May 4, 2025 • 17 mins
This week is Rape Awareness Week in New Zealand.
1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experience sexual violence at some stage in their lifetime.
Repeated surveys show that tens of thousands of New Zealanders are experiencing this type of assault every year.
So what’s being done to try and stop the violence – and are those victims who are speaking up, getting the justice they need?
Today on The Front Page, we’re joined by Clinical Psychologist and HELP Executive Director Kathryn McPhillips to discuss this crisis.
Follow The Front Page on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can read more about this and other stories in the New Zealand Herald, online at nzherald.co.nz, or tune in to news bulletins across the NZME network.
Host: Chelsea Daniels
Sound Engineer/Producer: Richard Martin
Producer: Ethan Sills
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Jyoda.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a
daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
This week is Rape Awareness Week. In New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
One in three women and one in eight men experience
sexual violence.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
At some stage in their lifetime.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Repeated surveys show that tens of thousands of New Zealanders
are experiencing this type of assault every year. So what's
being done to try and stop this violence? And are
those victims who are speaking up getting the justice they deserve.
Today on the Front Page, we're joined by clinical psychologist
(00:47):
and Help Executive director Catherine McPhillips to discuss this crisis.
Probably more people than we think who experience sexual violence
at some point in their lifetime. Right do you think
people would be surprised to learn just how many that is?
Speaker 1 (01:12):
I mean some people wouldn't.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Some wouldn't of course, So those who've experienced themselves they
might be more aware of how common it is. Our
best research in New Zealand at the moment suggests that
it's around about one in three girls.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
And one and twelve boys.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
And that's just the start of it, of course, because
people are also accused or you know, sexual violence also
occurs when adults are the victims of that, so it
is very common, and so you know, those who experienced
it may understand how common it is, whereas those.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Who haven't may not.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
And there's just so much stigma about speaking out about it.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
But why is it so.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Important to have open discussions about this? And do you
think that that stigma is slowly but surely being put
by the wayside.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Yeah, I mean, look, there is a lot of stigma
because you know, those kind of ancient ideas or I
say ancient because you know they should be ancient, But
that idea is that it was up to a woman
always to stop a man's sexual advances to her, for
her to be pure or untainted or something. You know,
(02:16):
there was some kind of virtue in that scene for
a woman, and women have been blamed when they weren't
able to stop those advances. So I think that that's
where that stigma and shame kind of comes from historically,
and so we really need to talk about it because
we have to shift that stigma and shame to the
person who, you know, the person who's causing hearm, not
(02:36):
to the victim of that harm. And so we need
to have these conversations so that people who are victimized
can understand that they're not at fault and that the
people supporting them, so their families, partners, you know, their
community around them, also get to understand that it's not
appropriate to blame the victim for this, that we actually
need to be talking about how we stop accepting the
(02:58):
way that in particular, but you know, also men and
certainly rainbow groups are kind of sexualized. We need to
be holding those who cause harm to account.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
And you're quite right those ancient ideas of sexual violence.
I mean, it's the old adage what were you wearing?
What was she wearing?
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
I remember seeing an amazing exhibition of people who had
submitted their clothes of what they actually were wearing, and
it was this incredible display of you know, the track
pants and mini skirts and all this kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
It's kind of just getting rid of.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Those ideas and those ideals, totally getting rid of the
idea that there's some way in which people ask for
this to be done to them, and shifting it back
to actually is the responsibility of the person initiating that
behavior to not do it?
Speaker 5 (03:47):
Yeah, the very sad.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Sorry.
Speaker 5 (03:52):
That really struck me was that fifteen percent of the
victims of sexual violence thought it was a crime. The
other eighty five percent of the victims of sexual violence
didn't believe that what had happened to them was a crime.
Speaker 6 (04:06):
Yeah, it stops in your tracks, doesn't it. And just
section six reporting to the police, based on non reporting estimates,
sexual offenses, ninety four percent was significantly more likely to
go unreported. So there are a whole lot of victims
out there who were just sitting with it.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
I've found a number of stats that show that sexual
assault happens to a lot of New Zealanders every year.
One stat from help showed that between November twenty twenty
and November twenty twenty one, around seventy eight thousand New
Zealanders experienced sexual assault.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Have we seen that figure improve?
Speaker 7 (04:48):
It all?
