In a media release issued  on 10 December 2011, Family First NZ, a registered charity with the Charities Commission, states:

Family First  is rejecting claims by the Children’s Commissioner and others that rising child abuse statistics are ‘good news’ and ‘delightful’, and is repeating its call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into child abuse as a result of continuing ‘tragic’ figures. 

“It is time we stopped ‘marketing’ child abuse statistics and trying to give them a positive spin, under the illusion that we are succeeding. We need a reality check,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.

 “The rates of child abuse have been rocketing up for the last decade – even before the flawed anti-smacking law was passed and the Family Violence awareness campaign began. Between 2003 and 2007 alone, notifications more than doubled from 31,000 to 72,000. The latest statistics give no confidence that children are any safer.”

 “To label our atrocious statistics as ‘good news’ and ‘delightful’ is an insult to the victims. Government groups cannot attribute the increase to greater awareness and better practice. The rates have been increasing markedly well before the public awareness campaigns, and the increase in admissions to Starship Hospital alone are proof that the problem is deterioriating.”

 “Alcohol and drug abuse are rampant in dysfunctional homes, family breakdown is a festering sore, and there is increasing violence in our culture. These are all signs that things will get worse before they get better.”

 “We have had Commission of Inquiries this year into the Pike river tragedy, the collapse of buildings and consequent loss of life in the Christchurch earthquake – yet no inquiry into one of the greatest social problems facing the country.”  

 “There seems to be no political party who is willing to front up to this issue on the scale required. Since the passing of the anti-smacking law, there have been at least 31 child abuse deaths. The rate continues unabated.”

 “The ongoing rates of child abuse are a wake-up call that children will never be safe until we are honest enough as a country to identify and tackle the real causes of child abuse. An independent Inquiry free of political correctness and point-scoring is essential. We need long-term solutions to a problem that has existed for far too long,” says Mr McCoskrie.

ENDS

See: www.familyfirst.org.nz

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) confirmed today it has laid 21 charges in the Timaru District Court against five people involved in the company’s affairs.

It wouldn’t name the individuals involved until the charges are heard before the court and any issues regarding suppression have been fully dealt with.

SFO boss Adam Feeley confirmed the total estimated value of the allegedly fraudulent transactions was about $1.7 billion, which includes an esimated $1.59 billion from entering the Crown Retail Deposits Guarantee Scheme.

South Canterbury collapsed in August 2010, eventually triggering a $1.7 billion taxpayer payout.

“The collapse of SCF was one the most significant of all the failed finance companies. The value of the fraud alleged to have been committed exceeds anything in the history of white-collar crime in New Zealand, and the time we have taken to complete this matter is a reflection of that scale,” Feeley said.

 The SFO spent 14 months investigating the company and the charges it has laid cover a variety of offences, including theft by a person in a special relationship; obtaining by deception; false statements by the promoter of a company; and false accounting.  The offences carry maximum penalties of between seven and ten years imprisonment.

“It is not appropriate at this point to comment on details of the allegations, but the investigation itself has been one of the most resource-intensive and time-consuming in recent history,” Feeley said.

For more see: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/6101880/SFO-charges-five-in-South-Canterbury-Finance-probe  Story by Fiona Rotherham. Published 7 December 2011

It is of course a  practice each 25^th November marked by some men to show that they do not condone “men’s violence against women”, and apparently led by the Families Commission. However McCoskrie maintains that “this is a family violence issue, not a gender issue.” 

I couldn’t agree more, and sent off to McCoskrie the following:-

 “Congratulations on your superb article in today’s (Nov. 23rd) NZ Herald. It is a breath of fresh air after over thirty-odd years of rabid feminist propaganda. 

 I believe this has done  nothing for the domestic violence problem and gravely defamed good family men in the process. ”

For years I have endeavoured to show that feminist, anti-family women’s refuges – recipients of monstrous amounts of public money – should not be presented as the only places for such troubled women to go to for help; that there are pro-family, church-based ones also, and that women in such need should also have this choice open to them.” 

Talk about the hackneyed socialist cry “a woman’s right to choose”! In this respect, sheer hypocrisy more like! “ 

The McCoskrie article was followed next day in the Herald by a response from Families Commissioner Carl Davidson, who opined that the former “is likely to be a lone voice” with his decision not to wear such a ribbon. Oh yes? Thankfully not all have been taken in by the ongoing ideologically driven hoopla which has surrounded the domestic violence issue for the past thirty-odd years. 

I suggest the situation will be similar with this Davidson article. For example, we are told, without any hard evidence whatsoever, that there is “good science” behind the White Ribbon scheme : rather than blaming men, the plan is to show men “how they can be part of the solution. It uses the strength of men to bring about an end to all violence,” and similar waffle.  

