Latest news with #AucklandUniversity
Newsroom
4 days ago
- Newsroom
NZ's multi-billion-dollar hidden epidemic
Every four minutes, New Zealand Police are called to a family harm incident. That's up to 400 call-outs every single day. It's a staggering and disturbing figure in a country that prides itself on kindness, community, and whānau. Yet, behind too many closed doors, the silent war rages, leaving victims bruised, broken, and often voiceless. Today The Detail looks at the alarming rate of domestic violence in New Zealand, and potential solutions, speaking to Auckland University professor of law Mark Henaghan, who was on the Family Violence Death Review committee for nearly decade, and Emma Powell, CEO of Te Puna Aonui, which has launched the Government's action plan to eliminate domestic and sexual violence. 'I would probably use the words hidden epidemic, basically,' says Henaghan. 'Nearly 50 percent of our murder cases involve family violence. 'We only really detect … about 20 percent [of domestic violence incidents], so there's a whole lot … that doesn't get to the surface.' He says something needs to be done, and immediately. New Zealand's rates of domestic and family violence are among the highest in the OECD. On average, 13 females and 10 males are killed every year. Māori women are particularly at risk – more likely to be killed by a partner and less likely to seek help. The financial cost to the country, Henaghan says, is huge. 'They reckon it's worth, like to the country … between $8 to $10 billion, probably more … in terms of time off work, and how people suffer from it so they can't be productive, how children get into difficulty because all the costs of it, the medical costs, and all the rest of it, are massive. 'But they're never talked about much in any political campaign, I think it's because … we don't want to know about it. 'We do need to hear about it; we need to have our eyes wide open to the realities of it.' Powell, who is also a key member of the Executive Board for the Elimination of Family Violence and Sexual Violence, tells The Detail, 'if you look at the numbers, the rates are stubbornly high', but she says the Government is taking action to address the crisis. Late last year, it launched part two of Te Aorerekura – the National Strategy to Eliminate Family Violence and Sexual Violence – a 25-year strategy designed to achieve intergenerational change. Part one was introduced in 2021. Powell says over the next few years they're keying in on good investment and commissioning, how effective funding is, freeing up frontline workers to get them into the community and more productive places, getting into the regions, intervening earlier, focusing more on children, confronting perpetrators, and building an information sharing platform. 'I really believe that the only way forward is doing things as collectives, and that's tough, it is hard, hard stuff to do, but it's really important,' says Powell. 'I think taken together and executed really well in a community, we should start to see a real shift.' Last week, the Government announced that, as part of the action plan, more training to help staff support in family and sexual violence responses would be rolled out across frontline services, with the goal of reaching 10,000 workers in the next two years. Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence Karen Chhour says, 'this will ensure victim-survivors receive best practice support, and will empower staff to safely recognise, refer, and respond to family and sexual violence. 'This training is an important part of our response to family and sexual violence. I am proud of our progress against the second Te Aorerekura Action Plan, it shows the benefits of a multi-agency response and the dedication of government departments to best supporting victim-survivors.' Powell says while change can be slow, a recent experience in Rotorua provides proof that it is starting to happen. 'I was spending time on the ground with a multi-agency collaboration … and I was talking to one of the leads there and she was telling me about just a story – stories that they are starting to see more and more – where 'she has left him', and we don't count that, we don't count that in government as an indicator of success. 'But they are seeing more and more that women are feeling empowered, supported, and safe to actually leave very violent and difficult situations. And so, there are lives being changed by the work that we are doing.' Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here. You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter.
