The government’s first national strategy aimed at eliminating family violence and sexual violence will provide resources to help with a challenging issue for Wānaka Police, a local crime prevention officer says. 

The new strategy, Te Aorerekura, was announced in December 2021.

Minister for the prevention of family violence and sexual violence Marama Davidson said at least 80 percent of harm currently goes unreported in New Zealand.

The minister has called this country’s levels of family and sexual violence “New Zealand’s national shame”, and Te Aorerekura has been developed as a united approach between ten government agencies over 25 years to address this.

“Prevention of family harm is always at the forefront of our minds and is often a difficult and challenging area for us,” Wānaka Police crime prevention sergeant Darren Cranfield said.

“Wānaka is in a unique situation where we don’t have an overwhelming number of incidents that stretch our resources. This allows us to provide an in-depth service that other areas of New Zealand may not have.”

Te Aorerekura will provide additional services, support and tools to multiple agencies, and these will enable the use of integrated services to ensure safer homes and communities, he said.

With the work being done locally by the crime prevention team, combined with Te Aorerekura’s ambitions, Sergeant Cranfield hopes the community will be feel more confident in the efforts to reduce family violence and sexual violence.

New Zealand Police statistics indicate there have been almost 70,000 investigated cases of family harm since 2018. In 2021, there were 143 cases of sexual assault and an additional 1,241 cases of other forms of assault reported to police – meaning there could be hundreds or even thousands more unreported.

Currently, sexual violence and family violence costs the government approximately $2B annually.

Wānaka’s social services agency Community Networks was approached for comment.

PHOTO: Wānaka App