Speaker 1 (04:48):
There's been some improvement.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
You know, all of this research is retrospective and then
we kind of project that to go, well, this is
what might be happening now or what might happen in
the future. And so the retrospect to research with young
people tells us that we have got better with boys,
so there is less sexual abuse of boys. That's what
the research indicates, and I think we need to really
celebrate that because that you know, that's great, but we
(05:13):
also need to be spreading that out and seeing less
to girls and less to adults as.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Well, you know, and young people.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Young people are also targeted for sexual ones and so yes,
yes we've got some improvement, but we need to really
keep going and keep going as strong as we can to.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Stop this happening.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
And speaking of those ages, you might have seen the
story from April about a German backpacker who was allegedly
gang raped in Central Auckland on New Year's Day. Three
men have been charged over that, and the alleged perpetrators
are aged between nineteen and twenty one. Do you see
any statistics around the ages of those who potentially do
(05:52):
these kind of crimes.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
It's kind of variable really with the ages. There is
certainly some youth offending which occurs against children, which you know,
doesn't seem to necessarily persist into the young person's adulthood.
In terms of sexual violence against young people, certainly we
see that the vulnerability or the targeting of young people
(06:16):
is in that kind of sixteen to twenty four year
old age group where they're kind of out and about,
and so you know, there is a similarity. I think
when we see the ages of those who are who
are offending, it's the people that they're out and about
with or around, and so you know, that doesn't say
that it's just you know, young people in that early
twenties age at all. It goes on up, but certainly
(06:37):
it's who has access to you, really is who does
it to you, and so who is around.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
You at those times.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I mentioned in our intro that men are impacted by
sexual assault as well, and I guess I bring that
up because it's really important to recognize that, isn't there
because there is more stigma around men being the victims
of this sort of crime.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Would you say that that's correct.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
I think there's more stigma in some ways but not
in others. But absolutely yes, we must acknowledge and understand
the sexual offending that happens against men. It's a very
traumatizing experience for men as well, and so we certainly
need to be understanding that and attending to that.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Now prevention efforts as well.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
One of the biggest issues, it seems that stops people
coming forward with sexual assault allegations. Is that judicial process
that can be quite traumatic, you know, having to relive
your experience to police, to lawyers, to a courtroom, facing
cross examination, things like that. What changes have you seen
in recent years to try and improve that process for victims.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Yeah, there's been quite a few changes. So there was
pilot courts in Auckland and Fugaday which involved training court staff,
training judges about the traumatization of victims and how to
work with them in ways which would not or would
retraumatize them less. So judges introducing themselves before the trial,
letting victims know that, you know, it was okay to
(08:12):
take a break if they need it. You know, that
kind of thing has been really helpful. We've had prosecution
guidelines in place of sexual violence for a few years now,
so prosecutors are more aware about again how to not
step into that retraumatizing victims. So that's been really helpful.
Lots of changes in police to interview people in ways
(08:33):
which are again less traumatizing, so asking people what happened
and then what happened and so helping the person to
sequence the events without suggestions from them if you like.
So that's you know, that helps a person's brain when
it's when the person is traumatized. So we've had specialist
adult sexual assault teams and police, so specialist people doing
(08:53):
the interviews as well as the investigations. So there has
been a lot of change, but we nowhere near where
we need to be yet.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
What changes would you like to see?
Speaker 1 (09:02):
So all sorts of things.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
I mean, we'd like to change the fact finder in
the court to a judge and who trained jurists. Basically,
what happens now is that defense lawyers do their job
often by undermining the credibility of a victim and putting
it back on them, and.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
That's just not helpful.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
So we would rather have judges asking the questions necessary
and defense lawyers only asking those questions which were not
covered by the judge. So we'd like to see that change.
We'd like to see treatment courts, So these were explored
by the Law Commissions some years ago, where a person could,
if they paid guilty, could be assessed for treatment as
(09:40):
different to you know, an automatic assumption of a prison sentence.
The reason for this is that you know, many victims
come to us and say that they don't want the
person you know, hugely punished What they really want is
for them to never do it to anyone else again.
And so not everybody you know, are going to gain
(10:01):
from treatment, but many people can.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
So we would like to see that change.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
We think that that would bring more people to make
a complaint if they knew that the outcome that they
want was possible through the judicial system.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
And other changes happening in regards to giving evidence in
court via AVL or perhaps in another room.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Yes, so there are changes.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Not all courts have the facilities across the country, but yes,
an expect you know that it should be possible to
give evidence by audiovisual link into the court.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
So we've previously had that for children and it's been.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Possible under our law for quite some time, but there's
a shift towards that being more accepted as part of
the process.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Everyone was pretty outraged.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
I think it's all that's been see on Instagram and
like social media this week.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
We're fighting for justice and our rights.
