New Zealand Family Planning Association

25 November 2005   

Women's Affairs Minister Lianne Dalziel
Address to NZ Family Planning Association
Netball Centre
South Hagley Park
Christchurch
10.00am Friday 25 November 2005

It gives me great pleasure to speak at FPA’s Annual Forum.  I was originally invited to speak today in my role as an Honorary Vice President of FPA, but the fact that I am actually here in my new role as Minster of Women’s Affairs makes this a very special occasion for me.

Today is United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and this has particular significance in New Zealand, given that one of the major issues confronting New Zealand today is an endemic level of violence against women and children.

Having sat on the Select Committee that considered the Domestic Violence Act just over a decade ago, it was a shock to sit on the New Zealand Parliamentarians Population and Development group’s Open Hearing into Violence against Women and Children earlier this year.  What shocked me was how little had changed.  The names may have changed but the stories hadn't.  

The NZPPD hearing was part of an Asian Pacific Parliamentarians regional plan to decrease the level of violence in our region, and was arranged by FPA’s International Development unit.  As I have indicated, listening to the submissions of NGOs and the reports of government agencies was an extremely challenging experience.  

I have raised the question on more than one occasion and that is how it is that a home invasion brings a sentencing tariff that reflects society's abhorrence for the breach of the sanctity of the family home, but when the violence is perpetrated by someone else who lives in the family home then somehow it is not so serious?  We all have the right to feel safe in our own homes and it is not good enough to distinguish between perpetrators based on whether its invasion or infiltration.

At the hearing we came up with a number of recommendations, which asked that government focus on action rather than words and commit to funding the capacity that is needed in this area of work.  I see that FPAID is speaking about this initiative today and that there are copies of the report available. Please take one and read it – it gives a valuable snapshot of an aspect of life in New Zealand, which we must all work together to change.

The report of the NZPPD coincided with government action in bringing together a Ministerial Taskforce and a high-level inter-agency Working Group to ensure that action was taken to implement government's commitment to reducing family violence.  I am now on the Ministerial Taskforce (as is Steve Chadwick as the Chair of NZPPD) and we had a meeting of the Taskforce yesterday.  The interagency Working Group made up of the Chief Executives of key government and non-government agencies is also meeting regularly and I am confident that we will make progress.

But the government cannot do this alone, because governments cannot legislate for attitudinal change.  And that is a big part of changing behaviour and that is changing attitudes.  We need to know that women are overwhelmingly the victims of partner violence – that doesn’t mean we don’t address the reality for men who are the victims of partner violence, but let’s be honest about the differences – it’s not the same.  One word describes the difference – fear.  There are women in this country who are as frightened to go home as they are not to go home.  Their fear pervades the household.  Violence against women damages the children who see, hear or feel the violence whether or not they are hit themselves.  

Children brought up in a climate of violence and fear may be damaged for life and those meting out the violence must be told that the harm they do affects more people than the immediate victim.  We must as a society say no to violence.  There must be no tolerance for any level of violence.  And we must commit to consistent messages at every level – zero tolerance to violence does not allow for different standards to be applied to behaviour because of who the perpetrator is and how he is related to the victim.

And it looks like we still have the 'it was her fault' mentality around how we dress and behave as being justification for rape and abuse.  I was shocked to read in the paper recently that a survey in the UK suggested that one in three Britons believes a woman who flirts is partly or totally responsible if she is raped. Between one third and one quarter of respondents also put part or all of the blame on the woman if she fails to say "no" clearly to the man, wears sexy clothes, drinks too much, has many sexual partners or walks alone in a deserted area.  Blaming the victim lets the perpetrators of violence off the hook for criminal behaviour.

I worry about the messages that are sent to young people about how they have to look, think and behave if they are to be worthy of a young man's attention.  'Grooming' is not limited to the predatory child molesters and pedophiles that exist in our communities and some of our advertisers should think about the role they play in stimulating inappropriate attention towards young children.  Let children be children and develop at their own pace is my message for them.

I am pleased to see that Family Planning is playing several roles in seeking to reduce this level of violence through its policy of screening clinic clients for violence and coercion and by providing resources to educators so that they can get consistent messages through to young people about what is and is not acceptable.  Family Planning’s “This isn’t love, this is abuse” resource, for use by educators and clinic staff is a good example of your work in this area which I hope will help young people identify the warning signs of coercion and impending violence and to know where they can seek support.
The linkage between violence and poor sexual and reproductive health outcomes is often overlooked.  The public response to violence is rightly one of empathy, for those affected, but the public reaction to those who are affected by unplanned pregnancy and infection from STIs such as chlamydia, is more likely to be judgmental and critical.  

This attitude also ignores the fact that children who grow up in an atmosphere of violence are at increased risk of early unsafe risky sexual behaviour. It also ignores the fact that coercion is often an aspect of sexual activity; that women do not necessarily have the option to “just say no” or to insist on condom use.

Research by a Family Planning doctor, Anna Whitehead, demonstrates a high prevalence of family violence among women seeking an abortion.  Furthermore, the belief that pregnant women are immune from violence is a myth, and coercion and violence contribute to STI infection, and therefore to increased vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, cervical cancer and infertility, as well as to unplanned pregnancy and abortion.  In these areas alone violence and abuse have a huge personal impact on individuals, and on the social and economic fabric of our communities.

