Question to Minister

Question 3: Katrina Shanks (National) to the Minister of Justice: What steps is the Government taking to support victims of sexual violence?



Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Minister of Justice): The Government is committed to providing better support for victims of crime, including all victims of sexual violence. As a result of the Law Commission’s recent review of the Evidence Act, I will shortly be introducing proposals to improve the way some evidence is dealt with in these cases. If the defence wants to raise issues about a complainant’s previous sexual history, they will need to give notice before trial. In addition, child witnesses under the age of 18 will be able to give evidence by video recording, which can be challenged in trial. They will be able to have a support person sitting nearby when they give evidence. There is a range of support services for sexual violence victims across the Government. They include specialist victim support, no real limitation period on the making of a complaint, automatic name suppression in criminal proceedings, and the court is closed when victims give evidence. Victims can give evidence behind a screen, and they are allowed a support person with them in court while giving evidence, and there is a range of counselling and financial support through the Ministry of Justice, ACC support, or the Ministry of Social Development, including funding of agencies such as Doctors for Sexual Abuse Care, Auckland Sexual Abuse Helpline, and Wellington Rape Crisis. The Victims of Crime Reform Bill, which is awaiting its second reading, will also introduce a new victims’ code.
Katrina Shanks: What criminal processes exist to deal with sexual violence offences?
Hon JUDITH COLLINS: In New Zealand we have a common law justice system based on democratic principles of fairness. Some European and former communist countries have a different system, the inquisitorial method of criminal justice, which effectively means that any accused person has to prove their innocence. Accused persons are examined directly by judges trained in the inquisitorial method of examination. There is limited ability to challenge evidence presented to the judge. In the common law method, prosecution and defence each present their evidence and arguments to the court, and have the right to challenge each other’s evidence. In 2012 the Law Commission published an issues paper and invited submissions on a range of pre-trial and trial processes, particularly to consider whether inquisitorial processes could be incorporated into our justice system for sexual offences. Some of the issues considered have been advanced, such as child protection orders, greater use of restorative justice to deal with sexual violence offences, protection for child witnesses, and requiring notice to be given if the defence intends to raise evidence of the complainant’s prior sexual history.
Katrina Shanks: What else is the Government doing to help prevent sexual violence victimisation?
Hon JUDITH COLLINS: Prevention is obviously the key for progress in this matter. Sexual violence is obviously abhorrent but it is also linked with alcohol and other drugs. The Government’s alcohol reform legislation comes into force on 18 December. From 18 December this year it will be an offence to supply alcohol to a minor without parental consent. In addition, the Government has passed the Psychoactive Substances Act to stop the sale of harmful party pills. The Ministry of Health funds a rape prevention programme in schools called BodySafe, which is currently run in many schools and teaches young people how to keep themselves safe from sexual violence and how to deal with a sexual attachment if it does happen. Earlier this year, Minister Bennett announced a major funding boost for victims of sexual violence through agencies such as the Auckland Sexual Abuse Help Foundation. In addition, ACC is redesigning its support, assessment, and treatment services for sensitive claims to provide more responsive services to victims of sexual violence. Sadly, many victims of sexual violence are repeat victims, and part of the approach is to help victims keep safe to prevent re-victimisation. There is a good deal currently being done to deal with sexual violence in this community, and it is a real problem that affects old and young. We need to continue to bring offenders to justice and to acknowledge that sexual violence is a crime and needs to be dealt with accordingly.

http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/business/qoa/50HansQ_20131112_00000003/3-crime-victims-sexual-offences%E2%80%94support