Speaker 7 (10:57):
Any of my girl Vlope brind if they went for
any of that shit, that guy wouldn't be a nine
month He'll be six free. Down here to protest the
sentence of Jaden Meyer, who raped and sexually assaulted five
teenagers when he was sixteen. He'll spends nine months on
home detention. A sentence, this advocate says, isn't enough.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
I was absolutely outraged. It makes absolutely no sense.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
It's pretty much telling the younger generation that it's okay
to do this, and you're going to get away with
a slap on the hand, Like, come on, Even when
you do go through the process, there's no guarantee of
what sort of punishment perpetrators will receive.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
You mentioned that a little bit before.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
How frustrated do you get when you see a judge's comments,
or maybe not even a judge's comments, a lawyer's comments
or comments from the courtroom that when putting down a sentence,
you hear the phrase it would ruin their future prospects.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Yes, that's very frustrating because they should have thought of
it before they took the action. Regardless of their future prospects,
they have already harmed the person's future prospects because, you know,
sex assault isn't it a one night thing. You know,
for many people, it's something that they carry through their
lives for a very long time, if not forever. Our
nervous systems don't really fully recover from being really harmed,
(12:21):
and you know, it can lead if you develop PTSD
from the assault, it can lead to you being more
likely to develop PTSD through your lifetime. Some people, you know,
respond by isolating themselves and not going out. And you know,
the more that you withdraw from the life and the
world and people, you know, the much narrower your whole
life is as you go forward. Other people might have
(12:43):
recurring anxiety or depression you know, through their lives. So
when you do this to somebody else, you alter the
trajectory of their life. So actually, if the trajectory of
your life is also altered, well that sounds like justice.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
The government's currently working on to our DAKUDA, a twenty
five year National Strategy for the Prevention of Family and
Sexual violence.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Are you happy with how this is progressing.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Well, it's fantastic that there is a national strategy, and
it's fantastic that this government continued that strategy and kept
investing in that strategy. Of course, we like to see
everything move faster than it is, because twenty five years
is really not very long at all in terms of
you know, turning the tide on this kind of violence.
(13:32):
The strategy is for sexual violence and for what we
call family violence, and so certainly, you know, resources are
spread across those which slows things down. But I think
this is say, compared to Australia, which has a child
sexual abuse strategy just you know, on its own, we
would like to see more happening faster, but we're certainly
grateful for the work that is happening in that strategy.
(13:56):
So things like training are strate to try workers. You know,
thousands of people are going to be trained over the
next few years in terms of how to respond to
people who disclose sexual violence.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
So that's a real win.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
And I read a statistic that I found actually quite startling,
and you mentioned it in the beginning of our conversation.
One in four New Zealand girls may be sexually abused
before she turns sixteen, and around ninety percent of the
abuse will be done by someone she knows. Now, I
read this on the DREM section of the help website.
(14:30):
Can you tell me a little bit about this offshoot?
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Yeah, So, DEARIM is.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
A leadership program for young people who are interested in
ending sexual violence. So we work with them to look
at you know, to help them understand the ways they
can do that.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
They get to do.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
Projects which are their projects of how they would like
to do this. So one young woman did a podcast,
another young woman has led some actions or a petition
on consent law reform. They go into the university and
talk to counselors about what young people need in these situations.
So you know, a variety of different actions every year,
(15:09):
but it's kind of fostering their knowledge and their sense
of how they can participate in making this change in
the world.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
They also have very flourishing social media.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
So Instagram in particular, just spreading the messages really about
what needs to change to end sexual violence.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
If there was one thing, Catherine, that you'd like any
political party to introduce as a policy to tackle this
issue in sexual violence and rape, what would it be.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
To be honest, The one that's dearest to my heart
at the moment is the Justice Select Committee has looked
at how we stop children on the stand being accused
of having consented to sexual activity, and we're talking, you know,
children as young as five or six years old, you know,
being accused of that. So there is a bill looking
(15:56):
at that. At the moment, the government doesn't have that
in the stated plan to enact that bolt, to make
that bill into law. That bill would stop any child
under twelve being challenged about consent. But yeah, we'd really
like to see that fast tracted in as soon as possible,
because it's really quite an indictement on our society that
(16:16):
we challenge six year olds about having consented to sexual
things done to them by adults.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Thanks for joining us, Catherine.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
That's it for this episode of the Front Page. You
can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage
at enzadherld dot co dot nz. The Front Page is
produced by Ethan Sells and Richard Martin, who is also
our sound engineer.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
I'm Chelsea Daniels.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Subscribe to The Front Page on iHeartRadio or wherever you
get your podcasts, and tune in tomorrow for another look
behind the headlines.
