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Archive
Weekly Media Roundup
August 10, 2018 at 9:05 AM
Mates and Dates programme: Listen to the students
Opinion - Teaching students about sexual harm is challenging and requires outside educators who are experienced in articulating the complexity of the topic.
This week, ACC announced an $18.4 million investment to roll out its Mates and Dates programme, which has been running in some schools since 2014, across New Zealand secondary schools. The programme is delivered by experts from outside of the school. Trained educators facilitate five one-hour sessions across five weeks, in each year level of high school, totalling 25 hours for each student by the end of Year 13.
The announcement of further investment has sparked criticism about why the programme is facilitated by outside providers and not by teachers.
New Zealand has the highest rate of sexual violence among OECD countries and it is too big an issue to be solved in five, or even 25 lessons. Effective culture change requires a sustained long-term approach, which addresses the problem in multiple ways, including the reinforcement of positive messages across our lifetimes.
Experts oppose ACC sex consent classes
Sexual health education experts are calling ACC's consent classes an $18 million waste of money.
ACC decided to roll out its controversial Mates and Dates programme nationally, despite huge opposition from teachers, researchers, and experts who say it doesn't align with the New Zealand curriculum
Critics are particularly unhappy so much is being spent on lessons provided by outsiders, rather than teachers.
More on sexual education in our schools
Yesterday we discussed the concern from teachers and researchers about a sexual health education programme, Mates and Dates, being rolled out across the country, costing $18 million.
Since then we've heard from an organisation called Korowai Tumanako. It's a sexual violence prevention service that has worked with programmes like Mates and Dates over the last decade. Its directors believe there is value to specialist services and external educators.
To tell us more about what they provide for students, and the reaction they've had from young people, is co-director of Korowai Tumanako, Russell Smith.
ACC’s sexuality education won’t protect young Māori
Press Release: Te Whariki Takapou
Māori sexual and reproductive health promotion organisations Te Whāriki Takapou is highly critical of the decision by ACC to spend $18.4m on the ‘Mates and Dates’ programme rather than invest in culturally appropriate teacher-led sexuality education in schools.
Sexual violence, like so many forms of violence experienced by Māori, will not be reduced by programmes like Mates and Dates. The programme is unconnected to the realities of Māori and fails to draw on the wealth of historical and contemporary Māori knowledges and practices associated with healthy relationships.
Emails show senior detectives want Oranga Tamariki to follow Whakatāne model of specialist child protection
Emails show senior detective in Manukau want Oranga Tamariki to copy colleagues in the Bay of Plenty to tackle child abuse.
Police in Manukau have urged Oranga Tamariki to follow the lead of their colleagues in Whakatāne and build a team of frontline social workers to solely focus on child protection.
While staff from Oranga Tamariki [the Ministry for Children] and detectives have worked together in the same building in Whakatāne for several years, the Weekend Heraldpreviously reported how a ring-fenced team of specialist social workers was created.
Believed to be a first nationwide, this means police in the child protection team now work with the same social workers on a daily basis, rather than trying to liaise with different staff who might not be available on a particular day.
At-risk children waiting months for investigations into abuse
At-risk children are having to wait months for outcomes of investigations into abuse and neglect, according to family lawyers.
When a judge orders a section 132 report (detailing care and protection issues involving a child, including the outcomes of investigations into abuse or neglect), Oranga Tamariki has a statutory obligation to say what action it intends to take within seven days and file the report within 28 days.
However, lawyers said in some regions, families were left in limbo for months.
'They have already paid enough' - calls for no fees for sexual abuse survivors who want their automatic name suppression lifted
To share her story, Brodie had to get a ruling to lift her automatic name suppression. It’s a statutory prohibition for sexual abuse complainants that’s given to thousands of people in New Zealand every year. It was introduced to protect them.
“I understand some people they want to keep it quiet 'cause it’s their experience and that’s obviously 100 per cent fine. If my name suppression wasn’t lifted I probably wouldn’t be in a good place.”
But the process requires legal fees. Brodie was first quoted up to $4000, but negotiated the fee to be lower due to her advocacy work.
