Beaumont Carol: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBeaumont Carol: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 01 July 2014. Volume:700;Page:19110. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CAROL BEAUMONT (Labour):I looked at the website of the Ministry of Social Development and it said that the ministry is there to help people be successful in their lives. It said that the ministry’s role is to help New Zealanders to be safe strong and independent. My colleague Sue Moroney—and Jan Logie has also traversed some of this territory—talked about how inequality and poverty are denying many New Zealanders the opportunity to be successful in their lives the core aim of the Ministry of Social Development.I want to talk about another issue that limits the ability of people in this country to be successful in their lives—for them to be safe strong and independent—and those are issues to do with domestic and sexual violence. Issues of sexual and domestic violence deny many people the opportunity to be successful in their lives. There are huge costs associated with that violence and there are barriers that are then put in the way of people actually going about living their lives. Obviously in extreme circumstances people lose their lives so they cannot continue to go on and be successful in their lives. We have a serious problem in this country. We have a serious problem with the level of violence that we see against our people particularly women and children. I just thought it would be worth noting some of those things.Last week we had the independent Family Violence Death Review Committee report come out. It looked at deaths between 2009 and 2012—so over a 3-year period—and 47 percent of those deaths were family violence deaths. In nearly all of those circumstances someone was killed by their partner and there was a known history of abuse. Thirty-seven children died—37 of our children died—and 77 children were present when a parent or a sibling died in their home. These people are not going to be able to live successful lives. Their lives have been cut short by other people’s violence.Also the chair of that committee said that—and I think this is just so chilling—the reviews she read that were the most difficult for her to read were the ones where a woman is clearly fighting for her life: “She sees that she is going to die and she is … actively taking every action she possibly can to save her life. She’s contacting the police she’s telling landlords she’s telling neighbours she’s telling friends … and we are not providing her with effective help.” That is just absolutely chilling. And it is not just domestic violence; one in three women in this country experience intimate partner violence sexual or domestic violence during the course of their lifetime—one in three. These figures are just horrendous.So I think we need to be seriously looking at what is happening here and what should be done. As well as the Family Violence Death Review Committee report last week the week before that I think it was we had the first of the Glenn Inquiry reports—500 interviews with people who have lived in violent situations. There is the loss of life—I have talked about that—but there are also other costs. There is the loss of people’s potential. There is the loss of potential for a child one of those 77 children who has witnessed a sibling or a parent being killed by somebody else they potentially love another member of their family and the impact that that has on that child.There is the loss of their potential and the loss of opportunity for them to go on and live in this country to their full potential rather than in fact going all too commonly into a situation where a cycle of abuse is created. That is a real cost to us as well. For some it is even a loss of freedom—the freedom to go about their life to engage with whom they want to and to go and do their job or whatever. These are costs. These are real costs for individuals. Some of them are as I said intergenerational. I have been on the Social Services Committee and have listened to people who have come and talked to us. Melissa Lee has done a very good job of chairing that committee. This violence is preventable. This violence is preventable and the Government has not done enough.