 Interestingly enough,  just five years ago (13^th November 2006) the Herald was reporting a vastly different matter, but hardly more complimentary,  pertaining to the Families Commission :

“Domestic abuse campaigners accused of bias”. Two top health researchers, Professor David Fergusson and Associate Professor Richie Poulton, had accused the Commission of “ideologically driven bias in presenting domestic violence as a problem of men battering women.” etc. 

So much for that criticism of the McCoskrie article. Similarly with the sarcastic and highly devious blast  on Scoop 23^rd November, as well as in the Herald  two days later from Women’s Refuge CEO  Heather Henare. According to her, for McCoskrie to be wearing a white ribbon, and therefore to be making a public statement against violence would have been “an act of gross hypocrisy….after he campaigned to legalise parents smacking their children”! Her garbled logic to support this astonishing assertion is infantile and fallacious to behold: “How can someone who didn’t support a bill that would give children the same rights as adults against harm, in the same breath debate whether or not they would support an anti-violence campaign?” 

Henare then plays the “ignorance” card. By McCoskrie focusing upon gendered violence in NZ he simply does not understand what domestic violence means, and here the ideological dimension really reveals itself. She quotes the old and hackneyed radical feminist dogma that “domestic violence entails a systematic pattern whereby one person exerts power and control over another. The victim lives in fear. Overwhelmingly this is about a man’s violence towards a woman.” 

“Power and control” of course are the telltale clues here, indicating as they do the fundamental ideological influence of the Duluth Model which scandalously underpins and drives all NZ family violence public policy and the broad Women’s Refuge movement, as well as similar movements overseas. 

Although NZ media appears not to reveal any such information, there is copious scholarly discussion of it overseas, such as, for example, by Cathy Young and Bert H. Hoff. In Young’s 1999 article “Domestic Violations” (1) she gives a precis  of a 1998 article  by Hoff, “What’s Wrong with the Duluth Model?” (http://www.vix.com/menmag/batdulut.htm) Young explains:-

 ”(The Duluth Model) is the approach most widely used for perpetrator treatment-but it gender-polarises the ‘people problem’ of domestic violence. It blames and shames men. It’s based on ideology, not science. It ignores drinking, drugs and pathology. Only one cause, only one solution. There’s no real evidence it works. It ignores domestic violence by women. Women who need help can’t get it. It’s taught by wounded healers.”

 Young quotes from Hoff’s article : how supporters of the Duluth Model “don’t hesitate to call it a ‘sociopolitical model’, but San Jose therapist Eric Towle calls it ‘a radical feminist re-education camp’, where ‘battery’ is equated with ‘masculinity’. The goal of such sociopolitical therapy is to ‘challenge sexist expectations and controlling behaviours that often inhibit men, and motivate them to learn to apply newly learned skills in a consistently non-controlling manner.’ “

 Also from Hoff : “The model was developed, not by a team of psychologists and research scientists, but in consultation with ‘a small group of activists in the battered women’s movement’ and ‘more than 200 battered women in Duluth (USA).’ Amy Holtzworth-Munroe, associate professor of psychology at Indiana University, says  (US) ‘states are basing rigid treatment policy on rhetoric and ideology, not data’.”

 In summary, then, with such disturbing facts as these which lie suppressed behind the family violence/Women’s Refuge movement, it was entirely predictable that an uproar would be raised in some quarters about McCoskrie’s NZ Herald article  opposing the movement’s emphasis upon male violence instead of violence in general  and have to  be attacked and attempts made to discredit it.

Nevertheless, perhaps the  sixty four dollar question  is this :  for how much longer must the NZ public be kept in ignorance by media cover-ups about this scandalous state of affairs, this pernicious and treacherous attack on culture,  and be expected to fund such a  fraudulent and burgeoning “anti-violence” industry in the process?

Opinion Piece Author: Barbara Faithfull  B.A. (Psych.Anthr.)

25^th November 2011

References

1. Cathy Young : “Domestic Violations” in April 1999 Reason magazine.

http://www.vix.com/menmag/cyoungdv/htm

“If their mothers could see them, they’d shut the festival down tomorrow,” the officer in charge of the event, Sergeant Kevin Basher, said.

Martinborough residents have joined him in warning that the once-civilised wine lovers’ event is now a mass booze-up that risks spilling into violence.

Mr Basher, who called Sunday’s event the worst in seven years, said yesterday that steel container “drunk tanks” might have to be used in future and that officers might need to carry batons to counter unruly drunks….