Otago Daily Times
6 days ago
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Obituary: Maurice Gee
Maurice Gee was one of New Zealand's most decorated authors, his books for children and adults winning awards at home and abroad. For more than 50 years Gee wrote about ordinary people and ordinary lives, often with the narrator looking back at events that caused damage and unhappiness. "I don't deliberately set out to do this, but the stories turn in that direction following their own logic," he once said. "All I can do about it is make the narrative as interesting as I can and give those people lively minds." Born in Whakatāne in 1931, Maurice Gee was the middle child of the three sons of Harriet Lyndahl Gee (nee Chapple) — a some-time writer whose published work included a children's picture book — and carpenter Leonard Gee. Gee's grandfather, controversial minister James Chapple, was the inspiration for his grandson's most famous character, George Plumb. Gee was raised in the then rural Auckland suburb of Henderson — where, thinly disguised, many of his books were set. After attending Avondale College Gee went to Auckland University, where he completed a Masters in English. All Gee wanted to do was write — he had already had work published in magazines and journals before graduation — but, then as now, making a career as a full-time author in New Zealand was a fraught enterprise. He became a teacher but resigned in 1956 to dedicate himself to his craft. Grants in 1960 and '61 from the New Zealand Literary Fund kept the wolf from the door and in 1962 Gee's debut novel, The Big Season, was published. An unusual mix of rugby and crime, it was well-received, and helped its author earn the 1964 Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago. During that stint in the South, Gee wrote his second novel, A Special Flower, before he trained as a librarian — his day job for several years to come. Gee, who had a son from an earlier relationship, married Margareta in 1970, having met her four years previously at the Alexander Turnbull Library. They had two daughters. Gee's third novel, In My Father's Den, was published in 1972 and has proven to be one of his most enduring works: in 2004 it was adapted into a successful film. A collection of short stories, A Glorious Morning, Comrade, appeared two years later, and it went on to win Gee the first of many awards, the fiction prize at the 1976 New Zealand Book Awards. By the late '70s Gee was at the peak of his powers. In 1978 he published Plumb, which drew on Gee's ancestors for what was the first of a trilogy about three generations of a family. It won Britain's James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction in 1979, as well as another fiction prize at the NZ Book Awards. "I can't look at my books the way I read other books. I look at them quite differently," he once said. "I'm intimately connected with them and probably wouldn't be able to identify my voice in them, if someone asked me to." A year later Gee wrote Under the Mountain, his best-known and most-beloved children's work. An eerie sci-fi thriller about aliens slumbering beneath Auckland's volcanos, it was a popular book and well-remembered TV series, and was later converted into a stage play and feature film. In 2004, Under the Mountain was the recipient of the Gaelyn Gordon Award, awarded annually to a children's book that did not win an award at the time of its publication. "Children's writing seems to be easier than adult writing, because it's coming off a different level," he once said. "There's still some pleasure to be got from both and I try to do each as professionally as I possibly can, but the thing that really engages me fully is adult fiction." Whatever his level of engagement, Gee still wrote excellent work for children for many years, including a science fiction trilogy which featured The Halfmen of O, which won Children's Book of the Year. In the late '80s Gee struck up a relationship with Victoria University, being awarded an honorary doctorate of literature in 1987 and a writing fellowship to Victoria in 1989. Three years later Gee received one of New Zealand letters most prestigious prizes, the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship. There Gee wrote Crime Story, a stinging critique from a life-long lefty of the policies of the Lange Labour Government of the 1980s; it was later filmed under the title Fracture. In 1993 Gee published his most autobiographic novel, Going West, a book which has been recognised by providing the name for a long-running West Auckland literary festival. It also won Gee another NZ Book Award. The Fat Man was another Children's Book of the Year award winner, and in 1998 adult novel Live Bodies won the Deutz Medal at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards. In 2003 Gee began to receive awards which reflected his astonishing career. He was named as an Arts Foundation "Icon" and the following year received the rich Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement for fiction. More award-winning novels (Blindsight, Salt) followed, and in 2015 he was the subject of a biography by Rachel Barrowman, a book whose subject described it as "illuminating even for me". Three years later, Gee wrote his own memoir, Memory Pieces, a work which was shortlisted for the non fiction prize at the 2019 Book Awards. In 2020 Gee and Margareta settled in Nelson, as the author of many of New Zealand's favourite books retired from writing. Maurice Gee died on June 12, aged 93. — APL/RNZ
Scoop
6 days ago
- Politics
- Scoop
Rangatahi To Lead Negotiations In International Climate Meeting Simulation
Kiwi young people will tomorrow come together to negotiate climate policy, find solutions and create a statement for climate action during Aotearoa Youth COP, New Zealand's youth-led national simulation event of the UN's international climate meeting. Held at Auckland University, around 200 young people aged between 14 and 30 (more than half under 18) have registered to attend the simulation of the UN's annual climate meeting, to be held later this year in Belém, Brazil. The event - supported by Save the Children, Youth Climate Collective and Ngā Ara Whetū (Centre for Climate, Biodiversity and Society) - builds on last year's first-ever COP simulation event, with interactive workshops, climate policy negotiations and debates on some of the most pressing issues facing youth today. The event will also include a panel discussion and talk from British High Commission's Lead Climate Change Advisor Rick Zwaan. Participants will take on roles representing different groups, from journalists to policy makers, indigenous communities to NGOs. Working in teams, they will create, debate and negotiate agreements, like