28 September 2018

Barnardos welcomes the Government’s announcement of a renewed emphasis to reduce family and sexual violence.

Chief Executive Jeff Sanders says that “For too long New Zealand has had unacceptably high levels of family and sexual violence. Every year Barnardos works with over 50,000 children and their families and the presence and impact of violence is a significant part of our work” he says.

“We share the Prime Ministers vision for New Zealand to be the best place in the world to be a child, but for far too many kiwi kids that isn’t the case. An estimated 250,000 children have been harmed emotionally and physically by violence at home. This is totally unacceptable, and must be addressed” says Mr Sanders.

In welcoming this announcement Mr Sanders also said that “over the years there have been various attempts and limited success at reducing family and sexual violence. This initiative talks about demonstrating a new way of working across government and at the community level. Barnardos is committed to supporting this new work programme.”

“We particularly welcome the Governments approach to report progress through an annual report to Parliament and that accountability and leadership for this approach will sit with the Chief Executives of the Social Wellbeing Board. This will ensure that the work doesn’t become just another work programme but is focussed on making the required change”.

Mr Sanders also encouraged the government to look at the previous work that has been done to inform the way forward and not repeat past mistakes. “This will also ensure that the project is funded appropriately to achieve the objectives and the governments vision” he says.

ENDS

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