Te Kupenga Whakaoti Mahi Patunga wants the government to invest more in rehabilitating family violence offenders. Photo: 123RF
Te Kupenga Whakaoti Mahi Patunga (the National Network of Family Violence Services) has launched a call to action, encouraging the government to invest in rehabilitating offenders.
The call was launched by Te Kupenga Māori co-chairperson Takarua Tawera, Tauiwi co-chairperson Dee Cresswell and chief executive Merran Lawler during a national family violence conference in Wellington yesterday.
Lawler told RNZ "it's a call on government generally to invest in developing a specific strategy and action plan as it relates to people who use violence".
Lawler said the the strategy needed to sit alongside Te Aorerekura, the National Strategy to Eliminate Family Violence and Sexual Violence, which government launched last year.
Merran Lawler says a specific action plan for offenders needs to be created. Photo: Supplied
The 25 year strategy set out a framework to drive government action in a unified way, harnessing public support and community action.
Te Aorerekura was also expected to increase political and public sector accountability by setting out what the government was committing to do and how it will measure and report on progress.
But Lawler said without investment in services and interventions for people who use violence, there inevitably would be a long line of victims.
"We're hoping that government will see the importance of addressing violence at the source," Merran said.
"[Doing] in some respects, the politically unpopular thing, which is to invest in those who perpetrate violence rather than the victims, which is politically a much easier thing to sell."
But Lawler said investment in victim support also needed to continue.
"The services that support victims are already underresourced and we would hate to see any cutting of their funding."
She said if anything funding needed to be drastically increased.