Chester Borrows MP
National Party Police Spokesman
&
Kate Wilkinson MP
National Party Associate Justice Spokeswoman

27 August 2007

Domestic violence report – shameful

National Party Police spokesman Chester Borrows says a report commissioned by the Ministry of Women's Affairs and released today shows the government can and should be doing much more to deal with a pandemic of domestic violence.

“The law should be protecting the victims of violence. Yet women are not only finding it hard to get a protection order, the laws are not being consistently enforced, both in terms of the police response and the sentences handed down to the abusers.

"That's leading to a loss of confidence in the system. While reported assaults by men against women are up by 21% since 1998, the latest Family Court statistics show that applications for protection orders have decreased by 30%, from 6,520 in 1999, to 4,545 in 2005.

“There is an obvious disconnect between the rising tide of violence, and a decline in the use of the legal mechanisms that are there to protect women and children.

“Far too many obstacles are being put in the way of women seeking refuge for themselves and their children.”

National Party Associate Justice spokeswoman Kate Wilkinson has previously highlighted cases where women pulled out of the protection order process because of difficulties accessing lawyers and gaining advice.

“When Women’s Refuge complained that women were reluctant to represent themselves in court in front of their tormentors, Justice Minister Mark Burton dismissed them. Well there is indeed a serious issue, and he should have started doing something about it months ago.

“This report also underlines how important it is for Parliament to provide unambiguous laws to guide the judiciary. When laws are open to interpretation, problems can arise over time, and there are at least a dozen changes to legislation in the recommendations that could be considered,” says Ms Wilkinson.

"The most disturbing message from this report is that women are being denied justice because of the way in which their cases are being handled,” says Mr Borrows.

He also says now would be an obvious time for Police Minister Annette King to provide an update on the progress implementing the recommendations of the Dame Margaret Bazley report.

“Clearly, the police still have much work to do to rebuild public confidence – and while unrelated to today’s report, some of the sentiments expressed in Dame Margaret’s review of police ‘culture’ would appear to be relevant.”

ENDS

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