Implicit protection of abusive men has to end

Cannabis profits Change priorities

As a young journalist in a national newsroom, I used to work the late shift a lot. The scourge of junior reporters everywhere, this usually involves updating the latest stories, calling people for comment, and keeping an ear out for breaking news.

Every hour or so, I’d call the cops. Often, they were as bored as I was. I once had a wide-ranging philosophical debate with an officer at the Whanganui watch house which took up the best part of 45 minutes. Sometimes, there would be real news; a fire, an accident, a gang shooting. Once, I chuckled my way through this story of a deranged, runaway sheep.

Making all those calls to police stations around the country, night after night, there were three words I heard more frequently than any others. No matter how I varied the question, the answer would be the same.

Me: ‘‘What’s been going on? You guys busy?’’

Cops: ‘‘Na, just domestics.’’ ‘‘Few drunks in the cells, other than that just domestics.’’ ‘‘I think we had something, wait a minute [muffled yells in background]. Na, just another domestic.’’

Just another domestic. Every five minutes, police reckon, they are called out to a domestic violence incident. This time of the year, it gets even worse.

But domestic violence was never the story I wrote. It was just there, a given, a background hum against which everything else happened. So common that it became invisible. Who wants to read about a man hitting his wife? Just another domestic, right?

Of course, when women die – predominantly at the hands of men they know – we all pause for a brief look. In November 2013 I stood shivering in the disappearing evening light outside a crime scene on Brussels St in Miramar, where a woman had been found dead. She was Mei Fan, stabbed 38 times by her estranged husband Michael Preston, who left the carving knife embedded in her neck.

(There’s a term for this – overkill. That’s when the type of violence used is far beyond that necessary to cause death. It’s fairly typical of men who kill their ex or current partners.)

That one was horrific enough for the front page. But generally, the hundreds of incidents every week did not merit a mention.

As a young woman, this was so utterly depressing it was easier not to think about it. The problem was too big.

Now, I realise I was looking at it all wrong. I wasn’t asking the only question that matters, which is: How did we all become so conditioned to violence against women that it’s largely unremarkable?

And: How do we change that? This time last year, I sat at my kitchen table, reading through Family Violence Death Review Committee reports and writing a story about Invercargill mum Verity McLean, whose exhusband had just been jailed for her murder. It was late, and quiet, and the night was somehow darker. I felt I was yelling into a vortex. Would anyone even care?

This year, I feel differently. In the national outpouring of pain and sorrow that has followed British backpacker Grace Millane’s tragic death, I see seeds of hope. I see an anger and hurt that goes far beyond what happened to Grace alone, and speaks to a deep sense of injustice, of disquiet about senseless violence meted out primarily at the hands of men. About what is happening to thousands of New Zealand women every day, in the very place they should be safest.

It feels like people are finally beginning to take notice, like glitches are appearing in the Matrix. It feels like a groundswell, like this is an energy we could do something with.

Because it’s never just another domestic. These are not isolated incidents. Taken together, they form a web of violence, of sanctioned hatred towards women in which we’re all trapped. It will take all of us to escape. Get ready. If the referendum on ‘‘recreational’’ cannabis use succeeds, our Government will welcome any extra tax, although these dollars will then be needed to treat health and criminogenic consequences, particularly for reefer-ready millennials who now have the ‘‘green’’ light to proceed with a Governmentassured safety net if things go awry.

But, hey, uninhibited freedom to use similarly addictive alcohol and tobacco has worked well for society, so what could possibly go wrong? And maybe there is an opportunity for hapless dairy farmers to reposition and acquire a share of this market, unless of course they become marginalised by corporates such as those soonto-be-redundant oil companies.

And an iwi plan to grow hemp shows great business foresight. But just maybe this iwi enterprise is more interested in creating jobs and making medicine than getting people high and making money.

Imagine, too, the income for local authorities from licences for cultivation, manufacturing, retailing and distribution, and from mandatory product testing. I look forward to reading the arguments for and against legalisation as the referendum nears.

Jim Young, Belmont [abridged] Thanks for your extensive coverage on Victoria University of Wellington’s name change. The staff, students, professors emeriti, and alumni opposing the deletion of Victoria from our name welcome the minister of education’s decision and the reasons for that decision.

The VUW Council should reflect on the views presented in submissions, letters and petitions. Its members should recognise their accountability to ‘‘the wider university community’’ as governors of a public institution dedicated to teaching and research.

For councils to address what minister Chris Hipkins referred to as the ‘‘national interest’’, however, it is essential to change the strategic priorities imposed by former minister Steven Joyce and associate minister Peter Dunne.

Focused narrowly on business, the economy, and necessary attention to Ma¯ ori and Pasifika education, the tertiary strategy failed to recognise the needs of a democratic society for well-educated and culturally aware citizens.

The current teacher shortage is one sign of the failure to plan for the education of those who perform socially and culturally vital work.

I hope the Government develops a comprehensive set of strategic goals for the tertiary sector that better serve the ‘‘national interest’’.

Dolores Janiewski, Highbury

Cavalier approach

Wellington Howard League applauds the privacy commissioner’s decision to publicly name Sensible Sentencing Trust’s ‘‘continuously negligent, cavalier, and dangerous approach to privacy’’.

Not only does the SST database have the potential to ruin lives, it is utterly at odds with a compassionate society that supports prisoner rehabilitation. It does not help former offenders to productively and positively contribute to our community.

While the criminal justice system is by no means perfect, it is the proper place for offending – and the causes of offending – to be addressed. Christine McCarthy, president, Wellington Howard League for Penal Reform The Dominion Post is subject to the NZ Media Council. Complaints must be directed to editor@dompost .co.nz. If the complainant is unsatisfied with the response, the complaint may be referred to the Media Council, PO Box 10-879, Wellington, 6143 or info@media council.org.nz. Further details at presscouncil.org.nz Email: letters@ dompost.co.nz

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