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Weekly Media Roundup

June 01, 2018 at 12:52 PM

Insight: Policing Domestic Violence - A New Direction

Police responded to an average of one domestic violence call out every four minutes last year - up by 3000 from the year before. Studies estimate up to three-quarters of abuse is never reported, prompting police to make radical changes in how they respond to family violence. A police-led pilot programme that encapsulates this new ethos is being trialled in three regions with some of the worst family violence rates in the country.

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New Zealand's high rates of family violence being tackled by police

New Zealand has the highest rate of family violence in the developed world. The United Nations regularly expresses concerns over our levels of violence against women and children. But the figures remain daunting. Now, police are standing up and taking a different approach, Kirsty Lawrence reports.

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New phone support service launched for carers of at-risk children

The Ministry for Children, Oranga Tamariki, has launched a new round-the-clock support line for caregivers.

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Chief Judge: ‘Robbing Peter to pay Paul’

A stinging attack by the Chief District Court Judge Jan-Marie Doogue has again highlighted serious problems in the Family Court. Shane Cowlishaw reports.

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Māori lawyers say Family Court not working for whānau

Māori lawyers and academics say the Family Court is in crisis and should not be dealing with the care and protection of Maori children. The Government is set to review the Family Court because of huge delays for cases to be heard, but some say the problem runs much deeper than that. Our Māori issues correspondent Leigh-Marama McLachlan reports.

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Courts reaching crisis point, New Zealand Bar Association says

A crisis in District Court resourcing is approaching, the New Zealand Bar Association is warning.

New Zealand Bar Association president Clive Elliott said resourcing had reached a critical point and immediate intervention by the Government was needed.

A serious backlog had arisen in the Family Court where there were about 8000 Care of Children Act cases waiting to be heard, he said.

"The situation in the Family Court is one example. It is clearly serious when the welfare of so many children is likely to be affected by these delays. The reality is that the only way the courts can manage is by pushing further delays onto litigants."

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Girl 'coached' by aunt to make sexual accusations against father

Social workers have changed their mind about whether a young girl is at risk living with her aunt, months after they rushed through a report saying she was not.

A court is now deciding who should have full time custody - the aunt, the father, or another relative whom she is living with now.

The shortcomings of the safety report by Oranga Tamariki about a young girl have been revealed in the Masterton Family Court.

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Children in NZ's poorest homes twice as likely to die as those in wealthy houses, new report says

A new report says children from New Zealand’s poorest home are twice as likely to die as those from wealthy houses, with the country ranked 28th out of 175 countries for the overall quality of Kiwi childhoods.

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The parent pay chasm: how the gender pay gap widens among those with kids

New research reveals the penalty women pay after becoming mothers, and it should spur us to take action to change, writes Jess Berentson-Shaw

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Rising rental prices creating a new class of 'working poor', support groups warn

Families with young children crowded into motels are part of a new class of "working poor" being driven into poverty by rising house prices and soaring rents, support agencies warn.

Motels are increasingly being used as emergency accommodation as a severe shortage of affordable housing puts struggling families under strain.

Salvation Army social services national practice manager Jono Bell said more people came to the support group in the past year for help with housing than almost any other issue.

"What we are hearing from our centres is that [homelessness] is affecting a wider section of the population."

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Expert panel to advise on welfare system overhaul announced

Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni has announced the members of an expert group to advise the Government on its promised overhaul of the welfare system, including the sanctions regime.

Former Children's Commissioner Cindy Kiro will lead the group, which also includes economist Ganesh Nana.

"The Welfare Expert Advisory Group has been asked to undertake a broad-ranging review of the welfare system. It will deliver advice to the Government on ways to ensure people have an adequate income and standard of living, are treated with respect, can live in dignity, and are able to participate meaningfully in their communities," Sepuloni said.

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Govt will have 'failed completely' if they don't reform benefits - Andrew Becroft

Children's Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft says the Government will have "failed completely" if they don't index benefits to wages.

He made the comments on Newshub Nation this morning when asked about whether he thought the Government had done enough to protect vulnerable children in this year’s budget.  

"It's crucial. I'm not shrinking from that. Everybody in the sector has said we've got to link benefits for children to wages."

Matching benefits to wages, or 'indexing', will mean that benefit levels will rise at the same rate as wages in the same way that superannuation is adjusted to accommodate inflation.

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Kids fleeing police like they’ve got nothing left to lose

Families of teenagers killed while fleeing police say it's all too easy for young people to be led astray - and some feel they've got nothing left to lose.