She’s calling for the process to be free, and for victim support to communicate to survivors they have a choice over their name suppression some months after the trial or sentencing.
We should treat domestic violence as a contagious disease, Marilyn Waring says
Family violence should to be deemed a contagious disease, making it immediately notifiable to health authorities, activist and former National MP Marilyn Waring has told politicians.
New Zealand plans to be the first in the world to measure its success against how it does socially, culturally and environmentally. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in February while announcing the 2019 Budget the Government would introduce a tool and framework to include the wellbeing of New Zealanders as a measure of economic success.
AUT professor Waring appeared before the finance and expenditure committee to answer questions on living standards on Wednesday, during which she cited family violence as one of the areas that lacked vigorous data for policy making.
Courts to get the final say over whether young teenagers can marry
Parliament has passed a new law to stop teens being pressured or coerced into legal and cultural marriages.
The marriage of minors bill, which is now called Minors (Court Consent to Relationships) Legislation Bill, passed unanimously on Wednesday night.
Currently, anyone aged 16 or 17 can marry in New Zealand with parental consent.
ln 2016, 30 children aged 16 or 17, got married - that number was 48 in 2015, and 42 in 2014.
The so-called 'witch-hunt' that brought child molesters to justice
She was asked to draw her fear. What she drew became known simply as "the list".
The sheet of paper had more than 70 names on it, and would set in motion a chain of events that would finally reveal the "dirty little secret" kept quiet in Kaikōura for decades.
The woman who made "the list" was a social worker, so horrified by the stories of many young sex abuse victims, she went to see a counsellor herself.
Millionaire told police he was helping parents after streaming abuse
A multi-millionaire businessman told police he was helping poor Filipino parents when he paid them to sexually abuse their children in online videos.
Martin Henry Lawes, the former chair of the Takapuna community board, watched the movies from his home on Auckland's North Shore.
Today, he admitted charges of dealing with a person under 18 for sexual exploitation and importing and possessing child sex images when he appeared at the High Court in Auckland.
Lawes spent more than $100,000 on photos and online sex videos between 2008 and 2017, and he would go on to tell police the money was nothing to him because he was a millionaire.
Concern flat violence not being acted upon
The University of Otago's community law centre and staff and students are seeking clarity on the police stance on violence between flatmates, saying they seem reluctant to apply remedies available under domestic violence legislation.
Otago University Students' Assocaition student support manager Sage Burke said students came to OUSA for help dealing with both psychological and physical abuse from their flatmates, ranging from financial control and possessions being broken to people being pushed down the stairs.
On average, he saw about one person a week struggling in their living situation, including an incident where someone was threatened with an axe.
Mother's killing at home still controls children's lives decades on
Mereana Love got off the school bus with her two younger brothers in tow.
She arrived home to her grandmother crying into the phone.
"Mum and [her partner] got in a fight with a knife," Love was told by her grandmother.
"Mum's dead."
Those words had a lasting effect on the nine-year-old.
Hundreds of students disciplined for sexual misconduct and harassment each year
Hundreds of schoolchildren are being disciplined for sexual harassment and misconduct each year.
Sexual behaviour intervention service STOP Trust had seen a "steady increase" in sexualised behaviour among children, ranging from sexually explicit comments to inappropriate touching or more severe transgressions, team leader Suzanne Alliston said.
She attributed the rise to ease of access to pornography and other graphic material – "we're certainly see children at a younger age engaging in sexualised behaviour of concern" – for children as young as pre-school age.
Oranga Tamariki ignoring safety report, grandmother says
A Hutt Valley grandmother says an Oranga Tamariki safety report recommends her grand-daughter should be in her care full-time.
But she's not, six months on from when authorities intervened over violence and drug use at the house where the teenager spends most of her time.
Andrew Little on the 'crisis' in criminal justice
Justice Minister Andrew Little is calling for services for victims of crime to be more professionally-run, rather than relying on volunteers.
That's just one of his plans for reforming the justice sector, though he admits his ideas will be expensive to implement.