Festival organisers met police yesterday after reports of at least a dozen brawls. One man was admitted to hospital after being knocked unconscious.

A Martinborough local said The Square was full of drunks on Sunday night. “The atmosphere was getting quite nasty. It’s not the Toast it used to be.”

Police say some wineries appear to have breached liquor licencing laws by continuing to serve people who are clearly intoxicated. One vineyard encouraged festival-goers to scull full glases of wine.

“We’re still seeing people who are grossly intoxicated, especially young women falling all over the place in various states of disrepair [defecating] everywhere and covered in blood,” Mr Basher said.

A dompost.co.nz poll yesterday asked if drunken behaviour at Toast Martinborough was out of control.

Of more than 900 respondents, 55.3 per cent agreed, saying it was not pleasant when so many people were drunk. Another 36.9 per cent said it was just the actions of a few and everyone else had a great time. Nearly 8 per cent were undecided. The survey concluded that the event was “Out of Control”

Toast Martinborough chairman Richard Riddiford, who started the event 20 years ago, played down the alcohol problems. “We’re talking about a very, very, small percentage of [the 11,500] festival-goers.

[Clearly neither the police who attended nor 55.3% of the 900 responddents to the Dompost survey, attempted to "play down the alcohol problems", as Mr Riddiford did].

Source: “Police warn of ‘feral’ festival, The Dominion Post, Tuesday, November 22, 2011, p. 1.

Able Seaman Ryan Donovan had been obsessed with the video game Grand Theft Auto – linked with murders in the US. After being disciplined for disobedience, Donovan told shipmates he was planning a killing frenzy based on the game. He later shot dead an officer and seriously wounded three others (The Guardian, 19/9/11).

Not long afterwards, UK and Swedish researchers identified evidence of “Game Transfer Phenomena”, where some gamers integrate video experiences into their real lives (Daily Mail, 21/9/11). The study involved 42 in-depth interviews with participants ages 15 to 21, all of whom were frequent video gamers.

Almost all had experienced some type of involuntary thoughts in relation to video games, and half sought to use something from a video game to resolve a real-life issue.

“This study reinforces our concerns about the link between violent and explicit games and real life behaviour,” said FamilyVoice research officer Ros Phillips.

“It also reinforces our concerns about the proposed new 18+ games caregory agreed to by Australian attorneys-general in July. There is doubt the new guidelines would exclude games with a higher impact than games currently available – despite the agreement reached by attorneys-general last November,” Mrs Phillips said.

Source: VoxPoint, November 2011, p/. 7.

Reprinted from VoxPoint by permission of FamilyVoice Australia, 4th Floor, 68 Grenfell Street, Adelaide SA, 5000.

A SECOND-TERM National government will keep high-risk sex offenders behind bars indefinitely and may double the penalty for child-porn offences.

Prime Minister John Key and Police and Corrections Minister Judith Collins announced the tough law-and-order policies in New Plymouth yesterday.

Offenders who served their sentences but wwere still considered a danger would be held at a secure facility until the Parole Board deemed them safe for release.

For more go to: Article by Andrea Vance. The Dominion Post, Tuesday 8 November 2011

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/policies/5923627/National-focuses-on-law-and-order

The probation service says no post-detention conditions have been imposed by the district court and the man may live where he chooses after December 10.

It is understood that John Francis Hubbard, 66, has bought a house across from the Opunake Communities Kindergarden. He is serving four months’ home detention in New Plymouth for having objectionable images.

Hubbard pleaded guilty and was sentenced in July, after a police raid on his home in August 2010.

Kindergarten chairwoman Claire Hunn said police spoke to teachers on Thursday night about the man.

“Our gateway and our playground is exactly opposite this house. We will be checking with the police to see if there’s any action we can take because we do not want him living there.”

The kindergarten was also sending a notice to parents to stop any “panic”, she said.

Heather Mackie, Community Probation Services regional manager, said Hubbard would complete his sentence on December 10. Probation officers would work with him around “safety planning measures”, including where he lives.

Fairfax, NZ

Government Must Now Release Child Abuse Report

Media Release 4 November 2011

Family First NZ is calling for the Minister of Social Development Paula Bennett to release the findings of the independent ministerial inquiry into a horrific West Auckland child abuse case. 

“The excuse for not releasing the report earlier was that the case was still in progress. With the guilty pleas of both parents, the government can now release the report, and they should do so immediately,” saysBob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ. 

Family First believes that the report will show shortfalls in collaboration and information sharing between government-funded agencies, an insufficient response when there were so many ‘red flags’, limited resources, and failings in targeting at-risk families and rotten parents in general. 

