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Weekly Media Roundup

September 25, 2020 at 3:50 PM

Stuff: She spent $50,000 trying to get safe. In the end, she gave up.

Protection orders are one of the strongest defences a domestic violence victim has against an abuser. But each year, hundreds of women are abandoning their bids for safety. Kirsty Johnston reports.

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Stuff: Abuse victims are urged to get police protection. They're left with debt

Women leave violent relationships and try to get safe. It costs them more than they have. Kirsty Johnston reports.

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Stuff: Auckland baby homicide: Oranga Tamariki tipped off shortly before Poseidyn's death

Oranga Tamariki received an anonymous tip raising concerns about a baby’s care several weeks before he suffered intentional head injuries and died.

Meanwhile, the detective leading the homicide investigation into the death of Poseidyn Hemopo Pickering says some of the boy’s whānau are refusing to co-operate with police.

Stuff has also learned police have seized cellphones belonging to people at the Manurewa, South Auckland, home where the 10-month-old lived.

The case has parallels with the unsolved homicide of baby Sofia Taueki-Jackson, who died in May. Some of her whānau are also refusing to co-operate with Counties Manukau detectives, and she also suffered fatal head injuries.

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RNZ: State abuse inquiry makes slow progress

Opinion - Nearly three years have grumbled by since the government first signed off on the Abuse in Care Royal Commission. What on earth have they been up to?

Announcing the inquiry shortly after assuming her premiership, Jacinda Ardern said it would be a historic opportunity for the nation to "confront our history and make sure we don't make the same mistakes again".

A little noticed omission in the fine print appears to have been that rather a lot of this historical confrontation would take place behind closed doors.

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Stuff: Survivor of abuse in state care believes his abuser had offended before

A survivor of child abuse in state care says he believes a housemaster who abused him was allowed to “quietly slip away” and reoffend.

Survivors are giving evidence to the Royal Commission of inquiry into abuse in care about their struggles to get redress.

Keith Wiffin was made a ward of the state at the age of 11, following the death of his father.

“My mother signed the document thinking that I’d be cared and nurtured for. The complete opposite happened,” he told the commission in Auckland on Monday.

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Stuff: Abused in state care as a boy, still fighting for recognition decades later

Earl White’s* childhood has been scarred by violence and sexual abuse by people who were responsible for caring for vulnerable children.

White gave evidence to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care on Thursday where survivors of sexual and physical abuse are giving evidence about their battles to get recognition from the state.

White says one of his earliest memories is seeing his father chase his sister down the hallway with a knife.

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NZ Herald: Abuse in Care: Lake Alice survivor dies during lockdown, evidence read on behalf

A survivor of "disgraceful" abuse in state mental health units died of cancer during lockdown before he could present his evidence to the Abuse in Care Royal Commission.

Patrick Stevens - not his real name - shared with the commission his experiences at Manawaroa Unit and Lake Alice Hospital, where he was sexually, physically and psychologically abused in his early teens during the 1970s.

Survivors this week and next are sharing their experiences in seeking recognition and redress as part of the ongoing Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry, investigating abuse in state and faith-based care between 1950 and 1999.

It was originally planned for March, but was postponed because of the Covid-19 lockdown. Stevens died in April.

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NZ Herald: Abuse in Care: Lake Alice survivor calls for psychiatrist Dr Selwyn Leeks to be held to justice

The Crown has been accused of protecting a psychiatrist himself accused of using electroconvulsive therapy and anti-psychotic drugs as "torture" on children he'd misdiagnosed at Lake Alice Hospital.

Leonie McInroe was a patient in the child and adolescent unit at the now-closed hospital near Whanganui over 18 months from 1975 to 1976, when she was aged 14 and 15.

During that time she was subjected to ECT and given anti-psychotic medication by Dr Selwyn Leeks for what she says was punishment, she revealed in her submission to the ongoing Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry investigating abuse in state and faith-based care between 1950 and 1999.

McInroe also revealed the Crown had brought Leeks into the country from Australia in 1998 for a secret mediation session, making McInroe keep the "fact, time and place" of the meeting confidential.

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Stuff: Abuse in state care: Jack Horton reveals details about his dark childhood

Jack Horton spent most of his childhood in state care, a time of ongoing abuse that shaped his life forever. Sophie Cornish reports.

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Stuff: Election 2020: National again promises to punish people who fail to disclose child abuse

A failure to disclose child abuse could be punished by three years in prison if the National Party is elected in October.

National MPs Louise Upston and Alfred Ngaro were in Hamilton on Friday to further detail the party’s child policies, re-announcing the party’s intention to create a new punishment for non-disclosure of child abuse and promising to redefine Labour’s child poverty targets.

Upston, the party’s social development spokeswoman, has promised not to cast aside the Labour-led Government’s child poverty measurements but instead focus on a new, yet-to-be determined material hardship target.

Labour leader Jacinda Ardern says National wants to cut payments to families of young children, contradicting their claimed focus on reducing material hardship.

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Stuff: Group calls for mandatory sexual consent education for tertiary students

A group is calling for sexual consent education to be made mandatory for all first-year tertiary education students in New Zealand, to help counter rates of sexual violence on campus.

Thursdays in Black, a student-led group working towards a world without sexual violence, have launched a petition calling for a consistent approach to consent education, as opposed to the current, fragmented system.

National co-ordinator Jahla Lawrence said compulsory education would provide cohesion, and help tackle an issue which tends not to be talked about in New Zealand.

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Stuff: A new family violence programme to disrupt male privilege and uplift the mana of women

In one hand is a kōauau, a musical instrument, and in the other hand, a patu or weapon with its unique Oneroa design from Tainui.

For Poata Watene, the two symbolise the balance of femininity and masculinity, between Hineraukatauri the goddess of music and Tūmatauenga, the god of war.

Watene is using ngā atua Māori, Māori gods in his family violence work.

He says where violence exists in homes, balance and the correct use of Māori traditions must be restored in the minds and actions of individuals and whānau.

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ODT: Alcohol sale controls lowered assaults: study

Former Dunedin epidemiologist and alcohol harm researcher Jennie Connor is heartened by a drop in hospitalisation from assaults, after alcohol sale restrictions.

"The findings were heartening and were consistent with both reduced numbers of assaults and reduced severity of injuries, due to lower levels of intoxication late at night," Emerita Prof Connor says.

After the introduction of tighter alcohol sale regulations in 2013, requiring all bars and clubs close at 4am and no takeaway alcohol sales after 11pm, the overall number of assault-related hospitalisations fell by 11%.

Prof Connor, who was the lead author of the recently published study, said the hospitalisation decline— at 18% — was largest among 15 to 29-year-olds, who comprised more than half of those hospitalised.

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RNZ: A 'dangerous' rise in domestic violence in Fiji

A women's rights advocate in Fiji says the Covid-19 pandemic has proven dangerous for women in the country.

The Fiji Women's Crisis Centre said it has received more than 500 calls from victims of domestic violence in the first six months of this year.

The centre's coordinator Shamima Ali said she was concerned the economic fallout from the pandemic had led to family tensions and disputes.

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