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April 12, 2024 at 2:58 PM

The Post: When the frontline – and last resort – is a let down

Trigger warnings - abuse, sexual violence, trauma

She spent the equivalent of an entire working day in the reporting room, recounting her experience of violence.

At one point, a police officer yells at her because she won’t stop crying, saying they can’t use the recording if she “kept blubbering through it”.

“I regretted going at all as it just added to my trauma and didn’t feel at all like they believed me.”

The woman, who is not identified other than as being Pākehā and sexuality diverse, is one of 599 participants of a survey, detailing police responses experienced by victim-survivors of family and sexual violence.

Sometimes they’re not even afforded the privacy of a room. They will make reports about the violence they experienced, talking across a plastic barrier in a police foyer in front of everyone else waiting, as if it were a bank.

The report, Make it about us: Victim-survivors' recommendations for building a safer police response to intimate partner violence, family violence and sexual violence in Aotearoa New Zealand, was published today.

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RNZ: Government sets nine targets in health, crime, social support, education, climate

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced nine targets for the government to deliver in the next six years.

The targets include:

• Emergency Departments: 95 percent of ED patients admitted, discharged or transferred within six hours
• Elective treatment: 95 percent of people waiting less than four months
• Child and youth offending: 15 percent reduction in total children with serious and persistent offending (by 2029)
• Violent crime: 20,000 fewer victims of assault, robbery or sexual assault (by 2029)
• Jobseeker benefit: 50,000 fewer people on jobseeker benefit
• Student attendance: 80 percent of students present for 90 percent of term
• Student achievement: 80 percent of Y8 students at or above expected reading, writing and maths curriculum level (by Dec 2030)
• Emergency housing: 75 percent reduction in households in emergency housing
• Greenhouse gas: No more than 290 megatonnes emitted in 2022 to 2025 (four years), and 305 from 2026 to 2030 (five years)

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RNZ: Government's targets: 'Where is the action behind these?'

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Stuff: Oranga Tamariki hiring freeze raises concerns about child safety

The Law Society and Oranga Tamariki staff say a hiring freeze at the ministry on so-called back office roles could put the safety of children at risk.

The hiring freeze has stretched to include the Oranga Tamariki legal department, a team which is called on to urgently respond to child safety concerns and abuse in state care.

As a result of the hiring freeze, sources from Oranga Tamariki told Stuff the remaining lawyers were picking up extra shifts and working into the night to ensure urgent issues, such as filing for custody orders when children faced danger, weren’t missed.

But sources at the ministry are telling Stuff this is not sustainable, and even senior solicitors and managers are now looking for new jobs as the team was “already understaffed” before the freeze.

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RNZ: Officials advise softer is better when it comes to boot camps

The government's own advisers have told it the tougher its new boot camps are, the worse they will work.

A trial of the Young Offender Military Academies is due to begin by the middle of the year, run at one of Oranga Tamariki's youth justice facilities.

Critics have said they won't work to prevent re-offending, and both the Human Rights Commission and the Chief Children's Commissioner said they'd had no input, but did have major concerns.

And advice to Children's Minister Karen Chhour released under the Official Information Act (OIA) showed officials also raised concerns.

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RNZ: New children's book aims to break culture of silence that surrounds abuse

A campaign designed to encourage children to speak out and find help if they experience abuse has been launched today by the Governor-General.

The campaign is centred around the release of the book 'The Wolf and the Hocus Pocus', written by New Zealand author Avril McDonald in collaboration with Save the Children, Life Education Trust and Women's Refuge.

It aims to break the culture of silence that traditionally surrounds sexual and other forms of abuse in New Zealand and deliver children a vital message: to seek out a trusted adult until they find one who believes them and will act on their behalf to help keep them safe and secure.

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RNZ: Aviva launches campaign to combat concerning attitudes around sexual consent

A Christchurch organisation supporting survivors of family harm and sexual violence is calling out concerning attitudes and behaviour in its latest campaign.

Aviva sexual violence service manager Jo Bader said the campaign was about sexual consent.

The "Asking for it ... to stop" campaign was unveiled on Wednesday morning as part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

The 2023 New Zealand Crime and Victims Survey showed 1.1 million adults had reported experiencing at least one act of sexual assault.

Bader said everybody had a role in combatting sexual violence.

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Stuff: Woman left with serious brain injury after partner’s violent assault

Warning - this story contains details of domestic violence some readers may find upsetting.

• A man sent threatening messages to his partner before leaving her with a serious brain injury, saying she had fallen in the shower.
• She was found unconscious on a mattress inside the Auckland home, with Kasinga Filivao refusing to let a neighbour inside.
• Filivao has now successfully got his minimum term of imprisonment reduced.

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Stuff: Man jailed after seriously injuring 1-year-old son

• A 31-year-old father was found guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm to his 1-year-old son.
• He is still supported by his son’s mother and other family members, causing a division in the family.
• The man was sentenced to 6 years’ imprisonment on Monday.

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