......maybe – before admitting mistake about who causes violence
Marama Davidson, Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence, has featured in media headlines after being hit by a motorcycle near the scene of the Posie Parker protest and for sharing an inflammatory opinion about the perpetrators of violence.
On The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury reports that Davidson was caught on tape claiming …
“I am the prevention violence Minister, and I know who causes violence in the world, and it’s white cis men’.
Bradbury further notes that Stuff journalist Kirsty Johnston was among those who leapt to Davidson’s defence…
Bradbury further notes that Stuff journalist Kirsty Johnston was among those who leapt to Davidson’s defence…
Besides raising the hackles of Bradbury and Kiwiblog’s David Farrar, the statement which Johnston defends has triggered demands for Davidson’s resignation from ACT leader David Seymour and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters.
But neither the accident nor the ministerial indictment of white cis men was recorded on the Beehive website.
Our monitoring of the site this morning showed ministers have posted these latest news items –
More than 41,000 sole parent families will be better off with a median gain of $20 a week
A major investment by Government-owned New Zealand Green Investment Finance towards electrifying the public bus fleet is being welcomed by Climate Change Minister James Shaw.
A world-leading payments system is expected to provide a significant cash flow boost for Kiwi innovators.
Minister of Transport Michael Wood joined crowds of keen cyclists and walkers this morning to celebrate the completion of the Te Awa shared path in Hamilton.
Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Minister Andrew Little has delivered the Crown apology to Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua for its historic breaches of Te Tiriti of Waitangi today.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta has concluded her visit to China, the first by a New Zealand Foreign Minister since 2018.
World-class satellite positioning services that will support much safer search and rescue, boost precision farming, and help safety on construction sites through greater accuracy are a significant step closer today.
Attorney-General David Parker has announced the appointment of Christopher John Dellabarca of Wellington, Dr Katie Jane Elkin of Wellington, Caroline Mary Hickman of Napier, Ngaroma Tahana of Rotorua, Tania Rose Williams Blyth of Hamilton and Nicola Jan Wills of Wellington as District Court Judges.
But our attention was diverted from the Beehive’s record of who has said what to the Scoop website, where Winston Peters and David Seymour were calling for Marama Davidson to resign.
Marama Davidson should stand down as ‘Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violene’ for the clear and outrageous statement she made at the Posie Parker protest that ‘white straight men’ are the cause of violence.
“Marama Davidson can’t be an effective Minister if she can’t get basic facts right and instead chooses prejudice. If she can’t front up with evidence for her statement about white men and, she should resign,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.
And then came the news from Davidson’s office that she had erred:
Statement from Marama Davidson
On Saturday morning, I was hit by a motorcyclist who struck me at a pedestrian crossing. The person who hit me was part of a convoy of motorcyclists.
A short time after the incident, I was confronted by a representative from the far-right and conspiracy theory website Counterspin who was filming me walking down the road before accosting me with inflammatory questions. A clip of that video is now circulating online and is being used to distract from a broader conversation about the causes of violence in Aotearoa.
Still in shock, I was not as clear in my comments to the conspiracy theorists Counterspin as I should have been.
Violence is unacceptable in any community and as the Minister responsible for Aotearoa’s first ever plan to eliminate family violence and sexual violence, I am committed to an Aotearoa where all people are safe and can live peaceful lives. My top priority is to support, protect and believe all victims and survivors of violence.
Women are overwhelmingly more likely to be victims of family violence and sexual violence at the hands of men. It is also important to acknowledge the disproportionate impact violence has on our rainbow whānau and diverse communities.
Davidson said she should have made clear in her comments that violence happens in every community.
Her intention was to affirm that trans people were deserving of support and to keep the focus on the fact that men were the main perpetrators of violence.
I will continue to stand with my trans and non-binary whānau and support action to ensure that everyone can live their lives without fear of hate or discrimination.
I will not be commenting further at this time.
There was no mention of the person who threw tomato juice at Posie Parker, described as a protester “who was born intersex and is nonconforming”.
This person said
“I am so proud I dropped the juice and I would do it again, and again – if I have to go to prison for one year, I am more than happy”.
