'The Abusers have to be Outed' says Turia

Research released today by University of Auckland’s Dr Janet Fanslow which reported an overall prevalence rate for child sexual abuse as one in four New Zealand women, must provoke our utmost outrage and effective action says Tariana Turia, Co-Leader of the Maori Party.

“I am absolutely distressed that the research indicates such high rates for Maori women who in their childhood years, suffered from the criminal act of sexual offence against them” said Mrs Turia.

“The shocking rates of abuse for Maori women are sharply disproportionate to those for women from other ethnic groups” said Mrs Turia.

“This research reveals the huge toll that sexual offending places on the health of individuals, on whanau and ultimately the nation” said Mrs Turia.

“Our state institutions, such as hospitals and prisons, demonstrate how sexual abuse violates lives and damages families” said Mrs Turia. “It is a waste of time to pour funding into counselling and support programmes in prison or drug and alcohol agencies if we don’t get serious about preventing sexual violence from starting in the first place”.

“We must expose and address the abusers in our midst and wrap support around families to keep children safe” said Mrs Turia. “Exposing a sexual predator is not an act of betrayal of the family, but an act of protection of children and young people” said Mrs Turia.

“If Government is committed to making a difference, we must all be informed of evidence-based success rates, or otherwise, that arise out of the various programmes” said Mrs Turia. “We need to start from families up, restoring the family home as a site of safety, rather than waiting for adults to disclose many years later, the traumatic lifetime impacts of sexual abuse”.

“While prevention is our key focus, it is also vital that the victims of abuse and the affected whanau can access the best support available for healing to take place, in order that families are safe, and, in turn, that they are safe families to be in”.



Background

The research reports that 30.5% of Maori women in urban regions; and 35.1% in rural regions, had reported experiences of child sexual abuse (as opposed to women from other ethnic groups; 17% of whom reported child abuse in urban regions; and 20.7% in rural regions).