Policy Submissions
Shine frequently makes policy submissions on law/policy changes relating to domestic abuse. Below are brief descriptions of Shine policy submissions from the last couple of years.
Health Select Committee Inquiry into Preventing Child Abuse and Improving Children's Health Outcomes (May 2012). Shine recommends that ALL institutions that regularly come into contact with pregnant women, infants and toddlers, and other members of families with young children, to put in place policies and procedures in place to screen families in order to help identify victims of abuse – both adults and children, then to provide immediate support and refer to specialist services. Our focus in this submission is on how Government can best support a strong health sector response to domestic abuse.
SAFTINET submission on Auckland Long Term Plan (March 2012). This submission follows on from previous Shine submissions on the Auckland draft plan. The Council initiated a process to engage and consult with Auckland family and sexual violence specialist agencies, culminating in a regional hui. This submission from SAFTINET (the Auckland central family violence network coordinated by Shine) incorporates ideas and feedback from SAFTINET stakeholders that came out during this process.
Proposed Structure and Content for New Zealand’s Victims Code (March 2012). The Ministry of Justice is establishing a Victims Code, which is likely to be modelled on the NZ Health and Disability Code for Consumers' Rights. Shine has provided feedback on the proposed structure and content for the Code, making recommendations specific to victims of domestic violence, for example that victims of domestic violence should never be expected to come into contact with their offender without adequate protection in place and that children of victims of domestic abuse should also be in the definition of victims.
Reviewing the Family Court: A Public Consultation Paper (February 2012). In a sample of Care of Children Act cases analysed in this paper, 51% had concurrent domestic violence proceedings. This prevalence indicates that that it is vital for the Family Court to screen all cases for family violence and to prioritise safety both for adult and child victims in all decisions and processes relating to cases involving domestic violence. Shien is deeply concerned that the thrust of the review emphasises costs and efficiency. In this submission, Shine makes a number of specific recommendations about how the Family Court could be doing a better job protecting victims of family violence, particularly children.
Green Paper for Vulnerable Children (February 2012). While the Green Paper's scope was very broad, Shine's submission focused on keeping children safe who are vulnerable because of their exposure to family violence, as this is our area of expertise. We make a number of recommendations, from Government moving towards integrated, multi-year funding contracts with NGO providers that include money for long term planning and service evaluation, to replicating our model of co-locating domestic violence advocates within CYF site offices throughout the country (with local domestic violence specialist services who are part of the Family Violence Interagency Response System -- FVIARS).
ADHB Child Health Improvement Plan 2012 ‐ 2017 (November 2011). Shine congratulates ADHB for acknowledging the impact of family violence on child and family health. Health services are an important player in protecting children and preventing child abuse. Every child gets involved with a health service at some stage. Thus the health system has an opportunity to screen children and other family members for child and domestic abuse, and to be part of a safety net for victims of child and domestic abuse.
Auckland Draft Plan (written submission October 2011, oral submission December 2011). This submission follows on from our submission below made in May to the Auckland Plan Discussion document from the Auckland Council. We express our disappointment that the Draft Plan has only one sentence that explicitly mentions domestic abuse and no explicit mention of sexual abuse. We recommend again that one of the goals for the 20 year Auckland Plan should be eradicating violence against women and children, and again urge the Council to develop and implement an integrated strategy on violence against women. We should note, however, that the Council is currently (as of October 2011) investigating their role in reducing family violence, apparently separate from the Draft Plan process.
Crimes Amendment Bill (No 2) (June 2011). This submission focuses on section 195A failure to protect a child or vulnerable adult. Shine does not support this section in its present wording. We urged the select committee to consider recommending that section 195A includes domestic violence as a mitigating circumstance, so that when determining whether or not reasonable steps were taken to protect the child or vulnerable adult, courts shall have particular regard to the extent to which someone is experiencing or is in fear of domestic violence.
+Auckland Unleashed - The Auckland Plan Discussion document from the Auckland Council (May 2011). This discussion document asks ‘what sort of city do we want to create, live in and leave to our children?’ For Shine, the answer is simple – a city where there is no violence against women and children. Shine recommends that one of the goals for the 20 year Auckland Plan should be eradicating violence against women and children. We support the Council’s aim of building the interests, rights and well-being of children and young people into all of Council’s activities, and the Auckland Plan’s suggestion to have child/youth impact reports for all Council activities. We recommend that the Council also commit to a violence against women impact report to assess how the Council’s activities and partnerships are contributing to eliminating violence against women. In our submission we detail what is required for Auckland City to develop and implement an integrated strategy on violence against women -- a strategy which needs to be based on gender equality and human rights.