How much more happiness would be caused if the sentence was two years behind bars – and what are the Police doing to oblige?
In his statement, Seymour demanded that Davidson front up with evidence for her statement or resign.
Some of the evidence that presumably encouraged the minister to clarify what she said can be found in a Te Ao Maori news report earlier this month headed Latest family violence report proffers mātauranga Māori as solution
This highlighted the contents of the Family Violence Death Review Committee’s eighth report, with proposed guidelines for after-care anchored in mātauranga Māori and tikanga Māori.
It quoted AUT associate dean Professor Denise Wilson (Ngāti Tahinga), who is part of Te Pūkotahitanga, the panel that advises Marama Davidson on the progress of the government’s 25-year strategy aimed at eliminating family violence and sexual violence.
Wilson said:
“We need to note that, if we want to heal our whānau who live with violence and to prevent from going generation to generation, we need to look at these tamariki who are just being left to their own devices.
“About 54 percent of the tamariki we are talking about are Māori, so it is an issue.”
An RNZ report, dated 8 May 2021, is headed Shocking rate of violence against wāhine Maori – report.
This says half of wāhine Maori have experienced sexual or physical violence according to data provided within a 2020 government report briefing.
Now a new government initiative launched this week in Mangere at Wharewātea Marae aims to hear survivors’ voices – and craft ways to deal with the statistics.
The government’s bringing together 10 departments under the programme, Te Hau Tangata, to tackle the issue.
The initiative seeks to help address the distressing sexual harm and family violence in Aotearoa.
The government report on prevention of family and sexual violence from ministry of justice data, showed one in two wāhine Māori experience sexual harm and two thirds of the population who experience sexual assault are young people.
Figures presented also said half of wāhine Māori experiencing sexual and physical violence and two thirds of the population who experience sexual assault are young people.
Then there’s data from Te Puni Kōkiri, the government’s principal policy advisor on Māori wellbeing and development
In a document titled Understanding family violence Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand: June 2017, Point of Order found:
Infographic Highlights
Māori are: 2x As likely to be an offender who has committed a serious crime against a family member.
Māori students are: 2x As likely as New Zealand European students to report witnessing adults hit children in their homes.
Māori children are: 6x More likely to die from child abuse or neglect.
On his post, David Farrar produced data that gives another measure of Davidson’s drivel:
“I am the prevention violence Minister, and I know who causes violence in the world, and it’s white cis men”
This is what Marama Davidson said yesterday.
There are two issues here. The first is that she is wrong. In New Zealand here is the data for violent offending for 2022:
- Gender: 79% male, 21% female
- Ethnicity: 51% Māori, 29% European, 11% Pacific, 2% Indian, 1% Asian
The top five countries for homicide:
The top five countries for rape are:
It seems the minister was not thinking clearly after her encounter with a motorcyclist, whose age, gender and race was not mentioned in a Green Party press statement yesterday.
The statement did say that after a public rally in support of trans and non-binary human rights in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Marama Davidson reported an incident to Police.
It appears a motorcyclist failed to stop at a pedestrian crossing and Marama was knocked to the ground.
The incident has been reported to Police and Marama is seeing a doctor. Until Police have confirmed their next steps, we will not be making further comment.
The statement further said the Green Party’s commitment to non-violence was at the heart of the party’s founding values and it asked that everyone give Marama and her family some space and time “to process what has happened”.
Point of Order asked the Green Party if it had confirmed that a motorcyclist failed to stop and hit Marama and whether a link had been established between this incident and any of the various factions involved in the unruly demonstration of protest against Posie Parker.
We were told that because the incident has been referred to Police, the Greens won’t be commenting any further at this point.
Martyn Bradbury throws a bit more light on things; he has highlighted the irony of stating white cis men cause the violence in the world only to be run over by a Māori Destiny Church Biker an hour later.
Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton
The statement did say that after a public rally in support of trans and non-binary human rights in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Marama Davidson reported an incident to Police.
It appears a motorcyclist failed to stop at a pedestrian crossing and Marama was knocked to the ground.
The incident has been reported to Police and Marama is seeing a doctor. Until Police have confirmed their next steps, we will not be making further comment.
