‘First boost in 10 years’

The Government has made a $76m funding commitment to combating family violence, and it’s made a big claim to go with it. The line: ‘‘This is the first funding boost to frontline agencies in 10 years’’.

If that were true, would it mean National in its entire nine years of Government did not give an extra cent to frontline agencies providing support to victims of family violence?

It depends on the definition of ‘‘frontline’’ and even then, the Government might be on shaky ground on this one.

At a breakfast hosted by the Salvation Army just ahead of last week’s Budget, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the funding, and Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni said nearly half of it would go to women’s refuges.

What the Government meant

The Minister’s office was asked for the data it was relying on to justify the claim, but referred

Stuff to the Ministry of Social Development.

The Ministry did not respond with the advice that sat behind the claim. Instead, Ministry general manager safe strong families and communities Mark Henderson responded with a statement:

‘‘MSD has not had an increase in funding for frontline family violence services for 10 years. Other investment MSD has received towards family violence in recent years has been focused on housing, networks and prevention initiatives, not frontline services. This includes Budget 2017 funding for community action initiatives E Tu¯ Wha¯ nau and the Gangs Action Plan, neither of which fund direct frontline services.’’

That still doesn’t define ‘‘frontline services’’.

However, going by Sepuloni’s statement above, Women’s Refuge is likely to be considered a frontline service.

So where did National put its money?

Looking back to the previous two budgets – particularly Budget 2017, which the Ministry cited – National has pointed to a $37.2 million for family violence services including funding for the E Tu¯ Wha¯ nau Community Action Fund, Gang Action Plan pilots and an extension of the Integrated Safety Response pilot.

The Ministry statement directly states E Tu¯ Wha¯ nau and the Gangs action plan were not frontline service funding providers. But the ministry failed to mention the integrated safety response pilot.

That pilot involves teams made up of police, Oranga Tamariki, the Department of Corrections, the Ministry of Health and specialist family violence NGOs and frontline services like Barnados and Women’s Refuge.

On that basis, it seems the Government’s claim that it’s providing the first funding to frontline services is incorrect.

It’s also fair to look at the places the previous Government did put its money.

Part of a $130m overhaul of the way family violence is dealt with by the justice system, announced by former Prime Minister John Key in 2016, included an extra 66 police officers dedicated to dealing with family violence cases and a new ‘‘supervised child handover’’ pilot.

It also appointed a Chief Victims Advisor to advise on the needs and views of victims of crime, changed regulations to improve the information available to judges in family violence cases and launched a National Home Safety Service to help protect up to 400 victims of family violence a year, and up to 600 children, by strengthening the security of their homes.

Perhaps most significantly, the last Government carried out a complete overhaul of the former Child, Youth and Family to rebuild it from the ground up into Oranga Tamariki.

Verdict: Fable

There can, and will, always be debates about whether either party is putting up enough money to services, and giving funding to the right areas. But in this case, it appears the Government took its claim too far. It is not the first Government in 10 years to give money to frontline services.

The last Government carried out a complete overhaul of the former Child, Youth and Family.