Jyoda.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a
daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
This week is Rape Awareness Week. In New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
One in three women and one in eight men experience
sexual violence.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
At some stage in their lifetime.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Repeated surveys show that tens of thousands of New Zealanders
are experiencing this type of assault every year. So what's
being done to try and stop this violence? And are
those victims who are speaking up getting the justice they deserve.
Today on the Front Page, we're joined by clinical psychologist
(00:47):
and Help Executive director Catherine McPhillips to discuss this crisis.
Probably more people than we think who experience sexual violence
at some point in their lifetime. Right do you think
people would be surprised to learn just how many that is?
Speaker 1 (01:12):
I mean some people wouldn't.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Some wouldn't of course, So those who've experienced themselves they
might be more aware of how common it is. Our
best research in New Zealand at the moment suggests that
it's around about one in three girls.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
And one and twelve boys.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
And that's just the start of it, of course, because
people are also accused or you know, sexual violence also
occurs when adults are the victims of that, so it
is very common, and so you know, those who experienced
it may understand how common it is, whereas those.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Who haven't may not.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
And there's just so much stigma about speaking out about it.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
But why is it so.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Important to have open discussions about this? And do you
think that that stigma is slowly but surely being put
by the wayside.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Yeah, I mean, look, there is a lot of stigma
because you know, those kind of ancient ideas or I
say ancient because you know they should be ancient, But
that idea is that it was up to a woman
always to stop a man's sexual advances to her, for
her to be pure or untainted or something. You know,
(02:16):
there was some kind of virtue in that scene for
a woman, and women have been blamed when they weren't
able to stop those advances. So I think that that's
where that stigma and shame kind of comes from historically,
and so we really need to talk about it because
we have to shift that stigma and shame to the
person who, you know, the person who's causing hearm, not
(02:36):
to the victim of that harm. And so we need
to have these conversations so that people who are victimized
can understand that they're not at fault and that the
people supporting them, so their families, partners, you know, their
community around them, also get to understand that it's not
appropriate to blame the victim for this, that we actually
need to be talking about how we stop accepting the
(02:58):
way that in particular, but you know, also men and
certainly rainbow groups are kind of sexualized. We need to
be holding those who cause harm to account.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
And you're quite right those ancient ideas of sexual violence.
I mean, it's the old adage what were you wearing?
What was she wearing?
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
I remember seeing an amazing exhibition of people who had
submitted their clothes of what they actually were wearing, and
it was this incredible display of you know, the track
pants and mini skirts and all this kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
It's kind of just getting rid of.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Those ideas and those ideals, totally getting rid of the
idea that there's some way in which people ask for
this to be done to them, and shifting it back
to actually is the responsibility of the person initiating that
behavior to not do it?
Speaker 5 (03:47):
Yeah, the very sad.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Sorry.
Speaker 5 (03:52):
That really struck me was that fifteen percent of the
victims of sexual violence thought it was a crime. The
other eighty five percent of the victims of sexual violence
didn't believe that what had happened to them was a crime.
Speaker 6 (04:06):
Yeah, it stops in your tracks, doesn't it. And just
section six reporting to the police, based on non reporting estimates,
sexual offenses, ninety four percent was significantly more likely to
go unreported. So there are a whole lot of victims
out there who were just sitting with it.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
I've found a number of stats that show that sexual
assault happens to a lot of New Zealanders every year.
One stat from help showed that between November twenty twenty
and November twenty twenty one, around seventy eight thousand New
Zealanders experienced sexual assault.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Have we seen that figure improve?
Speaker 7 (04:48):
It all?