The statement further said the Green Party’s commitment to non-violence was at the heart of the party’s founding values and it asked that everyone give Marama and her family some space and time “to process what has happened”.
Point of Order asked the Green Party if it had confirmed that a motorcyclist failed to stop and hit Marama and whether a link had been established between this incident and any of the various factions involved in the unruly demonstration of protest against Posie Parker.
We were told that because the incident has been referred to Police, the Greens won’t be commenting any further at this point.
Martyn Bradbury throws a bit more light on things; he has highlighted the irony of stating white cis men cause the violence in the world only to be run over by a Māori Destiny Church Biker an hour later.
Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton
12 comments:
She should go on the brain transplant list.
Her's has turned to mush and that was long before the motorbike hit her.
It just gets worse. They are gonners.
Did she make the statement before or after she was hit? If it was before then Chris Hipkins should be firing her pronto.
Can we have a statement from the Destiny Church biker who ran into her?
Is she a big fat liar? Par for the course for this government.
MC
What is being overlooked in the fallout is that Marama Davidson performs a vital role in this shambles of a Government. Her mere presence make the rest seem vaguely competent.
Only a week ago the NZH published an item regarding another young child of Maori descent who died at the hands of a male, again of Maori descent.
In that context, Davidson would have to be a candidate for Hypocrite of the Year. She has no role in Parliament in my view.
what's a 'prevention violence Minister'? is this reflective of the basic language skill of a first-world MP?
beehive shows that she's supposed to be the Minister of "Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence".
inability to state one's role clearly should be a good enough reason to give up that role!
i'm willing to bet 100$ that the CCTV footage shows her crossing when it was the motorcyclist's right of way. just showing your hand to stop an incoming vehicle while crossing on red or outside a zebra crossing does not make any sense!
Davidson's further claim was also incorrect, i.e. "that women are overwhelmingly more likely to be victims of family and sexual violence at the hands of men". In fact, male intimate partners are physically assaulted as often as female partners, and partner violence incidents are more often initiated by women, as found by unbiased international research including our Dunedin and Christchurch longitudinal Health & Development Studies. As for emotional and psychological abuse, women are clearly at least as good at that as men. It is true however that the men commit much more of the most serious intimate partner violence, including homicide, than women do, yet even then, almost a quarter of intimate partner homicides are committed by women against men.
A large proportion of homicides and serious violence against very young children are committed by women. The offence of 'Infanticide' remains in our law, enabling mothers to have their murders excused with a maximum penalty of 3 years imprisonment, though imprisonment is rarely ordered for infanticide.
Also interesting, intimate partner violence in lesbian relationships occurs at a considerably higher rate than in other relationships (see Jackson, C. Women Can Be Violent Too: A Review of the Hidden New Zealand and International Literature on Female to Female Violence in Intimate Partner Relationships, 2015).
Davidson and many others are spreading lies about violence including family violence.
What is wrong with a large percentage of Kiwis when according to the latest polling Marama (the Greens) Packer (Maori Party) will be key ministers and policy makers along with Labour if an election were held now. This next election will determine if NZ (if I can still call it that) will finally tip over the abiss .
I agree with 'Emphatic' See the figures I posted in Mike Hosking's blog of a day or so back. Maori and Polynesian men are up to 6 times more likely to be incarcerated for violence, on a population proportional basis than any other ethnic group.
Violent offending, recorded as 58% Male Maori.
This figure is far worse than it seems, when only 17% of the population claim to be Maori. So here we have a mixed race Minister, who prefers to recognise only her Maori heritage, hiding her head in the sand, & refusing to confront the problem which should not exist. Until those claiming to be Maori start taking responsibility for their own actions, & this includes diet for their health, & training for employment, all of the government hand-outs & apartheid rules will mean nothing at the end of the day. And the likes of Marama will continue to bleat the lies that only the gullible believe.
"In vino veritas " the classic statement that a few drinks will make you drop your guard and the truth comes out. In this case Marama may have dropped her guard as a result of an accident and revealed her true thoughts. She appears as a racist feminist extremist. Surely this ranks alongside the misdemeanours of Nash and should be dealt with in a like manner, namely dismissal from Cabinet and questions as to her verisimiltude as an MP.
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