Adams hits Kiwi bullies where it hurts
Iwant to congratulate Justice Minister Amy Adams for tackling domestic violence. There were more than 57,000 domestic incidents last year. There’s one every five minutes. There’ll be another case just in the time it takes to read this column.
Police spend 41 per cent of their frontline response time attending domestic incidents. It’s corrosive for families and costly to the state, costing $1.4 billion a year to police.
That’s seven times the cost of the Working for Families package which helps struggling working families get by. Of course I’m less concerned about the financial cost than the terrible impact domestic violence has on families affected by it.
For too long we’ve hidden behind what a great country this is to raise children and ignored the serious issue of family violence.
Once Were Warriors briefly jolted everyone out of that comfort zone but nothing really changed. It takes governments, law changes and support agencies to shift behaviours, not a movie.
Adams has set out to force change. When abusers turn up in court their record of abuse will be public and they won’t be able to hide behind privacy.
Take Dunedin’s Edward Livingstone, who took his own life after shooting dead his son Bradley, 9, and daughter Ellen, 6, after a long-running custody dispute with his ex-wife.
The police officer who prosecuted Livingstone for his second breach of a protection order conceded that his sentence may have been different had she known he had convictions in Australia. He was discharged without conviction then went on to kill his children.
It simply defies all common sense that the authorities won’t always share this information. And also that the law doesn’t allow previous convictions to come into the picture.
The police officer said she doubted the courts would entertain them trawling through his past. If they had, they would have found Livingstone had convictions for arson and assault in 1988 in Australia. He was deeply unstable. The court allowed him to walk away because it lacked information about his past. It may have been different had all the information been in front of the judge.
The most contentious area in all this is the policing of protection orders. There is a real concern that protection orders aren’t taken seriously enough. No piece of paper will stop an act of violence.
But perhaps we need to send more of a message that protection orders are serious.
Right now breaching a protection order carries a maximum three-year jail term. But police often look the other way and use their discretion to issue a warning.
Adams is looking at a mandatory arrest for every breach. This is a big call, which would soak up a lot of police time.
Groups working with victims of domestic violence support it and call it ‘‘exciting change’’. But fathers who send ‘‘I love you’’ text messages to their children would be arrested. Is that fair? It’s still a technical breach.
This week I heard from a father who had breached his protection order six times. He told me he had no intention of hurting his family – he just wanted to talk to his kids. He was hurting.
What do we do with him? Send him to jail? Technically, yes. Is that fair? It seems a bit rough. But six breaches indicates he doesn’t respect the protection order.
Then there’s the women who take out protection orders but breach them themselves by continuing to contact the ex-partner – should there be a new law around that?
Adams also wants to venture into the area of psychological abuse such as controlling behaviour. This could criminalise what the experts call ‘‘coercive control’’ which includes things like verbal intimidation or restricting movements or financial control, rather than anything physical.
I do wonder whether police have the time and resources to enforce these new areas.
It’s clear the Government will have to back up the plan with more money and resources.
Abusers must not be allowed to hide behind privacy. You lose that right when you abuse your family. All your history must be on the table when judges make a decision.
The grim reality is it could take a generation to shift behaviours around domestic violence. But at least Adams has the guts to make a belated start.