Logie Jan: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLogie Jan: General Debate[Sitting date: 21 October 2015. Volume:709;Page:7419. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JAN LOGIE (Green): The irony of following successive National Party MPs claiming how much they support the environment on the day that a report came out showing that 60 percent of our rivers have lost quality is beyond me. But that is not what I am wanting to speak about today. He broke his partner’s back and used his power and influence to misrepresent his violence and discredit her. He is still using his power to minimise his violence while refusing to take responsibility. Tony Veitch is sending men all around New Zealand the message that hey “hideous relationships” happen but you can move on with a continuing disregard for the person or people you hurt. No worries mate! People might suggest you are abusive but really you are the victim! Mr Veitch might say that I am a hater for saying this but actually this is not a message of hate. I believe that Mr Veitch’s life would be a whole lot better if he was able to put himself in the shoes of his ex-partner. Sure facing up to what he has done would be hard and might completely change his life but it would be worth it. Even if it was not it might just be for his ex-partner.One in three women in New Zealand is likely to experience violence in their most intimate relationship. That reality is a call for action for us as political leaders and for all of us in this society. People are not born abusive—abuse is a choice but one that is all too often supported by our society. The conviction rate for domestic violence sits below 2 percent in this country. Accountability is a prerequisite for rehabilitation yet in most cases our justice system does not enable rehabilitation. We need men who use violence—and their partners and children—to know that change is possible.Yesterday the Law Society and NGOs raised concerns about the inability of many women to access protection orders in this country because the threshold for getting legal aid is set below the minimum wage. Things are so bad in this country now that a philanthropic trust has had to give money to the Women’s Refuge to be able to help fund women to access protection orders.Yet the counterbalance to that was that yesterday our media was preoccupied with Tony Veitch and his disregard for his own violence. Some people might say that it is unfair to target poor Tony Veitch—and I have seen the comments. I say that it is unfair that he continues to use his considerable wealth and power to undermine his ex-partner. That is not promoting the cultural change that we need as a society—the cultural change that he needs. Our cultural change that we so desperately need must be supported by institutional change by an assurance of women’s access to justice that is not there now.The Government has set a target to reduce crime and we heard in the House today how well this Government is doing yet it has put pressure on the police to reduce the number of recorded offences. Reporting is going up recorded offences are going down and the number of convictions is going down. That is not delivering justice. We have been told that the reasons for this are the Better Public Service targets for police prosecution guidelines. We need to look at those things as part of the review of our protection. We have a real problem with the very very fundamentals of our system. There is an interaction between the system and our culture and we need to work on both. The Government I hope will listen to the calls for the review of family violence to consider the issues of legal aid the family court and police prosecution guidelines. We need to do everything we can for this cultural and institutional change.