“The fact that the family of the West Auckland 9-year-old had been involved with CYF, a family support agency, a registered ACC counsellor, a court-appointed psychologist, the child’s court-appointed lawyer and a child and youth mental health service is ample proof that the ‘bottom of the cliff’ approach is not working and is not the key – we must look at the root causes of child abuse. Why is it happening in the first place?” 

“Since the passing of the anti-smacking law, there has been a continual stream of child abuse cases, the rate of child abuse deaths has continued at the same rate as before, and resources have been diverted to chasing parents who use a smack rather than targeting rotten parents with clear evidence of abuse and issues of family breakdown and dysfunction, drug and alcohol abuse issues, poverty and stress, and mental illness.” 

Latest government figures show that Care and Protection notifications have increased by over 20% to almost 151,000 in the past year, and that the number of substantiated abuse/neglect cases within just six months of previous abuse/neglect findings has increased by 40% over the past two years. 

Family First is repeating its call for a Commission of Inquiry into Child Abuse, Family Breakdown and Family Violence. 

“Children will never be safe until we are honest enough as a country to identify and tackle the real causes of child abuse and our response to those tough issues,” says Mr McCoskrie.

The Crown is having second thoughts about its decision not to seek an open-ended preventive detention sentence for a 39-year old man [name removed] who disclosed more sex offences involving children, while he was undergoing treatment in prison.  He disclosed 16 sex charges against eight young girls while doing the Kia Marama sex offenders’ programme in Christchurch Men’s Prison.

After his guilty pleas, the Crown decided not to seek preventive detention but it has been rethinking that decision after access was barred to reports on his treatment at the programme.  Without those reports, the Crown faced a difficult assessment of any future risk to the community that the offender might pose.

In court today, the offender agreed to allow access by the Crown and his defence counsel to reports prepared on his treatment after the crown prosecutor sought a direction on the matter from Christchurch District Court Judge David Saunders.

The offender has a history of offending stretching back 20 years and the latest offences for which he now faces sentencing were committed from the 1990s to 2005 in Timaru.

He is seen as having a deeply entrenched sexual attraction to children, and is assessed as a high-risk pornography offender.

He is serving a two-year four-month term imposed in May last year for possession of objectionable material including images of bestiality and child pornography.

 For more see: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/5862862/Paedophile-may-remain-a-risk

Story by David Clarkson, Dominion Post, 27 October 2011.

 http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/5858567/Suicide-pact-charges-barbaric

The 21-year-old Palmerston North woman, who has name suppression, admitted purposefully overdosing on pills with a 48-year-old woman in Otaki on May 1 last year.

She was convicted of the rare charge of entering into a suicide pact, but was discharged without further penalty in the High Court at Palmerston North yesterday.

She and the older woman were in a serious relationship, but the 48-year-old had been depressed and suicidal since the death of her civil union partner in 2009.

Justice Joseph Williams said that, on the night of the suicide pact, the older woman said she was going to kill herself and “take every pill in the house to do it”.

Not wanting to live without her partner, the 21-year-old said she would do the same. The pair swallowed about 80 pills each and passed out.

Only the young woman woke up the next morning, Justice Williams said.

Two factors persuaded him not to impose a sentence on the 21-year-old, he said. The first was that she did not convince the older woman to commit suicide, and the second was the younger woman’s personality disorder – which caused a fear of abandonment and made it hard for her to deal with adult situations.

“I find it difficult to blame you in a criminal sense for the decision you made. It makes more sense, given your background, to think of you as a victim, rather than an offender.”

Justice Williams said that after meeting the young woman, he could see she was a beautiful person both inside and out. He implored her to leave the court room and live her life.

Defence lawyer Fergus Steedman said it was the first time the High Court had dealt with such a charge and only the second time in about 50 years that someone facing the charge had lived to see sentencing.

He thought it “barbaric” that the police had charged the woman in the first place, but his feeling on the matter had softened a bit after witnessing Justice Williams exercise his discretion yesterday, he said.

A police spokesman said police were unable to answer questions from The Dominion Post as to why they forged ahead with the prosecution.

“Their stance will no doubt be that it’s not their job to act as judge and jury,” Mr Steedman said.

Professor John Dawson, from the University of Otago Law School, said police would have likely felt the need to be seen publicly discouraging suicide pacts.

[The Dominion Post was granted permission from Palmerston North Coroner Tim Scott to report the circumstances of the suicide pact, as they were disclosed in open court by Justice Williams].

Suicide pact charges ‘barbaric’

Article by Michael Forbes

The Dominion Post, Thursday, October 27, 2011

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