Sir Ray Avery Personal opinion piece

New Zealand is a world leader with respect to Family and Sexual violence and more New Zealanders are murdered per head of population due to family violence incidences than any other country in the OECD.

NZ Police receive an urgent Family Violence call every four minutes and historically 80% of policing time was spent attending FVSV incidences and protecting victims from serious injury or death and quick police response times saved lives and prevented serious harm.

But all this good work is under threat because Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has embarked on a politically motived law and order campaign to gain political currency by promising to address the spate of retail crimes in NZ by directing police resources to patrol the streets to show police presence across Auckland.

Sir Ray Avery founder and CEO of HelpatHand a not-for-profit Family and sexual violence prevention agency said" Luxon has directed Police resources be redirected to putting police on the street to prevent retail crime and that means Family violence victims may not receive the help they need in a timely manner and some victims may be killed, raped or seriously assaulted due to nil or poor police attendance times. This strategy just doesn’t add up both from a societal and economic perspective."

Police reports show that up to six retail workers are being assaulted each day compared to 360 victims of family violence being assaulted each day and based on historical data up to 30 of these victims will be murdered each year.

It is estimated that family and sexual violence in NZ the costs Government between seven to ten billion dollars annually.

Sir Ray say’s "Our highly successful HelpatHand FVSV prevention program in South Auckland has saved the lives of five Family violence victims and prevented a further seventeen from life threatening injuries and allowed hundreds of families to start new lives free from the fear of ongoing abuse.

The HelpatHand program can reduce the incidence of FVSV by up to 85%, save lives, reduce re-offending by around 60%, reduce Police FVSV callout rates, and let families and children exiting violent relationships, get on with their lives free from fear of further abuse.

We have requested $2m from Government for funding to roll out the program Nationwide which would deliver a ROI of $60m in ACC savings alone but have been advised that family violence prevention funding is not on the Governments agenda for the foreseeable future.

While Luxon may bask in his " Law and order" limelight he needs to understand he is actually filling the pipeline for young ram raid offenders who come from broken homes where family violence and sexual abuse is on the menu every day.

Diverting police resources and leaving our Wahine and Tamariki unprotected will result in more family violence offending and reoffending and result in preventable deaths.

Sadly politicians don't make fact based strategic decisions to support the wellbeing of their constituents but make decisions based on promoting their personal political currency and victims of Family and Sexual violence may pay the ultimate price."

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