Time is right to protest via social media sites

An article from the Sunday Star Times by Kyle McDonald

The past 12 months have been a great time for protesting. Internationally, Time magazine made The Protester its Person of 2011. And it's not surprising really. We are more connected to each other globally through our use of social media sites than the human race has ever been. The Arab Spring and the Occupy Movements have used the tremendous mobilising power of Facebook, Twitter and blogs to easily locate people who agree with their cause, publish their point of view, and organise large global protests.
Here in New Zealand it is a little different, granted. But regardless of the reason, judicious use of social media is a great way to connect, become involved and – if you believe something strongly enough – take a stand.
In the past three years a relatively small part of the health sector has been close to destroyed under John Key's watch.
The provision of treatment and support for victims of historical sexual abuse and adult rape has been funded and administered by the Accident Compensation Corporation since 1974. However, in 2009, under pressure from the National government to reduce funding and future liabilities, ACC staff, with help from some very clever people at Crown Law I'm sure, changed their interpretation of the legislation specific to "Sensitive Claims" to enable them to dramatically reduce the availability of funding for this very necessary service.
How necessary?
In New Zealand approximately one in four women, and one in six men, will experience sexual violence in their lifetime. That's pretty high. It also means someone you know has likely been directly affected.
So if you feel strongly about this sort of thing how do you protest and influence government in Aotearoa? If you're reading this in New Zealand there is a 50 per cent chance you're on Facebook or at least have heard of it.
What you may not have heard about however was just before Christmas a small group of dedicated staff at a small counselling agency called HELP, in Auckland, managed to get the government to provide funding at the 11th hour, in a little over a week, by skilfully leveraging the immense power of social media and, more specifically, Facebook.
The Auckland Sexual Abuse HELP service has been around since 1982, with the primary mission to support women who have been raped. It is primarily a crisis service, like a psychological ambulance. It helps them through the process, from the initial crisis call, to reporting, police interviews and medicals. Pretty essential, and no other part of the health or mental health system offers it. They're it, really, in Auckland.
So when the Auckland Sexual Abuse Help service needed funding to keep its crisis line open, thanks to an ongoing struggle to secure funding, certainly not aided by ACC's withdrawal of funding in 2009, it started an online petition and a Facebook page, and members asked everyone they knew to circulate it.
When they reached 7000 signatures, appeared on breakfast television to explain their plight, and organised a protest in downtown Auckland in the first five days, it became apparent that they had a lot of friends. However, the part that made the difference was to make it personal.
It was John Key's government, and so you should ask him to change it. Directly. He has a public Facebook page, so tell him there. And so on the petition site they posted a link to take you directly to his page.
Over the course of Thursday and Friday, his page was bombarded with thousands of pleas to fund the Helpline, enough that Key was asked to comment in a press conference on the Friday. This was only a week after launching the petition. I hope it kept his staff very busy.
Late in the afternoon on Friday the government, via the Ministry of Health, announced it had secured a funding reassurance for a further six months, and a commitment to secure long-term funding beyond that.
That is what you can do with Facebook. Not just post photos of your cats. You can also have a say in how the country is run. The Protester in our New Zealand context needs only a laptop, an internet connection and some friends. It's easy to forget that we all have the power to change things and that our collective apathy is the real enemy.
Otto Van Bismarck said that "politics is the art of the possible". However, I believe it's a sad indictment that the only way to get politicians to do the right thing is to make doing the wrong thing politically impossible.
Or is that just democracy in action?

© Fairfax NZ News

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/columnists/6257552/Time-is-right-to-protest-via-social-media-sites

Changes to ACC

An invitation from Auckland Sexual Abuse Help

ACC has recently made changes to their processes for victims/survivors of sexual violence. Opposition to these changes has been strong.
Minister for ACC Nick Smith has agreed to a review of the changes after 6 months. You can have your say in that review by telling us about your experience with ACC.

Survivors: You can tell us about your experience by
1. Filling in this online survey
2. Telling your story to Louise Nicholas, by emailing her at louise@rapecrisis.org.nz
NB: We want to use your story anonymously to communicate with ACC and the public, so it is important that you are happy with that.

Practitioners: can
1. Fill in this online survey
2. Use this paper survey and post to ACC Survey, PO Box 10-345, Dominion Rd, Auckland 1446 by 16 April 2010
3. Send narrative information to k.mcphillips@sexualabusehelp.org.nz

http://www.sexualabusehelp.org.nz/index.htm

Help at last on the horizon for sexual abuse victims

An article from Te Waha Nui by Kayla Langhorne

Sexual abuse victims are hoping a review of ACC’s Sensitive Claims Pathway will finally bring them the counselling they need.
The pathway, implemented on October 27 last year, introduced a requirement for victims to prove mental injury with a clinical diagnosis, often requiring them to undergo multiple assessments before a decision on their claim was made. The system has been widely contested by professionals who say the guidelines effectively prevent victims from accessing counselling services.
Accident Compensation Minister Nick Smith announced the review yesterday. In an announcement on the Beehive website the Minister said: “I have been very hesitant as a politician to interfere in clinical decisions but acknowledge the changes have caused controversy. That is why I have initiated this independent clinical review to ensure best possible practice in this sensitive area.”
Paulette Benton-Greig, agency development manager for Auckland Sexual Abuse Help (ASAH), says many people who had contacted the agency were distressed and anxious because they were unable to get help under the existing pathway. “They feel that they are being invalidated and they’re having to deal with a really difficult system.”
Benton-Greig says a woman who was abducted, raped and assaulted was denied ACC-funded counselling on the grounds that she required more information to justify the claim, despite having a medical assessment that confirmed the assault.
Labour list MP Lynne Pillay has her doubts about the review, saying it is a “sham” and that she is concerned as to how long it will take and how meaningful it is. Pillay says the pathway needs to cease now. She says she has heard from victims contemplating suicide because they are unable to receive help. “At this very time hundreds and hundreds of people are not receiving the treatment and support that they need.”
Benton-Greig also said the current pathway needs to be “abandoned”. “They need to work with service providers to find a system that works and is effective and doesn’t harm people who need access.”
Auckland psychotherapist Kyle MacDonald, who organised the 4000-strong petition that contributed to the Government’s decision to have the review, says he would like to see a rigorous review of the system. “I think there needs to be an investigation as to how all of this has actually occurred.
“This has been a hatchet job and it has destroyed a system that thousands of vulnerable New Zealanders rely upon for psychological support.”
Benton-Greig says ASAH have been compiling anecdotal evidence from clients outlining their experiences with the current ACC pathway. “We will be using that information to submit to that review, to support our argument that the changes have lead to serious impacts on survivors [of sexual abuse].”
The review panel consists of Dr Barbara Disley, clinical psychologist Clive Banks, consultant Ruth Herbert and psychiatrist Professor Graham Mellsop. They are expected to report back to the Minister by the end of July.

http://www.tewahanui.info/wordpress2/?p=3101