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Weekly Media Roundup

April 30, 2021 at 2:36 PM

RNZ: Oranga Tamariki: Waitangi Tribunal recommends Māori authority to reform system

An independent Māori authority has been proposed by the Waitangi Tribunal to work out how to eliminate the need for tamariki Māori to be placed in state care, but it has stopped short of supporting the abolition of Oranga Tamariki.

The tribunal held an urgent inquiry after Oranga Tamariki came under scrutiny for its removal practices of tamariki and pēpi Māori from their families, following an attempt to take a newborn baby from a teenage mother at Hawke's Bay Hospital in 2019.

The hearing started in July last year and aimed to find out why more tamariki Māori than non-Māori were being removed from their families, whether changes in law or practice had made any difference and what further changes might be required to secure outcomes that uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

The report, He Pāharakeke, He Rio Whakakīkinga Whāruarua, recommends establishing a Māori transition authority, independent from the Crown, with the aim of identifying the changes necessary to eliminate the need for state care of tamariki Māori.

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NZ Herald: Crown to step down, Māori to step up: Oranga Tamariki breaches Treaty

The Waitangi Tribunal has called on the Crown to step down after a report found state care provider Oranga Tamariki to be a foundation of structural racism.

The Tribunal now recommends that a Māori Transition Authority be established and is calling on the Crown to support this establishment for Māori to lead the way.

The Tribunal's Oranga Tamariki Urgent Inquiry Report, released today, said the state care provider had a poor cultural understanding and had created distrust throughout the care and protection system.

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RNZ: Number of parents smacking children drops by half in 15 years

There has been a significant reduction in the number of parents smacking their children, a new study has found.

The research, published in the Medical Journal, is based on data collected as part of the 40-year Christchurch Health and Development Study, which has followed more than 1000 participants since they were born in 1977.

In this study, University of Otago researchers tracked participants who were parents over a 15-year period between 2002 and 2017, when they were aged between 25 and 40, and collected information about how they disciplined their children.

Researchers found minor assaults against children reduced over that time by almost half, from 77 percent to 42 percent.

Severe assaults decreased by two-thirds, from 12 percent

In 2007, the anti-smacking law came into effect but researcher Geraldine McLeod said it was difficult to say whether it was a big factor in the decline.

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1 News: Smacking children doesn't work, researcher says, but new study suggests many Kiwi parents still for it

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Newshub: Who's most likely to use physical discipline against their kids revealed

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RNZ: Royal Commission into Abuse in Care blows $56m budget

The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care has been told to rein in its skyrocketing spending and now has to work with Treasury to get back on track.

Documents released to RNZ show operational spending has increased by more than 80 percent in this financial year.

It has asked for three emergency funding top-ups because it had blown the $56 million budget - meant to last another two years.

But Internal Affairs Minister Jan Tinetti, the minister responsible for the inquiry, said it was not the case of poor financial management, just a learning curve.

"I don't think anyone foresaw how big this was going to be," Tinetti said.

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RNZ: Abuse in care inquiry changes make its work not credible - survivors and advocates

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RNZ: Royal Commission's rising costs may hit compensation for victims

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Newsroom: Charges may be laid in historic psychiatric torture cases

Nearly 50 years after Dr Selwyn Leeks' methods started torturing children at Lake Alice psychiatric hospital he may finally face criminal charges. But the government lawyers who have been protecting the state's involvement for decades will still get the final say – and one of them is declining to talk to the Royal Commission. Aaron Smale reports.

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Stuff: How will the courts and Jacinda Ardern's Government respond to a justice system inflicting harm on domestic violence victims like Mrs P?

A miscarriage of justice against an abuse victim, arising from the Family Court, has put the spotlight on the way our judiciary deals with domestic violence. Kirsty Johnston reports.

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NZ Herald: Shakti: 'Systemic problems' at migrant women's charity, say former staff

A charity that helps migrant women out of domestic violence is facing allegations it has exploitative work conditions and a lack of accountability for those at the top.

Seven former employees and volunteers of Shakti Community Council have spoken to the Herald, claiming systemic problems and a management culture where yelling was the norm.

However, Shakti says no form of disrespect or yelling is normalised at the charity.

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Newshub: 'Archaic' law that forces victims to stay married to abusive partners questioned

A petition to change New Zealand's "archaic" law preventing victims of domestic violence from divorcing their partners has been launched, attracting more than 1300 signatures in its first few days online.

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RNZ: Jasmine Wilson: Diary had 'chilling detail' of murder accused's abuse - Crown

The lawyer for the Crown has told the jury in the murder trial of a Whanganui woman that she was killed by her boyfriend after enduring nine months of abuse and threats.

Mother-of-two Jasmine Wilson, 30, died in Wellington hospital after being dropped off at Whanganui hospital - badly beaten, dehydrated and barely conscious - in late July 2019.

