11. Question No. 11—Prevention of Family and Sexual ViolenceKAREN CHHOUR (ACT) to the Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual ViolenceQuestion No. 11—Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence11. KAREN CHHOUR (ACT) to the Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence: Does she stand by the statement on 20 May 2021 that We are truly committed to having a safer Aotearoa New Zealand for all and especially for women and our tamariki"?Hon MARAMA DAVIDSON (Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence): Thank you Mr Speaker. I am really grateful for this question. Yes I do because it is so important we have shifted and must continue to shift our approach and thinking on how we address and prevent family violence and sexual violence in Aotearoa. We are doing this through successive steps since 2017 through funding initiatives legislative reforms and our commitment as a Government to join up the Public Service. Critically for me as a newly appointed Minister in this role I have met with people with victims and survivors with whānau and the sector who have been at the forefront and expertise of doing this work. I have met with judges I have met with iwi I have met with people who use violence and are perpetrators of violence and they have all with the research and evidence been very very clear that it is whānau-centred and community-led responses—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! I think the member has definitely addressed the question.Karen Chhour: How would she respond to the OECD report in December 2020 which found that New Zealand has the highest rate of intimate partner violence against women in the OECD?Hon MARAMA DAVIDSON: And that is unacceptable and around the world all countries have struggled with reducing the prevalence of harm and have not been able to interrupt the intergenerational nature of violence. This is why in Budgets 2017 2018 2019 2020 and Budget 2021 we committed to services like whānau-centred facilitated responses with kaupapa Māori providers to wrap support around to prevent and provide safe responses to harm; why we provided funding towards communities and whānau to support parents to reduce risk and be the safest whānau possible for all children; why in Budget 2021—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Nō reira—Karen Chhour.Karen Chhour: Why has the number of family harm incidents increased under this Government from 133000 in 2018 to 171000 in 2020?Hon MARAMA DAVIDSON: Firstly I dispute the numbers that the member is putting forward. Secondly we are focusing on primary prevention; that is the commitment that this Government has put into this work. It is primary prevention over sustained years that will eventually bring the harm and prevalence down. We have international research and other research that shows that it can take up to six to 10 years - plus of sustained resourcing on primary prevention before we finally will start to see any reduction in the prevalence of harm. If the member is interested the Australian prevention agency called Our Watch tells us that the prevalence of violence drops after it committed up to 10 years - plus of strengthened primary prevention infrastructure and investment. We have not seen that from any of the—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Kia ora.Hon MARAMA DAVIDSON: —successive Governments over the terms. The first time we are doing that is now.Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: What is she doing to increase funding and resources for kaupapa Māori providers on the front line responding to whānau violence?Hon MARAMA DAVIDSON: I am so grateful for all of these questions including what we have heard from the sector and the people that say that tangata whenua leadership and authentic partnership with Government and that resourcing tangata whenua and kaupapa Māori prevention and services are vital to shifting and eliminating the prevalence of family violence and sexual violence. We have committed to $12 million in Budget 2021 and previously and before the end of the year a national strategy and action plan will be launched which will include more actions to uplift kaupapa-led prevention and support services.Karen Chhour: So is she confident that due to the actions she has taken there will be a reduction in family harm incidences and I won't have to stand here next year and ask this question again?Hon MARAMA DAVIDSON: Yes as I have just pointed out it will take six to 10-plus years of all of us in this House of all of the members in this House committing to ongoing focus on primary prevention. I invite all of the members to be on board this commitment and this vision which has not happened until this Government put in place a lead Minister for this work. I invite all members to support the long-term work which the sector and the experts have continued to uphold. This is intergenerational work and I ask all of us to commit to the enduring form of this work."