8. Family/Whānau Violence—Funding for ServicesANGIE WARREN-CLARK (Labour) to the Minister for Social DevelopmentFamily/Whānau Violence—Funding for Services8. ANGIE WARREN-CLARK (Labour) to the Minister for Social Development: What recent announcements has she made about funding for family violence services?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development): Today the Government announced a $76 million boost over four years to front-line family violence services—the first significant increase in 10 years. This is an almost 30 percent increase in funding and is critical to the Government's efforts to begin to turn around New Zealand's tragic record of family violence. We know that many people who experience family violence can find themselves suffering alone. We've taken the step to increase funding in order to make more support available to these families and provide a safe space for people who are desperately seeking support.Angie Warren-Clark: What impact will this have on family violence service providers?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: The majority of this funding will go towards addressing demand at the front line. This means that around 150 existing Ministry of Social Development family violence service providers will be provided with extra funding in this Budget. These are the people who see and work with challenging and complex needs—often in crisis situations every day responding to family violence. We know this is a long-term issue but this is a step we can take now to try and stem the significant increase in demand for these services while we work to get these numbers down.Angie Warren-Clark: Why is this funding important?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: For so many reasons. Family violence has a damaging yet often hidden impact on victims. Between 2009 and 2015 there were 194 family violence deaths in New Zealand—an average of 28 family violence deaths per year. As the Prime Minister also said this morning at the Salvation Army breakfast we're also cognisant that if we are going to prioritise children as a Government then part of that means making sure they are in safe households that are free from violence. In this country there are too many people—many women and children—living behind doors filled with fear and pain. This is simply unacceptable and this Government will do better by them.Hon Louise Upston: Since the Minister is pleased to provide funding in addition to the $169 million from 2016 how will she measure the impact of this new funding?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: Mr Speaker can she repeat the question?SPEAKER: Yes I think it would be good to repeat because I didn't quite understand myself.Hon Louise Upston: If the Minister was pleased to provide additional funding in addition to that $169 million in Budget 2016 how will she measure the impact of this new funding?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: I don't know what the $169 million additional funding that the member's talking about is. In fact today the Women's Refuge put out a release in response to our announcement saying that their baseline funding had remained static for the last nine years and that they are immensely relieved that this Government is financially committing to addressing the chronic underfunding of the critical services to vulnerable women and children.