In his cross-country journey, SoSaturnistic has travelled to Christchurch to meet with individuals representing local family advocacy groups and discuss the state of domestic violence as a political issue.

Good evening everyone, I want to just note that the matter of violence and abuse is always a difficult and sensitive subject to discuss. It’s even harder to deal with on a day to day basis and address. So I want to take a moment and pay tribute to your work here since it is absolutely vital for so many.

SoSaturnistic waits for the applause to die down a bit.

Family violence is a real issue for our country. It’s a real issue for the region; in 2019 Canterbury showed among the largest growth in family violence incidents in the country. We need to take real action to stop this and turn these statistics around. It shouldn’t need stating, but there’s real costs to family violence.

Given that it is a gendered issue, 80% of victims are women after all, it’s something that is a top priority for the Feminist Initiative. Our party has committed to introducing new interventions and implementing new policies to deal with this matter. Past Parliaments have done quite a lot, but it’s not enough. Let’s review where we are at. There is a surging demand for support services, we need more coverage there in the short term but at the same time we need to take on the underlying causes which drive people towards violence, like poverty, alcoholism, and social norms which place women in positions of disempowerment. We will make sure that any policy enacted does not deepen gender inequality; that’s our commitment and our test. We will also make sure that charities and the state have the support needed to fulfill the needs of victims.

The Domestic Violence—Victims’ Protection Act offered some new rights for victims, but at the same time it doesn’t go far enough. For example, it takes up to three months for someone who is abused to receive any response to the change in working time. That has to change and be shortened. We need to offer better legal guidance surrounding the nature of the definitions of domestic abuse because many people don’t know what financial abuse is. We need to ensure that remedies meant to secure personal safety are more accessible and attuned to personal circumstances, in particular the protection order system.

Then on the criminal justice side we need some reform as well. Often the system is hard to navigate—a robust system of legal aid and advocacy is vital here. We have to then sharpen up our ability to enforce these matters because it just so happens that the actual rates of prosecution and conviction are quite low—no more than 10%. This can be addressed through improved prosecutorial guidance. The nature of “assault” as an offence needs to be substantially reformed to prevent misguided sentencing. Some factors which encourage the sorts of exploitative family relationships which fuel violence, like the existence of forced marriages, need to be made into criminal offences. Finally we can use the Victim’s Rights Act to ensure that these sorts of matters are prioritised by the courts, given that waiting and delays can compound issues and a sense of instability in life for people who are already struggling.

A thorough reform is in order, and it’s a reform that’s unfortunately not been made a priority of political parties for quite a while. We need to take better actions to mitigate and reduce this violence which is increasing and harming so many people in Christchurch, Canterbury, and the country. I hope that, even if you don’t take part in the party politics, we can genuinely build some consensus around necessary reforms and redouble our efforts to limit the reach of violence in our communities. Thank you.

SoSaturnistic then steps out from behind the podium and chats with the advocates.