Adams AmyGENERAL DEBATEHon AMY ADAMS (Minister of Justice): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. I am tremendously proud to be part of a Government that has not once in 8 years shied away from taking on the hard issues. Any Government can set targets that it can achieve easily and when you are faced with the difficulties of a 3-year term which I have never been a fan of the automatic response is to go for the quick win the quick turn-around the quick sugar-fix response—not this Government. This Government from day one has made it very clear that it will not shy away from the hard issues. I am not talking about launching a report or a study or an inquiry but about actually getting in and doing something. Even if it is hard even if it is not going to have it all fixed by the next election we want to see the vulnerable New Zealanders assisted. I think there was no better example of that than yesterday when the Prime Minister gave I think one of the best speeches I have heard him give. I may be a little be biased I will freely admit but I think it was one of the most powerful speeches when he talked very clearly about how focused this Government is on ensuring that we are there for the women children and victims in this country who do not get to have that simple most basic entitlement to a safe home environment. That is something that happens in far too many New Zealand homes. That is something that has been far too easy for too many parts of New Zealand for a long time to turn away from—to think: Oh well it's not something that happens in my family it's not something that happens in my community. What are you even going to do about it?". That cannot be the response. We have to as a country accept that the rate of family violence is a national embarrassment. It is horrendous and it is at the heart of almost all of the social issues that I know we all worry about. We have made it very clear and the Prime Minister made it very clear yesterday that where victims are not in a position to stand up for themselves we will be there to support them to the very best of our ability. As he said just as the impacts of family violence are widely felt the responsibility for dealing with it is widely shared. The Government has a considerable role to play—we acknowledge that—and we are stepping up to be the difference in that space. But actually it is not just about the Government. The responsibility for addressing family violence sits across government and core Government agencies Crown entities non-Government agencies social support providers charities families themselves communities and—most importantly—the responsibility sits with the people who are inflicting family violence. The statistics are sobering. They are almost daunting and yet they cannot be I think repeated too often. We know that there are 110000 notifications to police every year and we also know that that probably represents only about 20 percent of the family violence that occurs. So actually that tells us there is something in the order of half a million instances of family violence every year. If you want to look at crime rates—if you want to look at serious crime—half of the homicides in this country half of all serious violent offences are related to family violence. One of the things that I find most devastating about the realities of this area is that in those estimated half a million instances of family violence children are present in those homes two-thirds of the time. So whether or not the children are being hit whether or not they are the primary victims the children in those homes are absolutely victims of family violence. All of the information tells us that their life courses are significantly affected. Children who grow up in homes where there is family violence are three times more likely to take their own lives than anyone else. So when we talk about youth suicide—and I know that it is something that everyone in this House cares about—if one of the most significant drivers of that is family violence that alone tells us that it is something we have to do better on. We know that for those children 57 percent of them will leave school without any educational qualification whatsoever. Again we all know that if our kids are leaving school without an education their chances of having a worthwhile productive future are very very limited. We know that half of the boys in those homes will grow up to be family violence abusers themselves and most of the children will have the risk of being either victims or perpetrators. We have to—we have to—as a country do more. I am not suggesting for one minute that there is an easy answer but this Government has made a commitment to reframe the system to build a better system and I look forward to being a part of it."