Friday 31 August 2007 For immediate release

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Criticism Does Not Undermine Reality

The National Council of Women of New Zealand (NCWNZ) is taking issue with comments made by critics of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs commissioned report “Living at the Cutting Edge – Women’s Experience of Protection Orders”.

“NCWNZ believes that the criticism of the report in respect to research bias and limited data is unfair when statistics prove that the majority of victims of domestic violence in New Zealand are women and children”, said Christine Low.

“NCWNZ agrees with the comments made by the Minister of Women’s Affairs, Lianne Dalziel yesterday on Radio New Zealand’s Morning Report programme, where she stated that the important focus of the report was in the fact that 43 courageous women had told their stories so that more could be learnt from the personal experiences people have had seeking protection orders from the system,” said NCWNZ President, Christine Low.

“There is a disturbing trend emerging with protection order applications with a 40% drop in the number of orders applied for from ten years ago. From that reduced number just over 50% were actually granted a protection order”, continued Christine Low. “Yet there has been no perceived decrease in family violence incidents. There is an urgency to address and reduce the actual incidences and improve family life.”

It is recognised that only about ten percent of all domestic violence is reported in New Zealand.
Statistics show that in the last ten years there has been a 40% increase in the number of family violence incidents reported to police.

“Despite the vocal criticism of the Report from people within the system who may have interpreted it from a personal point of view, it is heartening that even they have admitted that a number of the recommendations should be acted upon to improve how the system deals with domestic violence”, concluded Christine Low.

ENDS

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