Submission from SAFTINET (written by Shine staff) on aspects of Bail in New Zealand (May 2011). SAFTINET made this submission on some of the points in the Government’s discussion document Bail in New Zealand: Reviewing aspects of the bail system. SAFTINET makes a number of recommendations, including the following: In cases of family violence related murders, the defendant should be held in remand rather than released on bail as this would help to protect all members of the victim’s family. SAFTINET supports new serious violent and sexual offences being added to the specified list of offences so that a reverse burden of proof would apply, for example, in cases where there is potential high risk to the victim and/or other family members, or all cases of sexual crimes against children or young people. SAFTINET urges that Electronic Monitoring bail is not appropriate for domestic violence offences – or any offences that include stalking or harassment. Etc.
Proposed New Operating Model for District Courts in Auckland (May 2011). Shine provided the Ministry of Justice with feedback on their discussion document ‘Proposed New Operating Model for District Courts in Auckland’. Shine is concerned that the push for economies of scale through centralization may further limit comprehensive service provision for women and children experiencing domestic violence, and specifically may further limit the courts’ accessibility for victims and impact negatively on victims’ safety. We welcome a review of how domestic violence cases are being managed in the Auckland Family Courts, with the view to strengthening the effectiveness of the court processes and support services for victims. We recommend that the review of the Family Court and the Proposed New Operating Model for District Courts should be considered concurrently rather than separately. Organisation design impacts on court processes and staff capacity, which in turn impact of victim experiences of safety and justice.
Macro Auckland Report, from the Auckland Communities Foundation (April 2011). The Macro Auckland report draws together evidenced based information on the city’s social issues in order to enable philanthropic organisations to provide funding to essential initiatives. The Report's research examines nine issue areas across Auckland's communities. Shine’s response explores how domestic violence, violence against women and gender inequality impact on eight of these issues (safety, economic well-being, employment, education, health, housing, access, culture) and provides further research to support making these links more visible. Shine’s response was supported by the Auckland Coalition for the Safety of Women and Children.
Shine Submission on Ministry of Justice Issues Paper: Alternative pre-trial and trial processes for child witnesses in New Zealand’s criminal justice system (Feb 2011). Shine strongly supports the recommendations made in the report ‘Child Witnesses in the New Zealand Criminal Courts: A Review of Practice and Implications for Policy,’ published by Auckland University of Technology, Institute of Public Policy, April 2010. Shine supports automatic name suppression for all child witnesses. We support presumption in favour of all child witnesses giving evidence via pre recorded DVD/Video and CCTV transmission. We strongly advocate for pre-recording a child’s entire evidence as the only mode of giving evidence unless there are exceptional circumstances. Specialized child-focused professionals would be appropriate intermediaries to question children, with judicial instruction. It is important to prioritise cases involving child witnesses and having their evidence pre-recorded within a set time frame.
Submission on Improving the Legal Aid System (October 2010). Shine believes that women experiencing abuse should automatically have entitlement to Legal Aid to apply for protection orders.
Response to the Coroner regarding the inquests into the deaths of Chris and Cru Kahui (June 2010). In order to keep children healthy and safe, Shine believes that professionals need to have legislated child protection responsibilities which explicitly state what they must do if they are concerned about the safety of a child or young person. This case further highlights the urgent need to amend the health and education statutes, so that Health and Education professionals have a statutory responsibility for child protection; amend the Children Young Persons and their Families Act, to require multi-disciplinary decision making in child protection investigations; and establish National and Local Child Protection bodies.
Review of the Privacy Act 1993 (June 2010). Many relevant professionals do not have a good understanding of the privacy implications of information sharing. At times the issue of privacy is a very real barrier to safety for victims of domestic abuse. Ad hoc sharing of information will remain the status quo unless relevant professionals have a good understanding of the Privacy Act. Shine requested that the Privacy Commissioner issue guidelines on sharing information in the context of domestic violence, applicable to both the public sector and NGOs.
Submission on Child and Family Protection Bill (April 2010). Shine did not support this amendment to provide an early opportunity to review child contact with the respondent when a Protection Order is made. It is contrary to the object of the Domestic Violence Act 1995 to force women to have contact with their abusive partners through the child/children. Safety of domestic abuse victims—primarily women and children—should be the overriding consideration of any review of the current legislation.
Submission on Forced and Underage Marriage in New Zealand (January 2010). Shine requested that the Justice and Electoral Select Committee initiate practical legislation that will prevent forced marriage, rather than simply criminalise it, whether it involves children or adult women. Forced marriage—as distinct from arranged marriage—is marriage without freely given consent. It is an abuse of human rights and a form of domestic violence which cannot be justified on religious or cultural grounds.
Local Family Violence Death Review (FVDR) process (August 2009). Shine believes it is important for the local and national FVDR committees to review cases where the abuse has resulted in serious injury to an adult or child, as well as cases of suicide. These cases offer more opportunities for agencies to review their practice, learn from what has happened and transfer this learning back into everyday practice by making changes to the way they work.