Meadow James, 12, and a 15-year-old male driver both died when the stolen car they were in crashed on Monday while fleeing police in Palmerston North.

Just over a week earlier, Bailey Patmore, 15, was killed when the stolen vehicle he was in the boot of crashed just south of the Tawa interchange on State Highway 1 while being pursued by police.

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Police chases: Teens can't think like adults - psychologist

Young people being chased by police don't have the capacity to make sensible decisions, a clinical psychologist says.

On Monday, a 15-year-old driver and 12-year-old passenger died after a crash following a police pursuit in Palmerston North.

Psychologist Dougal Sutherland told Morning Report the adolescent brain was not fully developed until the age of 25.

"We shouldn't expect them to act like adults because they can't think like adults."

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Women's Refuge meals prepared by kids, grown by prisoners

Vegetables grown behind the wire at Rimutaka Prison are being prepared by school students for families seeking help at Women's Refuge.

The unlikely arrangement is co-ordinated by the Common Unity Project, a charity whose Urban Kai Network has people growing produce in backyards, community gardens and the country's largest prison.

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Collaboration will ensure ongoing care for south's vulnerable children

In the wake of the Roxburgh Health Camp closure, Oranga Tamariki-Ministry for Children deputy chief executive Celia Patrick says it is committed to doing a better job for children but must prioritise its resources.

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Children's village questions answered

The Stand Children’s Services Roxburgh children’s village continues to be under scrutiny this week, as southern mayors launch a last-ditch "e-mob" campaign to save the village. As southern residents search for more answers about the facility, Pam Jones puts some of their questions to Stand chief executive Dr Fiona Inkpen.

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More than 300 police safety orders issued in South Canterbury in past 12 months

Police have issued 318 safety orders in South Canterbury in the past 12 months, with 50 people served multiple issues in that period.

South Canterbury family harm co-ordinator senior constable Paul Hampton, of Timaru, said of the 318 orders, 262 were issued to males and 56 to females.

Hampton said the numbers are too high.

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Hub aids at-risk families

Family harm team members in Tasman District are getting new visibility of who’s at risk on their patch.

Last month the Nelson Bays team switched from weekly to daily meetings with counterparts from other agencies, allowing them to discuss cases in greater detail and respond with greater urgency.

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Disgruntled ex runs down fiancee's father, punches and stomps him

A once positive and independent man now has trouble sleeping and relies on others to work his farm after a brutal attack tipped his world upside down.

Only months ago, John Earney was a self-supporting Taranaki farmer who lived alone and spent most days running his farm and caring for his livestock.

But on January 8, life significantly changed for the 64-year-old.

He was the victim of a vicious and arguably premeditated assault which involved him being run down by his own car and an attached horse float driven by his daughter's former fiance, Daniel Kevin Lowe.

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Man who told woman he would die unless she has sex with him jailed

Inducing a woman to indulge in sexual acts with him on the pretext he would die from toxic poisoning if she didn't has cost a Rotorua man his liberty for more than three years.

The 24-year-old, who can't be named for legal reasons, was sentenced in the Rotorua District Court today by Judge Maree MacKenzie to three years two months in prison on one charge of sexual connection induced by a threat and another of assaulting the same woman, his former partner.

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A lifetime of volunteering recognised

Anti-violence champion and community volunteer David Hall nominated.

Tauawhi Men’s Centre, in conjunction with Family Works Tairawhiti and Presbyterian Support East Coast, is calling for nominations for the fourth annual Tairawhiti Men of the Year Awards on June 15. The awards ceremony is a celebration and acknowledgement of the great men in our community. We will publish profiles on each of the men nominated.

Barnardos Gisborne and the Violence Free Tairawhiti Network has nominated anti-violence champion and community volunteer David Hall as one of the Tairawhiti Men of the Year.

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Lower Hutt woman makes plans to prostitute 10-year-old granddaughter

A Lower Hutt woman making plans to prostitute her granddaughter swapped naked photos of the child for a phone top-up.

The plans only came to light when the man she was arranging to prostitute the girl to was arrested for grooming a teenager.

Both the grandmother and the man, Andrew Davie, have pleaded guilty to entering into a deal to sexually exploit a child, but both argue they had no intention of actually following through.

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Crash survivor Reece Dick-Durham jailed for assaulting woman

A survivor of a triple-fatal crash eight years ago is still struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder as he begins a jail term for choking a woman unconscious and breaking her bones.

The victim, who had a brief relationship with Reece James Dick-Durham, was in court on Tuesday to see the 25-year-old jailed for four-and-a-half years by Christchurch District Court Judge David Saunders.

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Category: News Media