National Collective of Independent Women's Refuges

July 2005

Women's Affairs Minister Ruth Dyson
Address to National Collective of Independent Women's Refuge, Grand Hall, Parliament
4.00 pm Monday 4 July 2005

Rau rangatira maa,
tenei te mihi ki a koutou i runga i te kaupapa o te ra.
Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.

[Distinguished guests, greetings to you gathered here for this purpose today. Greetings once, twice, three times to you all.]

Thank you Heather (Henare) and Women’s Refuge for the honour of helping you launch your national appeal.

I would also like to acknowledge some of the other guests, including:
• my colleagues Michael Cullen and Mark Burton;
• MPs from a number of the other parties;
• Dame Kate Harcourt, Nikki Hart and Barrie Thomas from The Body Shop, and Nicola Harvey from Saatchi & Saatchi, representing companies that have been such supportive sponsors of the Women’s Refuge.

I’m also very happy to play a part in your important work and to accept your petition for increased funding.

The response to that petition is, of course, one I cannot make on my own, but what I can say now is that firstly, government will give the request for more funding, very careful consideration and, secondly, I am committed to ensuring that Women’s Refuge continues to be viable, so the essential services it provides can continue.

We are all striving for the same results – to protect vulnerable women and children from the impacts of family violence, while at the same time addressing the complex task of understanding and tackling the underlying causes of family violence.

There are not many organisations you can say that both save lives and change lives, but Women’s Refuge is one such organisation. Last year about 6,000 women and children used your emergency housing, while a total of about 24,000 used your services in various ways.

You are clearly a critical part of the first line of defence, and I applaud you for your pro-active stance towards addressing problems such as your reports on the Domestic Violence Act 1995 and its shortcomings particularly in the area of protection orders. Protection orders that are unreasonably delayed, circumvented or inadequately enforced mean some women are needlessly put at risk of injury or even death.

Reducing violence against women and children is very high on the government’s agenda and just as important are our social policies, such as the Working for Families package, which are putting more money into many homes and are helping to reduce poverty, an underlying cause of violence in the home.

As I’m sure you know, we have not yet turned the corner on family violence, though the rate of increase in recorded violent offences has steadily been reducing over the past four years. I’m hopeful that this reflects changing attitudes and less tolerance of violence, on the back of sustained efforts by Police and other agencies to increase awareness and reporting of domestic violence over the past decade.

Fifty, or even 30 years ago, we couldn’t even have a national debate about family violence. Now at least, we can and we are having that debate. Attitudes are changing.

We will continue to do our best to get the right policy, laws and enforcement, but violence is not something that government alone can fix. Violence will only stop when we no longer tolerate it.

We all need to be more aware of the impact of our actions in our relationships; in the way we tolerate or ignore violence in our families and communities, whether as parents on the sidelines at our kids’ sports matches or in our attitudes towards bullying at work and in our schools.

Violence is our problem, not someone else’s, and only we can fix it, as individuals and by working together. We need to see a major turn-around in our country’s unacceptable family violence statistics so that the demand for your services fades away.

Government for its part pledges to continue to support the Women’s Refuge and to work with you. New Zealand needs the Refuge and the Refuge needs the support of all New Zealanders. I hope all New Zealanders feel the same and reach deep into their pockets to support your annual appeal.

Thank you for the opportunity to launch your national appeal and good luck for its success and your ongoing work.