Not OK to hide domestic abuse figures

Serious questions need to be asked about the Government's commitment to preventing family violence with the police now no longer gathering statistics that distinguish family and non-family violence, Labour's Police spokesperson Kris Faafoi says.

"When the Police released their annual crime statistics earlier this month they also announced they will no longer collect statistics that specifically identified family violence-related offences.

"That means it will now be much harder for organisations such as Women’s Refuge to track the overall trend of family related violence,” Kris Faafoi said.

"It is already causing major concern at very senior levels of the organisations that work at the front line dealing with both the prevention and the aftermath of domestic abuse.

"Labour’s fear is that this another attempt by National to hide the facts so it can pat itself on the back further down the line about how it has ‘cracked down’ on family violence.

"If we are serious about tackling domestic violence, then we need these numbers.

"It's our duty to every family to continue to collect and collate them. How else can we determine whether programmes such as 'It's not OK' and 'White Ribbon' are being effective?

"Not to keep track of this type of offending flies in the face of international standards, with other countries increasingly recognising the need for better measures to inform policy and planning.

“Not collecting this information is not OK,” said Kris Faafoi.