However, Mr Little said paying for improved victim and rehabilitative efforts was better than continuing to sink huge amounts of money into building new prisons every few years.
Kaitaia Women's Refuge: Victims' Protection Bill 'a game-changer'
Kaitaia Women's Refuge chief executive Waimaria Veza is welcoming the Domestic Violence — Victims' Protection Bill, which has had its third reading in Parliament, as a game-changer in the ongoing effort to reduce whanau harm in Te Hiku.
The bill aims to strengthen legal protections for victims of domestic violence through a raft of amendments to the Domestic Violence Act 1995, Employment Relations Act 2000, Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, Holidays Act 2003 and Human Rights Act 1993.
One major outcome would be to require employers to pay up to 10 working days' leave per year to domestic violence victims, similar to how sick leave is currently structured.
The bill has ignited robust debate, some warning that the cost to employers, particularly small business owners, could be high, but Ms Veza said it would be welcomed by the 1400-plus women and children who sought help from Kaitaia Women's Refuge in the last financial year, empowering women to leave dangerous situations.
About a third of the women her organisation helped were in paid employment, but they were less likely to seek support for a number of reasons.
Record demand at refuge
Dunedin's deepening housing crisis and the impact of methamphetamine have contributed to record demand for the city's Women's Refuge.
Manager Wenda Parata-Muir said bed-nights provided in the the organisation's Dunedin safe houses jumped 14% in the past financial year, from 2554 in 2016-17 to 2910 in 2017-18.
Ms Parata-Muir said demand for refuge services in Dunedin was at its highest level since she started working with the organisation in 1991, and the number of calls to its crisis line had increased to an average of about two a day.
She believed the proliferation of methamphetamine in the city had increased domestic violence, as had Dunedin's chronic shortage of rental housing, leaving families living in temporary accommodation for long periods.
Coerced sex work a significant problem in New Zealand
Young, isolated and controlled.
There is very little that clearly defines someone trafficked into sex work in New Zealand beyond those basic characteristics.
However, Dr Natalie Thorburn said the problem is bigger than anyone really knows.
"We cling quite firmly to the notion of New Zealand being clean, green and non-corruptible," Thorburn said.
"That image is pervasive in that it precludes us from considering what sort of violence we're not considering."
Domestic violence survivors find comfort in each other
Two whanau whose lives have been shattered by high-profile, horrific cases of domestic violence are drawing strength and comfort from one another.
Once strangers, tragedy has brought them together - and they spoke to Three's The Hui.
Jason Koroheke's 22-year-old daughter Chozyn was murdered by her former partner, Turiarangi Tai, last April, and Marie Harlick's niece Marie was brutally assaulted to death by her ex-boyfriend Robert Hohua in November 2016.
Now Jason and Marie are speaking out in the hope that they can help other families and victims caught in a dangerous relationship.
Abuser used threats to track down partner's hiding place
A man used threats to track down his partner, who was hiding from him due to his past abuse, a court heard.
On June 1, Tai Mutu Ariki Te Huia Moore phoned his partner and demanded to know where she and their two young children were.
The police summary of facts explained to the New Plymouth District Court how the woman had been a high risk family violence victim.
When she refused to tell Moore where they were living, the 32-year-old threatened to kill her mother.
Masterton man accused of shunting his wife's car off the road
A Masterton man has been accused of ramming his wife's car off the road causing it to flip onto its roof.
Andrew Graeme Wharrie, 54, appeared in Masterton District Court on Monday charged with endangering transport and breaching a protection order.
Child rapist's risk deemed too high for release
A child sex offender still has "significant work" to do behind bars if he wants to earn an early release from prison, the Parole Board says.
In April 2016, Ian Herbert Winmill was jailed for 12 years after he sexually abused five young girls.
He had previously pleaded guilty to 12 charges in the New Plymouth District Court, including rape, indecent assault and unlawful sexual connection. The victims were all aged between 7-15 years at the time of the abuse.
No minimum non-parole period was imposed at sentencing.
