Kotahitanga, Budget investment to prevent and respond to family violence and sexual violence

Funding boost for family violence prevention initiatives

The Government has increased its investment in three innovative MSD initiatives that are working to prevent family violence by changing the attitudes, beliefs, norms and behaviours that sustain violence, and by supporting community-led responses.

This investment is part of a Budget 2019 package of new funding of $320.9 million over four years to support initiatives across 10 government agencies who are working together as a Joint Venture to prevent and respond to family violence and sexual violence.

MSD received $30.7 million over four years toward the following initiatives:

• E Tū Whānau – a kaupapa Māori initiative to positively change behaviour, attitudes and norms as a means to improve wellbeing and reduce family violence. E Tū Whānau also works with refugee and migrant communities as they value the strength-based approach and the focus on increasing wellbeing.
• Pasefika Proud – a social change initiative ground in Pacific values, that works with the eight key Pacific nationalities in New Zealand to prevent family violence.
• The Campaign for Action on Family Violence – which includes the It’s not OK campaign, refocused on supporting positive behaviour change for men using violence, and a new campaign focused on safe relationships for young people.

This investment will enable us to scale up, strengthen and further evaluate what is working well and making a positive difference for families and communities across New Zealand.

Funding for specific initiatives

The Budget investment will enable us to:

• increase the number of partnerships with iwi and communities, and build on and expand current initiatives and relationships
• respond to the need in regions that currently have no investment and change-ready communities (Kiribati and Tuvalu for instance)
• develop new communications, including TV advertising, and digital and social media campaign strategies for It’s not OK – specifically focusing on changing the behaviour of men using violence
• develop a new campaign focussed on safe and respectful relationships for young people, including countering the impacts of pornography
• carry out formative research, testing and evaluation.

Increase in funding for specialist sexual violence services

The Government announced in the Budget that it will invest $131 million over four years to expand specialist sexual violence services.

Of this funding, $90.3 million has been allocated to MSD and $40.8 million to Oranga Tamariki to strengthen support for children, youth and adult victims/survivors and perpetrators of sexual violence, and their families and whānau.

The investment is part of a Joint Venture package of funding dedicated to eliminating family violence and sexual violence in New Zealand. The Joint Venture leads and coordinates the family violence and sexual violence work programme across 10 government agencies.

The MSD and Oranga Tamariki funding will support the stabilisation and expansion of essential specialist sexual violence services and start to address gaps in the system response. It will ensure more stable and sustainable service provision, and support services to meet growing demand.

The investment will help to create a more integrated, efficient and responsive system for those affected by sexual violence, by continuing and building on sexual violence services implemented since Budget 2016. It will mean more people get the services they need, when they need them.

In 2019/20 the focus of the funding will be to ensure service continuity for victims/survivors and perpetrators of sexual violence. We have also started developing a programme of work to ensure we fund, procure and contract sexual violence services from July 2020 in a way that is integrated and sustainable.

We are committed to working closely with the sexual violence sector and other key stakeholders to develop a sustainable contracting approach that ensures sexual violence services are available for all people affected by sexual violence.