real global leaders, with each session designed to build leadership, negotiation, systems thinking and collaboration skills in a supportive and action-focused environment. At the end of the day, the insights and policies developed will be collated into an Aotearoa Youth Climate Statement , which will be delivered to the New Zealand Government and presented at COP30 in Brazil by a delegation of young leaders. Save the Children Generation Hope youth ambassador Lily, 15, says she is most looking forward to seeing how rangatahi reflect on climate change and the impact they can have on it. "Events like this give rangatahi like me a voice, an opportunity to discuss how we believe we can solve a collective problem without judgement or difficulty. I think, as rangatahi, we have the right to be at the forefront of discussions on climate change. "We may not be the past, but we are the present and future, and the outcome of what we do now will impact us and future generations to come." Save the Children New Zealand CEO Heather Campbell says this week's landmark ICJ advisory opinion, which acknowledges the impacts of climate change on children and young people, gives voice to the millions of children at the forefront of the climate crisis - and offers hope for greater climate action. "The climate crisis is a children's rights crisis. Children, particularly those affected by inequality and discrimination, bear the brunt of climate change impacts, despite being least responsible. "It was Pacific youth leaders who began this fight for climate justice and took it to the highest court in the world, which shows the power of young people to implement their ideas for a better future. Children want and deserve to be heard. Their voices matter." About Save the Children NZ: Save the Children works in 110 countries across the world. The organisation responds to emergencies and works with children and their communities to ensure they survive, learn and are protected. Save the Children NZ currently supports international programmes in Fiji, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Laos, Nepal, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. Areas of work include child protection, education and literacy, disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation, and alleviating child poverty.
Scoop
23-07-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
A Never-Ending Visa Queue For Refugees
It could take 10 years to clear a refugee visa waiting queue - but those applicants have already been waiting for seven years, and some have families in danger. When Dawt Tha Thang arrived in New Zealand in 2010, she was with her husband and five of her children. Within weeks, she gave birth to her youngest. But her eldest daughter stayed behind in Myanmar. She had just married and was pregnant. The Thangs are Christian Chins and as a minority, have faced persecution - it is how they became refugees - but over the past several years things have become even more dangerous in Myanmar. First, in 2021 there was a military coup and the country descended into civil war. Then, this March, there was an earthquake that killed thousands. "Myanmar as a whole is a pretty awful situation, with the civil war and the earthquake and forced conscription, but this is a family that ... also comes from a persecuted minority. They have been shaken down in [the capital city] Yangon, ie the army comes round and demands money or they will be sent to jail. They're moving every second or third night to stay away from the army," says Caroline Forsyth, who is friends with the family and speaks on their behalf to The Detail. Under the Refugee Family Support Category (RFSC), the Thangs can apply to bring their daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren here to join them. And the last time applications opened, they did. That was in 2017. They have been closed since then. Right now, the queue is 4190 people long, with only a few applicants coming off that list every year. But the scale of the problem is much bigger, because it does not represent all the people who have not even had a chance to apply. In today's episode of The Detail, Jay Marlowe - professor of social work at Auckland University and co-author with the Red Cross of a report on the RFSC - explains how the category works - and does not. "It's not our position that the RFSC is not working or is absolutely broken... for me fundamentally it's about ensuring that we protect what exists but also to recognise that it is under need of reform," he says. "It's not irreparably broken, but it does need reform." Under the RFSC there are two tiers. Tier One is for people who have come here as refugees who have no other adult family in the country, and Tier Two is for people who do have adult family - like the Thangs, who are a married couple and now have adult children - but have other adult family who they would like to reunite with as well. Tier One is prioritised, because people applying in that category do not have any support here. That category remains open for applications, but Tier Two has only opened for applications twice. The first time was in 2012, and the second was in 2017. Both times, it was only for a few days, and Forsyth and Marlowe say the system was inundated with applications. There are only 600 places a year open for the RFSC, and because Tier One is always open and those applications are prioritised, very few Tier Two applicants get through. This leaves people like the Thangs in a holding pattern, unsure of when - if ever - they will be able to reunite with their families. In their case, their daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren are hungry, they have lost family members to military violence, and the children can not go to school. They have attempted to escape to Thailand, where they'd be able to register as refugees, but haven't been able to. Last month, Labour MP Phil Twyford asked Associate Immigration Minister Casey Costello and General Manager, Refugee and Migrant Service Fiona Whiteridge, for an update on progress. Whiteridge said that "in order to clear that tier two queue, and it obviously is all dependent on how many more people applying to tier one, it would take us between eight to 10 years". Marlowe says there is clear research that reuniting people with their families has a broad range of benefits and the government should think about this category not just in terms of what it costs, but also what it might save in the long term. "Not only does it make sense to reunite families ... but it might even make dollars and cents. "Family reunification is often one of the most important, if not the most important, topic that people want to address." Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here.