Crown lawyer Chris Wilkinson-Smith said the accused Zane Paora Wallace, who was a prospect for the Hells Angels gang, was responsible.

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NZ Herald: Sex assault: 'I felt judged' - woman's anger after taking 'stealthing' case to police

An Otago woman who is a survivor of "stealthing" says police wouldn't take her case seriously - and two years on says she's been failed by the justice system.

Katharine Cresswell Riol, who goes by Kitty, says she was sexually assaulted in 2019 when a man she was sleeping with removed a condom without her consent, known as stealthing.

Cresswell Riol is telling her story just days after a Wellington man was sentenced to nearly four years' jail in what is believed to be the first conviction for rape after he stealthed someone during sex.

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RNZ: Violence and harassment, statistics in the Pacific are dire

By: Matin Karimli, Director of the ILO Office for Pacific Island Countries and Sandra Bernklau, Representative of UN Women.

When we talk about an issue as serious as violence and harassment, there is no room for 'sugar-coating' - the statistics in the Pacific are dire.

The Pacific Community (SPC) is convening the 14th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women and the 7th Meeting of the Pacific Ministers for Women: "Our Ocean, Our Heritage, Our Future - Empowering All Women in the Blue Pacific Continent."

This event will bring together decision-makers, development partners, research institutions and civil society organisations.

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Newsroom: Judges avoid censure in complaints system

The vast majority of complaints about New Zealand judges over the past 15 years have gone nowhere, despite a United Nations recommendation and calls from the public for change.

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Stuff: Teenagers' magazine ends up in every secondary school in New Zealand

When 17-year-olds Angie Del Favero​ and Rachel Zhou​ first told adults they wanted to raise awareness about problems such as family harm, modern slavery and human trafficking – they got push-back.

They were questioned about why they were taking on these big issues and were told that, maybe, they should choose different topics for the magazines they were creating.

But that only made the best friends more determined to raise awareness about these problems.

“We wanted the magazines to go around to schools and for students to talk about these issues. We want to put them everywhere in New Zealand and overseas. We’re big dreamers,” Angie said.

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Stuff: Sexual violation survivor has no regrets about coming forward

After she was forced into doing a sex act she said was off-limits, Sarah* wasn't immediately sure what to do.

She later talked with her friends.

They persuaded her what happened was wrong, so she went to police. Quickly, she had a medical examination and gave an interview, which was recorded.

“I drove myself [to the station]. I don't remember doing that. I couldn't tell you which way I went.

“But I remember walking in the door and speaking to the officer behind the desk, and I said to him I needed to talk to someone in private.

“He took me to this room out the back and I just sat there and sobbed. He couldn't get any words out of me.”

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NZ Herald: Porangahau father found guilty of assaulting baby on night of her death

The father of a seven-month-old Porangahau girl who died in 2019 has been found guilty of assaulting her on the night that she died.

Seven-month-old Hineteaorangi Maraki was found lifeless in her bed on the morning of October 8, 2019, having gone to bed a happy child.

An autopsy found she had a fractured skull and had suffered blunt force trauma to her head.

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NZ Herald: Man's rape charges dismissed due to more than 40-year delay

A Wellington man's rape charges have been dismissed due to the decades-long delay in laying the charges, and the fact he was a teenager when the alleged offences happened.

The judge confirmed the man, who cannot be named due to a pending application for name suppression, wouldn't have been able to evade the court process if any of the alleged offending had happened when he was an adult, despite the fact it took 43 years for the matter to come to court.

The dismissal was possible under section 322 of the Oranga Tamariki Act, which states a Youth Court judge may dismiss any charge against a young person if they are satisfied the time that has elapsed between the date of the alleged offence and the court hearing has been unnecessarily or unduly protracted.

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Stuff: Second strike warning but no jail for indecent assault on sleeping woman

A Queenstown builder has escaped jail after a second conviction for indecently assaulting a woman at his shared flat while she slept.

Steven Enting, 36, admitted carrying out the assault in January at a hearing in Queenstown District Court on Tuesday.

He was previously convicted of unlawful sexual connection with a French tourist in 2016, telling the court he thought woman was “into it” despite her repeated objections.

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NZ Herald: Judge's 'heart-break' for woman: Man jailed for sexual abuse of daughter

A Dunedin man who sexually abused his daughter for more than a decade has been jailed for seven and a-half years.

The man — aged in his 60s — took the case to trial and was found guilty by a jury on four charges featuring a range of acts which started when the victim was only 5 and ended in the 1990s when she was 16.

The defendant, whose name was suppressed to protect the identity of his daughter, emphatically denied the crimes when he was interviewed by police and remained "unmoved", the court heard at the Dunedin District Court sentencing recently.

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Category: News Media