Logie Jan: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Logie Jan: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 28 November 2012. Volume:686;Page:6872. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JAN LOGIE (Green) 
: 
 I would like to speak today about New Zealand’s profoundly disturbing levels of domestic violence sexual violence and child abuse all of which are symptoms of a very deep societal problem in this country. Violence against women and children is at a crisis level in this country at the moment. Deaths from domestic violence have increased by more than 50 percent since 2008. One in three women is likely to experience domestic violence in her lifetime and right now well over 15 percent of women in this country are in a violent relationship. The police and Women’s Refuge are responding to domestic violence call outs every 6 minutes in this country. Up to one in three girls one in seven boys and possibly one in three people with disabilities are likely to experience sexual abuse in their lifetimes. We need to stop covering up get to work and start cleaning this up. This is a problem that has never been properly addressed in this country. Sexual abuse support services in particular have never been adequately funded. 
So what is this Government doing to improve the situation? Well in Auckland today we saw a flash mob out to demand funding for the Auckland sexual abuse helpline which has lost over $100000 in funding. Auckland is likely to lose its only 24-hour helpline. This Government has cut funding to sexual abuse support services resulting in a third of them having to reduce staff and services. This Government has more than halved the money going to ACC through specialist claims. This Government has reduced the number of counsellors prepared to work for ACC by around half. 
This Government has produced a White Paper for Vulnerable Children that does not once mention domestic violence or sexual abuse. This Government has shelved the Law Commission work on alternative pre-trial and trial processes which offered the only hope of increasing from 1 percent the conviction rate for sexual abuse in this country. Instead of delivering on the promised 18 specialist court advisers this Government has delivered on only 10 and not even one of these court advisers is based in the South Island. This Government has changed the Solicitor-General’s guidelines for prosecution which have increased the evidential threshold for crimes to be prosecuted and which means that in cases where it is a situation of “he says she says”—typically in domestic violence and sexual abuse cases—the prosecutor is less likely to go forward with the case. 
This Government has reduced funding to women’s refuges. It has reduced access to legal aid. It is now changing the Family Court processes which will severely disadvantage women in undisclosed violent relationships—which are many. This Government is currently looking at altering the child support formula to make it easier for ex-partners not to pay child support and to reduce how much they need to pay. This Government has increased work testing for the DPB and refused to inform women of the exemption available for women leaving violent relationships. This Government— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! I hesitate to interrupt the member because I wanted to hear—the member may resume her seat for the moment—how technical this speech got because it is clearly being read. We have made it very clear in the past that we do not read 5-minute speeches unless they are particularly technical. Just criticising another political party is hardly technical and so I would ask the member by all means use her speech notes to refer to but please do not just read a speech to this House criticising another political party in the House. That is not in the spirit of the general debate. I apologise for interrupting— 
JAN LOGIE 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Actually each one of those points that I am reading is a distinct point— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! [ 
Interruption 
] Order! The member will now resume her seat. She will not argue with me. The Speaker is the sole adjudicator on these matters—whether members can read speeches. Forgive me but just criticising another party is not the kind of technical thing envisaged for when members should be able to read a speech. She is most welcome to refer to notes but just standing there reading a speech will send all members to sleep. 
JAN LOGIE 
: Well I am sorry if it offends the Speaker that the amount of harm this Government is doing requires reading through a list because the list is so long. I will continue— 
Maggie Barry 
: Use your memory. 
JAN LOGIE 
: —not reading—on some of the things that this Government has done. It has allowed the family violence task force not to report for over a year. It has taken in effect to turning the unit within the Ministry of Social Development into a secretariat. That unit has not released any of its research or one piece of research over the last year and it has refused to release information under the Official Information Act. 
This Government has changed the criteria for the Housing New Zealand Corporation which means that victims of domestic violence are no longer able to access Housing New Zealand Corporation housing. It has changed its policy and that means that when ex-partners are damaging the houses of the women who have tenure those women are held accountable for the cost of the damage done. 
This Government has introduced the Crimes Amendment Act (No 3) which in effect is punishing women for not being able to protect their children against the violence of their partners. This Government is deeply patriarchal and has been attacking and rescinding women’s rights ad nauseam. I believe that sexual abuse can destroy lives and that everyone needs the right help. It is the Government’s job to ensure that is possible and it is not delivering.