Jailed 18 months for indecency 'betrayal'
Man's lawyer sought home detention as an alternative but judge refused to grant it.
A man who continues to deny indecently assaulting a young girl – the daughter of his best friends — was jailed for 18 months when he appeared for sentence in Gisborne District Court.
His lawyer sought home detention as an alternative but Judge Warren Cathcart refused to grant it, saying it was inappropriate because of the denials.
The grave and repetitive nature of the offending, in breach of the trust a young girl rightly expected from her family’s friend, warranted a prison term.
Man jailed after being found with child sex abuse images at work
A Christchurch man has been sentenced to 25 months in jail after he was found in possession of almost 30,000 child sex abuse images while at work.
Corey Andrew Challis, 34, was sentenced in the Christchurch District Court today.
He pleaded guilty to two representative charges covering the possession of 29,380 objectionable images and videos showing children being sexually abused and exploited.
Patient told to 'think of your girlfriend' while Christchurch GP Rakesh Chawdhry indecently touched him
A Christchurch doctor jailed for groping or fondling men during medical examinations has admitted indecently assaulting two more patients.
Rakesh Kumar Chawdhry, 62, was in February jailed for four years and three months after a judge found him guilty of 11 charges of indecent assault and one of sexual violation against patients.
During Chawdhry's trial last year, several more complainants came forward after seeing media coverage and, as a result, police had enough evidence to lay the two new indecent assault charges, Detective Marc Boodee said.
Violence ‘almost as bad as it gets’
A Wairoa man drove his partner to the police station after seriously assaulting her, and told her to make a complaint, Gisborne District Court has heard.
There she told police about other incidents in which her partner had dished out violence to her — often in front of their four children.
She was too frightened to report it earlier.
Man faces 33 charges for alleged sexual abuse against girls aged between 4 and 14
Five women will give evidence alleging child sex abuse by a 51-year-old man who has gone on trial in the Christchurch District Court.
The man faces 33 charges – many of them "representative" alleging repeated offending – in the eight day trial before Judge Alistair Garland and a jury.
Judge Garland has suppressed the name of the man and the locations where the offending occurred but he said that these orders may be reconsidered once the jury has returned its verdicts.
Crown prosecutor Mark Zarifeh told the jury the offending began with touching but moved on to other sexual acts involving urination, oral sex, masturbation, and rape.
Autistic boy found unresponsive, stepdad told police
A man charged with murdering his autistic stepson told police he had found the five-year-old on his bed with his head and arm at "funny" angles.
The evidence was heard at a hearing before Coroner Brigitte Windley in Christchurch on Thursday. She is holding an inquest into the death of Leon Jayet-Cole, 5, who was taken to Christchurch Hospital on May 27, 2015, with serious head injuries and died the next day.
His stepfather James Roberts was charged with his murder and died in June, 2016 awaiting trial.
Inquest into death of Leon Jayet-Cole, 5, hears from step-dad who died awaiting murder trial
The account of a man who died while awaiting trial for the murder of his 5-year-old autistic stepson has become public for the first time, with his lengthy police interview played to a coroner investigating the boy's death.
Leon Jayet-Cole was rushed to hospital after suffering a serious head injury at his Christchurch home on May 27, 2015, and died in hospital the following day.
Stepfather James Stedman Roberts was charged with his murder. The trial was set down to begin on October 31, 2016, but he died in July that year.
Child, Youth and Family said it had worked with the family but investigations "did not establish evidence of physical abuse".
Coroner Brigitte Windley is presiding over an inquest into Leon's death, which began in Christchurch today.
Man filmed women showering in his homestay then posted videos of them on porn site
A man filmed 34 women as they showered in the homestay he ran, then uploaded the videos to a porn site.
The Hawke's Bay man, whose name is suppressed, filmed the women between December 2017 and the date of his arrest in February this year.
Most guests were females aged under 30. They could use the shower or kitchen facilities in the house by arrangement, and the man usually organised the shower times with guests.
After arranging the time he would place one or two covert cameras, disguised in shampoo bottles, in the bathroom and shower. He activated the cameras by remote control.