Speaker 1 (04:48):
There's been some improvement.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
You know, all of this research is retrospective and then
we kind of project that to go, well, this is
what might be happening now or what might happen in
the future. And so the retrospect to research with young
people tells us that we have got better with boys,
so there is less sexual abuse of boys. That's what
the research indicates, and I think we need to really
celebrate that because that you know, that's great, but we
(05:13):
also need to be spreading that out and seeing less
to girls and less to adults as.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Well, you know, and young people.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Young people are also targeted for sexual ones and so yes,
yes we've got some improvement, but we need to really
keep going and keep going as strong as we can to.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Stop this happening.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
And speaking of those ages, you might have seen the
story from April about a German backpacker who was allegedly
gang raped in Central Auckland on New Year's Day. Three
men have been charged over that, and the alleged perpetrators
are aged between nineteen and twenty one. Do you see
any statistics around the ages of those who potentially do
(05:52):
these kind of crimes.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
It's kind of variable really with the ages. There is
certainly some youth offending which occurs against children, which you know,
doesn't seem to necessarily persist into the young person's adulthood.
In terms of sexual violence against young people, certainly we
see that the vulnerability or the targeting of young people
(06:16):
is in that kind of sixteen to twenty four year
old age group where they're kind of out and about,
and so you know, there is a similarity. I think
when we see the ages of those who are who
are offending, it's the people that they're out and about
with or around, and so you know, that doesn't say
that it's just you know, young people in that early
twenties age at all. It goes on up, but certainly
(06:37):
it's who has access to you, really is who does
it to you, and so who is around.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
You at those times.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I mentioned in our intro that men are impacted by
sexual assault as well, and I guess I bring that
up because it's really important to recognize that, isn't there
because there is more stigma around men being the victims
of this sort of crime.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Would you say that that's correct.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
I think there's more stigma in some ways but not
in others. But absolutely yes, we must acknowledge and understand
the sexual offending that happens against men. It's a very
traumatizing experience for men as well, and so we certainly
need to be understanding that and attending to that.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Now prevention efforts as well.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
One of the biggest issues, it seems that stops people
coming forward with sexual assault allegations. Is that judicial process
that can be quite traumatic, you know, having to relive
your experience to police, to lawyers, to a courtroom, facing
cross examination, things like that. What changes have you seen
in recent years to try and improve that process for victims.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Yeah, there's been quite a few changes. So there was
pilot courts in Auckland and Fugaday which involved training court staff,
training judges about the traumatization of victims and how to
work with them in ways which would not or would
retraumatize them less. So judges introducing themselves before the trial,
letting victims know that, you know, it was okay to
(08:12):
take a break if they need it. You know, that
kind of thing has been really helpful. We've had prosecution
guidelines in place of sexual violence for a few years now,
so prosecutors are more aware about again how to not
step into that retraumatizing victims. So that's been really helpful.
Lots of changes in police to interview people in ways
(08:33):
which are again less traumatizing, so asking people what happened
and then what happened and so helping the person to
sequence the events without suggestions from them if you like.
So that's you know, that helps a person's brain when
it's when the person is traumatized. So we've had specialist
adult sexual assault teams and police, so specialist people doing
(08:53):
the interviews as well as the investigations. So there has
been a lot of change, but we nowhere near where
we need to be yet.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
What changes would you like to see?
Speaker 1 (09:02):
So all sorts of things.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
I mean, we'd like to change the fact finder in
the court to a judge and who trained jurists. Basically,
what happens now is that defense lawyers do their job
often by undermining the credibility of a victim and putting
it back on them, and.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
That's just not helpful.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
So we would rather have judges asking the questions necessary
and defense lawyers only asking those questions which were not
covered by the judge. So we'd like to see that change.
We'd like to see treatment courts, So these were explored
by the Law Commissions some years ago, where a person could,
if they paid guilty, could be assessed for treatment as
(09:40):
different to you know, an automatic assumption of a prison sentence.
The reason for this is that you know, many victims
come to us and say that they don't want the
person you know, hugely punished What they really want is
for them to never do it to anyone else again.
And so not everybody you know, are going to gain
(10:01):
from treatment, but many people can.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
So we would like to see that change.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
We think that that would bring more people to make
a complaint if they knew that the outcome that they
want was possible through the judicial system.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
And other changes happening in regards to giving evidence in
court via AVL or perhaps in another room.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Yes, so there are changes.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Not all courts have the facilities across the country, but yes,
an expect you know that it should be possible to
give evidence by audiovisual link into the court.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
So we've previously had that for children and it's been.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Possible under our law for quite some time, but there's
a shift towards that being more accepted as part of
the process.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Everyone was pretty outraged.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
I think it's all that's been see on Instagram and
like social media this week.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
We're fighting for justice and our rights.
