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Weekly Media Roundup

July 20, 2017 at 3:23 PM

Delivered into the predators' hands: 'I couldn't defend myself'

Historic abuse in state care has left behind a trail of broken lives that stretches from one end of New Zealand to the other. Now, finally, the victims are being heard. In the first part of ODT Insight's special investigation, reporter Chris Morris talks to Otago's victim.

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Victims of historic abuse in state care are fighting back, demanding justice - in cash and apologies - to help rebuild broken lives. But some are going further.

In the second part of ODT Insight’s special investigation, Chris Morris tells Darryl Smith’s story.

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Gender inequality 'at the very heart' of family violence

A key driver of family violence in New Zealand is gender inequality, Women's Refuge chief executive Dr Ang Jury said.

"I think that gender inequality sits right at the very heart of our rates of domestic and family violence. At this point in time we have a culture that is accepting of women being seen as objects."

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NRL: New punishments for players found guilty for violence against women

NRL officials are considering enforcing new protocols which could see players who have a record of domestic violence, sex offences or disrespecting women banned from the competition for life.

Discussions are underway as the NRL explores the possibility of such a move, one that would be the first for a major Australian football code.

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Boys score free cookies after reciting advertisement against family violence

Four Māngere boys scored free cookies after they spotted a man from a TV campaign against family violence and recited the advertisement to him word for word.

The anti-violence campaigner Vic Tamati ran into the four boys aged between 10 and 12 at the Māngere town centre Subway branch at about 2pm on Saturday.

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Man accused of murdering partner Kim Richmond granted bail

The Waikato man accused of murdering his partner Kim Richmond has been granted bail.

Cory Scott Jefferies, 45, appeared at the Hamilton High Court on Tuesday where Justice Matthew Muir granted Jefferies' electronic monitoring bail.

Details other than the verdict were suppressed.

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Court played distressing 111 call from scene of toddler's driveway death

A mother has described the anguish of people stopping her from reaching her 2-year-old daughter after she was fatally shot at their family home.

Amokura Daniels-Sanft died after she was shot in the head on June 2 last year.

She was shot while playing in the driveway of her family home in South Auckland.

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Photographer spends a year interviewing Kiwi survivors of sexual assault

At 14 years old, Jade Le Grice says she was raped at a party.

Now 33, Le Grice has spoken about her abuse to a photographer aiming to publish a book featuring 50 survivors of sexual assault.

She is one of 300 people who spoke to photographer Megan Bowers-Vette about their experiences with sexual assault. Their stories paint a picture of a chronic yet unspoken infestation of sexual offending across New Zealand, according to those familiar with the work.

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Repeat offender jailed for punching teen sweetheart in face 5 times

A man has been jailed for the violent bashing of his childhood sweetheart.

This year, King Hamuera Wiki turned up unannounced at his partner's home twice and on the second visit, punched her in the head five times.

The New Plymouth District Court heard how Wiki and the victim were "childhood sweethearts" after first getting together in their early teens. The couple have a six-year-old child.

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Housing shortage forces women back to abuse

More women are returning to abusive relationships because of a worsening housing shortage in Hamilton, Waikato Women's Refuge say.

"If they can't make a break and make a change, it's inevitable - they go back," refuge co-founder and chief executive Ruahine Albert said.

Securing safe and affordable homes in Hamilton was hard in the present market, she said.  

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Man discharged without conviction after breaking child's femur

A man who broke his daughter's femur only meant to give her a "kick up the backside", a court has heard.

The Blenheim man, who cannot be named to protect his daughter's identity, was at home in the backyard with his daughter when she started misbehaving.

He decided to give her a "kick up the backside", the summary said, but he missed and kicked her in the upper leg.

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Family violence system grapples with own problems

The launch of new family violence project Tu Mai Awa in Hawke's Bay next weekend comes at a time when the system itself could be thwarting the thousands of people trying to fix the problems.

That's the view of Tu Mai Awa supporter and White Ribbon Trust ambassador Mark Longley, who found his way into the family violence field as he grappled with what to do to make a better society after teenage daughter Emily was strangled to death by obsessed boyfriend Elliot Turner at his parents' home in England six years ago.

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Lizzie Marvelly: Time to rebalance the scales of justice

We need to talk about the Family Court.

How's this for a convoluted situation? New Zealand has the worst reported domestic violence statistics in the developed world, a strong Domestic Violence Act that should be largely fit for purpose and a Family Court system that, in many cases, is causing domestic violence victims further trauma.

