing of victims and their children. For far too long, Shine and other specialist family and sexual abuse providers
have struggled to support growing numbers of victims referred and needing our support, with terribly inadequate
resourcing for our services.
Jane Drumm says,
“Shine’s frontline advocates spend a frustrating and disheartening amount of time battling with government agencies on
behalf of our clients, either because of unhelpful or unsafe responses or because of a lack of coordination between
agencies. So we have struggled to
not only support victims, but also advocate for changes in domestic violence related laws, policies and procedures of
various agencies.
“But the problems are massive and complex; every time we feel there is a step forward in our Government’s response to
domestic violence, there seems to be a step backwards somewhere else in the system.
“So we wholeheartedly welcome the development of ‘an ambitious national strategy and action plan’ by the end of the year
and look forward to seeing many more steps forward in addressing the massive and complex problem of domestic violence in
New Zealand in the near future.”
ENDS