New Zealand’s rate of teenage pregnancy is similar to the level 20 years ago, but it is high in comparison to other OECD countries, and it appears, from the limited data we have, that the chlamydia rate is also one of the highest in the developed world; six times higher than that of Australia, four times higher than that of the UK.  This silent disease has no symptoms in around 70% of those infected; but if left untreated it can impact on the fertility of both women and men.

40 million people today are living with HIV or AIDS, (nearly half of them are women), and the Pacific is confronting an epidemic. New Zealand led the world in minimising the impact of HIV/AIDS on our community in the 1980s and 90s. Regrettably, however, in New Zealand we have also seen HIV numbers increase in recent years, and we have seen that women in New Zealand are increasingly at risk of HIV infection even though the rates are so much lower than in other countries.  

Good sexual and reproductive health is not just a health issue; it impacts on people’s lives and their families and communities. These are complex issues and there is no single, simple solution.  It is critical that we accept the realities of sexual behaviour and address these realities.  This is why we are engaging in a review of sexuality education in our schools – we need excellent resources, confident and capable teachers and effective programmes that respond to young people’s needs in a positive way.

We can learn from the success of countries like the Netherlands, where whole successful reproductive health strategies have been built around the 3Rs of Rights, Respect and Responsibility.

These are critical elements, not only in achieving good sexual and reproductive health, but in any relationship.  Every time we read the paper, or turn on the TV, we see relationships that are frequently violent, and unhappy, and you are certainly unlikely ever to hear discussions about choosing not to have sex or negotiating to use a condom.  Chat rooms and the internet offer speed dating and the concurrent risks.

Regrettably these are often the only role models for relationships that many of our young people see – in a violent or abusive family, young people have no model for an intimate supporting caring relationship.

Teenagers have said they want to learn about relationships at school and that is why FPA has developed Te Piritahi.  This resource is about encouraging healthy relationships and managing what are usually quite different experiences and expectations of those relationships as between girls and boys.  To quote from another FPA booklet but repeated in the introduction to Te Piritahi:

"Most of the girls I know think once you've had sex then relationship, marriage, you know, whatever, but for the boys, you know, 'another notch in the belt' they're not thinking long distance, long term.  
So for boys it can be 'I've had sex –cool'. But like for girls it's 'oh, we're having sex, I'm going to marry him, settle down'."

It is very important that teachers who are working with young people have a clear understanding about their own attitudes to relationships and to be very aware that issues may come up for them as well as for the young people in the class when unhealthy relationships are broached.  This resource develops a toolkit for teaching and learning strategies for negotiating healthy relationships and leaving unhealthy relationships behind.

Understanding the signs of a potentially coercive and abusive relationship is critical to remaining safe.   I like the idea in particular of using some of the popular television programmes (like Shortland Street) to get young people to identify how unrealistic some of the relationships they portray are.  I worry that exposure to fictitious relationships without any parental guidance can lead impressionable young women to normalise behaviours which will be damaging to them in the long run.  They need to know that they are the decision-maker around the relationships they have – not their peers and not someone asserting control over them.

I am sure schools will find it extremely useful in helping to equip young people to deal with the challenges that such relationships present and it is a pleasure to be able to launch it today.

So thank you again for inviting me to be with you.  I want to conclude with a quote:

“The public through the submissions made to this Committee, has expressed its concern at the increase in violence and has called on it to find solutions.  It is not unfair to say that the public now has the community it deserves.  For the last two or three decades permissiveness has gone unchecked; domestic violence is rampant;
the ‘macho’ image has been encouraged by advertising for commercial interests to the detriment of women;aggressive behaviour and violence in ‘sport’ has become accepted; pornography has become accepted as the norm, as has violence in the visual media; racism has increased; economic inequality with its attendant stresses and frustrations has increased; illiteracy and lack of parenting skills are common and awareness of spiritual values is sadly lacking.”

This is a powerful piece of text, and can be found under the heading ‘the Unpalatable Truth’.  It is unpalatable, because it tells us that we are all responsible for the kind of society we have today, and I say today, because those words could have been written today.  This section of the report ends with the phrase :

No one can afford to be complacent about the problem. Violence occurs by acts of commission and omission and we are all responsible.”

These words were written nearly 20 years ago and can be found in the Report of the Ministerial Committee on Violence 1987 – known as the Roper Report.  My frustration comes from knowing that these are not new questions we are facing, but my determination is that we remain focused as a government on the solutions that will make a difference.  

With resources like Te Piritahi the Family Planning Association will continue to make a significant contribution to the attitudinal change that is required to bring about the elimination of violence against women, as well as the skills to identify and respond to controlling behaviour.  And organising forums like today's forum reminds us of the important linkages there are between issues – in this case violence against women and sexual & reproductive health.  

So thank you to the Family Planning Association on behalf of us all, but especially on behalf of the young women who will be better equipped to take care of themselves in the future because of your commitment to them.