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November 03, 2016 at 5:38 PM

Call for safety order breaches to become a criminal offence

Women's Refuge is calling for breaches of Police Safety Orders to become a criminal offence.

New police data show the number of orders issued over the past five years has almost doubled. 

Police Safety Orders (PSO) provide immediate, short-term protection for people at risk of domestic violence, including children.

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Family Court delays at tipping point, lawyers say

Long delays in the Family Court are now evident at every court in the country and the government can no longer ignore the problem, lawyers say.

The back log of defended cases more than two years old is at its highest level since 2011, and the principal Family Court judge Laurence Ryan recently admitted judges were failing to meet any of their timeframes.

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Sleepless and traumatised after witnessing fatal attack on friend

Women and children who witnessed the fatal stabbing of a woman during a hair and nails "pamper day" say they've been left traumatised by the event but haven't been offered the support they need.

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Seclusion rooms in schools to be banned

Seclusion rooms will be banned in schools under new laws proposed by the government.

The move follows revelations some schools have been placing disruptive pupils in small, cell-like rooms.

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Mental illness of Moko's killer 'not given enough weight'

The jailing of a woman for 17 years for the manslaughter of three-year-old Moko Rangitoheriri failed to take into account her mental illness, the Court of Appeal has been told.

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'Worst of the worst': Father conditioned daughter so she thought abuse was normal

An Australian mother and father who sexually, physically and psychologically abused their daughter for more than a decade conditioned her to expect such treatment and to believe it was normal, a court has heard.

Judge Sarah Huggett said she had to put aside her "natural feelings as a human to the profoundly disturbing way the victim was treated" in sentencing the parents for the abuse they inflicted on their daughter from the age of 5 to 19.

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Budget service says it's been hit in pocket for helping working poor

A budgeting service that has missed out on government funding says it lost the contract because it deals with the working poor rather than beneficiaries.

The Christchurch Budget Service is one of 60 budgeting providers who failed to secure contracts yesterday.

The new contracts are part of a major overhaul of the budgeting sector, with the government shifting the focus from teaching people how to budget to what it calls "financial capability".

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