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Families sleeping in cars shock travelling bus family

The 12-metre long bright yellow bus parked up in a small town in the Far North. 

Northland was the first stop for the Lane family from Te Awamutu -  Erinna and Chris and their four boys under 10 - for their Stop the Bus project.

"We soon realised how isolated and cut off the Far North is," Erinna​ said. "There are just so many challenges with poverty."

The Lanes are travelling around New Zealand for a year to film a documentary about how to prevent child abuse and make communities stronger.

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Youth leader facing sex charges claims teen was 'keen as a jellybean'

A jury has begun its deliberations over a former Auckland youth group leader facing sex charges against two underage females.

Samuel Patrick Dockary, 23, claimed one of the complainants was "keen as a jellybean" and also instigated some of the sexual activity the pair took part in.

However, despite admitting kissing and taking part in oral sex, he denied having sex with either complainant.

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'I finally felt like one of the guys': How toxic masculinity breeds sexual abusers

"I'm a guy. I'm supposed to have sex. I'm supposed to be like every other guy. And so I'm like them, but [when I did this to the girls, I thought] I'm even better than them [dominant popular boys], because I can manipulate. They don't get the power and the excitement. They have a sexual relationship with a girl. She can say what she wants and she has the choice. But the girls I babysat didn't have the choice."

This was Sam* explaining why he abused two girls, aged six and eight.

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Bullying and violence remains 'massive' problem in schools, warns Human Rights Commission

New Zealand still has a ''massive'' problem with violence and bullying in schools, and not enough is being done to tackle the issue, the Human Rights Commission says.

Chief Commissioner David Rutherford made the blunt assessment during a keynote speech at the New Zealand School Trustees Association's annual conference at the Regent Theatre in Dunedin yesterday.

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Fears about magnitude of family violence confirmed in Samoa

Samoa's ombudsman says a year-long inquiry into domestic violence is at the half-way stage and information gathered so far reveals it is a major problem.

Maiava Iulai Toma said he was pleased with consultations with stakeholders from all sectors but most importantly with the Samoan public.

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Kiwi baby death rates not improving as experts blame poverty

New Zealand's high rates of infant deaths places it near the bottom of the OECD, with opposition parties blaming inequality and poverty for the country's poor record compared to the rest of the developed world.

Poor healthcare; poor housing; lack of access to a midwife or maternity carer; and poor health in the mother have all been blamed by experts for the poor statistics.

The rate of neonatal deaths has fluctuated over the past 20 years, but in that time there has been little sustained improvement.

Recently-published government figures from 2013 are the worst in three years.

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Govt moves to close gender pay gap

Women's Minister Paula Bennett has today launched the first step of a plan to close the gender pay gap in New Zealand, which is the same as it was a decade ago.

The national gender pay gap is 12 per cent, the same as 2006. Around 20 per cent of that can be explained by differences in education, occupation or industries or women being more likely to work part-time. However, the majority of the gap is down to what researchers call unexplained factors, such as conscious and unconscious bias, and the gap is wider and more attributable to unexplained factors at the top end of wage distribution - the "glass ceiling" effect.

The government has made seven recommendations for employers to close the gender pay gap in their organisations.

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Brighter Future? Pay gap low on agenda

The $2 billion pay equity settlement, signed in April this year, is arguably one of the biggest achievements in gender equality since the National-led government came to power.

But the government's record on the issue has been otherwise patchy.

One of the first things it did after it was first elected in 2008 was to scrap the Labour Department's pay and employment equity unit. It has since established a joint working group on pay equity principles.

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Proposed tax overhaul to target child support payments

The government is proposing to change part of the tax system to simplify Working For Families and Child Support payments.

The government estimates 40 percent of people receiving Working For Families payments are being underpaid, and about 25 percent are getting too much.

Proposed changes to the child support system would see payments automatically deducted from the wages or salary of all liable parents, and the removal of penalties for parents with late payments.

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NZ 'shamefully' poor on tax policies - Oxfam

New Zealand has one of the world's most unfair tax policies when it comes to closing the gap between rich and poor, a new report has found.

The Commitment to Reducing Inequality (CRI) Index, co-produced by Oxfam, is a new global ranking of governments based on social spending as well as labour and tax policies.

It ranked New Zealand 115th out of 152 countries for progressive tax policies that bridged the gap between the rich and the poor.

As an OECD country, New Zealand placed 27th out of 35 and came 30th overall.

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Category: News Media