Speaker 7 (10:57):
Any of my girl Vlope brind if they went for
any of that shit, that guy wouldn't be a nine
month He'll be six free. Down here to protest the
sentence of Jaden Meyer, who raped and sexually assaulted five
teenagers when he was sixteen. He'll spends nine months on
home detention. A sentence, this advocate says, isn't enough.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
I was absolutely outraged. It makes absolutely no sense.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
It's pretty much telling the younger generation that it's okay
to do this, and you're going to get away with
a slap on the hand, Like, come on, Even when
you do go through the process, there's no guarantee of
what sort of punishment perpetrators will receive.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
You mentioned that a little bit before.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
How frustrated do you get when you see a judge's comments,
or maybe not even a judge's comments, a lawyer's comments
or comments from the courtroom that when putting down a sentence,
you hear the phrase it would ruin their future prospects.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Yes, that's very frustrating because they should have thought of
it before they took the action. Regardless of their future prospects,
they have already harmed the person's future prospects because, you know,
sex assault isn't it a one night thing. You know,
for many people, it's something that they carry through their
lives for a very long time, if not forever. Our
nervous systems don't really fully recover from being really harmed,
(12:21):
and you know, it can lead if you develop PTSD
from the assault, it can lead to you being more
likely to develop PTSD through your lifetime. Some people, you know,
respond by isolating themselves and not going out. And you know,
the more that you withdraw from the life and the
world and people, you know, the much narrower your whole
life is as you go forward. Other people might have
(12:43):
recurring anxiety or depression you know, through their lives. So
when you do this to somebody else, you alter the
trajectory of their life. So actually, if the trajectory of
your life is also altered, well that sounds like justice.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
The government's currently working on to our DAKUDA, a twenty
five year National Strategy for the Prevention of Family and
Sexual violence.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Are you happy with how this is progressing.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Well, it's fantastic that there is a national strategy, and
it's fantastic that this government continued that strategy and kept
investing in that strategy. Of course, we like to see
everything move faster than it is, because twenty five years
is really not very long at all in terms of
you know, turning the tide on this kind of violence.
(13:32):
The strategy is for sexual violence and for what we
call family violence, and so certainly, you know, resources are
spread across those which slows things down. But I think
this is say, compared to Australia, which has a child
sexual abuse strategy just you know, on its own, we
would like to see more happening faster, but we're certainly
grateful for the work that is happening in that strategy.
(13:56):
So things like training are strate to try workers. You know,
thousands of people are going to be trained over the
next few years in terms of how to respond to
people who disclose sexual violence.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
So that's a real win.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
And I read a statistic that I found actually quite startling,
and you mentioned it in the beginning of our conversation.
One in four New Zealand girls may be sexually abused
before she turns sixteen, and around ninety percent of the
abuse will be done by someone she knows. Now, I
read this on the DREM section of the help website.
(14:30):
Can you tell me a little bit about this offshoot?
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Yeah, So, DEARIM is.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
A leadership program for young people who are interested in
ending sexual violence. So we work with them to look
at you know, to help them understand the ways they
can do that.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
They get to do.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
Projects which are their projects of how they would like
to do this. So one young woman did a podcast,
another young woman has led some actions or a petition
on consent law reform. They go into the university and
talk to counselors about what young people need in these situations.
So you know, a variety of different actions every year,
(15:09):
but it's kind of fostering their knowledge and their sense
of how they can participate in making this change in
the world.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
They also have very flourishing social media.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
So Instagram in particular, just spreading the messages really about
what needs to change to end sexual violence.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
If there was one thing, Catherine, that you'd like any
political party to introduce as a policy to tackle this
issue in sexual violence and rape, what would it be.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
To be honest, The one that's dearest to my heart
at the moment is the Justice Select Committee has looked
at how we stop children on the stand being accused
of having consented to sexual activity, and we're talking, you know,
children as young as five or six years old, you know,
being accused of that. So there is a bill looking
(15:56):
at that. At the moment, the government doesn't have that
in the stated plan to enact that bolt, to make
that bill into law. That bill would stop any child
under twelve being challenged about consent. But yeah, we'd really
like to see that fast tracted in as soon as possible,
because it's really quite an indictement on our society that
(16:16):
we challenge six year olds about having consented to sexual
things done to them by adults.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Thanks for joining us, Catherine.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
That's it for this episode of the Front Page. You
can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage
at enzadherld dot co dot nz. The Front Page is
produced by Ethan Sells and Richard Martin, who is also
our sound engineer.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
I'm Chelsea Daniels.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Subscribe to The Front Page on iHeartRadio or wherever you
get your podcasts, and tune in tomorrow for another look
behind the headlines.
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