Newsroom
22-07-2025
- General
- Newsroom
Broken visa process leaves broken families
When Dawt Tha Thang arrived in New Zealand in 2010, she was with her husband and five of her children. Within weeks, she gave birth to her youngest. But her eldest daughter stayed behind, in Myanmar. She'd just married and was pregnant. The Thangs are Christian Chins and as a minority, have faced persecution – it's how they became refugees – but over the past several years things have become even more dangerous in Myanmar. First, in 2021 there was a military coup and the country descended into civil war. Then, this March, there was an earthquake that killed thousands. 'Myanmar as a whole is a pretty awful situation, with the civil war and the earthquake and forced conscription, but this is a family that … also comes from a persecuted minority. They have been shaken down in [the capital city] Yangon, i.e. the army comes round and demands money or they will be sent to jail. They're moving every second or third night to stay away from the army,' says Caroline Forsyth, who is friends with the family and speaks on their behalf to The Detail. Under the Refugee Family Support Category (RFSC), the Thangs can apply to bring their daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren here to join them. And the last time applications opened, they did. That was in 2017. They've been closed since then. Right now, the queue is 4190 people long, with only a few applicants coming off that list every year. But the scale of the problem is much bigger, because it doesn't represent all the people who haven't even had a chance to apply. In today's episode of The Detail, Jay Marlowe, who is a professor of social work at Auckland University and co-author with the Red Cross of a report on the RFSC, explains how the category works – and doesn't. 'It's not our position that the RFSC is not working or is absolutely broken … for me fundamentally it's about ensuring that we protect what exists but also to recognise that it is under need of reform,' he says. 'It's not irreparably broken, but it does need reform.' Under the RFSC there are two tiers. Tier one is for people who have come here as refugees who have no other adult family in the country, and tier two is for people who do have adult family – like the Thangs, who are a married couple and now have adult children – but have other adult family who they'd like to reunite with as well. Tier one is prioritised, because people applying in that category don't have any support here. That category remains open for applications, but tier two has only opened for applications twice. The first time was in 2012, and the second was in 2017. Both times, it was only for a few days, and Forsyth and Marlowe say the system was inundated with applications. There are only 600 places a year open for the RFSC, and because tier one is always open and those applications are prioritised, very few tier two applicants get through. This leaves people like the Thangs in a holding pattern, unsure of when, if ever, they will be able to reunite with their families. In their case, their daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren are hungry, they have lost family members to military violence, and the children can't go to school. They've attempted to escape to Thailand, where they should be able to register as refugees, but haven't been able to. Last month, Labour MP Phil Twyford asked Associate Immigration Minister Casey Costello and MBIE general manager, refugee and migrant service Fiona Whiteridge, for an update on progress. Whiteridge said that 'in order to clear that tier two queue, and it obviously is all dependent on how many more people applying to tier one, it would take us between eight to 10 years.' Marlowe says there is clear research that reuniting people with their families has a broad range of benefits and the Government should think about this category not just in terms of what it costs, but also what it might save in the long term. 'Not only does it make sense to reunite families … but it might even make dollars and cents. 'Family reunification is often one of the most important, if not the most important, topic that people want to address.' Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here. You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter.
