Wong Pansy: Domestic Violence (Enhancing Safety) Bill — First Reading 
Wong Pansy: Domestic Violence (Enhancing Safety) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:651;Page:990] 
Hon PANSY WONG (Minister of Women’s Affairs) 
: 
 I acknowledge the strong heartfelt speech made by Hone Harawira MP. I think it is important for men to speak out and take a lead in terms of eliminating violence against women. My first activity after becoming Minister of Women’s Affairs was to hand out white ribbons at 7 a.m. at Wellington Railway Station. I am pleased to say that on that day half a million white ribbons were handed out. The International Women’s Day movement was started by a group of Canadian men with the objective of eliminating violence against women. 
The Ministry of Women’s Affairs is charged with providing the Government with policy that leads to the well-being of women. One of the major barriers and obstacles to their well-being is violence inflicted on them. Let me share the following statistic which will demonstrate why it is such a tragedy that we need to tackle. The 2008 report of the National Collective of Independent Women’s Refuges stated that every 26 days a woman dies at the hand of her partner or former partner—every 26 days a woman dies at the hand of her partner or former partner. Of course countless others are injured or scared every single day. That simply is not good enough and it simply has to stop. 
I have the pleasure of taking a call in this House on the Domestic Violence (Enhancing Safety) Bill. The Prime Minister the Hon John Key made this issue a priority of the National Government’s first 100 days and the Minister of Justice the Hon Simon Power has brought this legislation which provides for on-the-spot protection orders to the House under urgency and I welcome that. It sends a strong message. The fact that all parties in this House unanimously support the bill being sent to a select committee for examination sends a very positive signal that members of Parliament collectively will not stand for the amount of violence that is being inflicted on the women the mothers of our country. It is a very good start to this Parliament. 
I have written to the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Police about several matters one of which the Green Party member Sue Kedgley pointed out. I support the introduction of the bill which gives a qualified constable the authority to issue protection orders on the spot but we have learnt from the experience of Western Australia that among the issues we need to address early on is training the police to detect the problem. As was pointed out by Sue Kedgley MP a calm and collected offender might give the wrong impression and the constable might not correctly read the signs. Also it is important that during the 5 days—or whatever period the select committee might recommend as being effective—of the protection order the victim should be well informed as to the type of service and the level of support available to her and her children. At the same time we should not forget that the offenders should be told to get some help during that cooling-off period—help that will hopefully stop them from repeating their behaviour. I am totally convinced that my colleagues the Minister of Justice who has introduced this legislation and the Minister of Police will take up those recommendations in order to make sure that the implementation of the legislation will justify its unanimous support by Parliament. 
The other issue is that the Ministry of Women’s Affair when examining this legislation wanted to flag that the issuing of a protection order should never be a substitute for the police arresting perpetrators. Obviously we condone the issuing of an instant protection order for the sake of the victims but we should tell the police that doing so should never be a substitute for arresting and prosecuting the perpetrators. It is not a substitution. 
Once again I thank the House in my capacity as Minister of Women’s Affairs for its unanimous support of the first reading of the bill. I look forward to the report back from the select committee and to seeing the unanimous support of the House for the bill’s final reading in order that a very strong message is sent out there that violence against women is simply not acceptable in New Zealand.