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Saturday, August 26, 2023

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 26/8/23



Govt sets about taking UN advice on caring for the disabled and provides $1.765m for ethnic communities to combat violence

It looks like our hard-working ministers have done with impressing on us how our wellbeing will be improved by the legislation they have bulldozed through Parliament under urgency.

The two new press statements on the government’s official website nevertheless are intended to highlight the way we are being cared for.

Disability Issues Minister Priyanca Radhakrishnan has referenced a report from the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, received this month, and the government’s response.

New Zealand has confirmed it will progress 51 of the committee’ 60 Concluding Observations.

A further nine observations have been considered and noted.

Marama Davidson, Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence, has announced the launch of the Ethnic Communities Network.

This (she explains) is the final group established to contribute to the implementation and monitoring of Te Aorerekura – the National Strategy to Eliminate Family Violence and Sexual Violence, for all people in New Zealand to live free from violence.

“It is important that the experiences of diverse communities – ethnic communities, tangata whenua, Pacific peoples, Rainbow peoples, disabled peoples, children and young people, older people, victim-survivors, and people who have used violence – are helping to ensure changes are effective for each diverse community,” Marama Davidson said.

But Point Of Order imagines the Prime Minister would particularly want us to know

“… the Government has delivered its promise to put community voice at the heart of its plan to eliminate family violence and sexual violence.’

He and Davidson must be only too aware of the promises the government has not delivered.

Modest government spending is involved in this announcement.

“Under Te Aorerekura, we are committed to resourcing diverse communities to take the time to meaningfully engage with us and I am proud that more than $1.765 million has been provided to community to do this,” she said.

Davidson further said the Ethnic Communities Network represents more than 200 ethnicities.

This suggests the government funding won’t go far – around $8825 for each of those communities.

Latest from the Beehive

25 AUGUST 2023


New Zealand’s continued commitment to disabled people is reflected in its response to a major United Nations report, Minister for Disability Issues Priyanca Radhakrishnan said today.


The Government has delivered its promise to put community voice at the heart of its plan to eliminate family violence and sexual violence.

Priyanca Radhakrishnan said “the whole-of-Government response” to the United Nations committee report spans policy areas including employment, family violence and sexual abuse, and economic well-being.

She said the UN committee specifically commended New Zealand on its establishment of Whaikaha (Ministry of Disabled People), the Abuse in Care Royal Commission, and progress on implementing Enabling Good Lives.

But she acknowledges that “more needs to be done” and she says government agencies “will continue to progress our commitment in this space, before New Zealand is examined again by the Committee in 2030”.

The Independent Monitoring Mechanism monitors and reports regularly on the Government’s progress to realise the rights of disabled people in New Zealand.

It consists of three equal partners in monitoring: the Human Rights Commission, the Office of the Ombudsman, and the Convention Coalition (Disabled Peoples Organisations).

Further information on New Zealand’s response to the UNCRPD is available here: www.whaikaha.govt.nz/about-us/reports-to-the-minister/cabinet-papers/

Marama Davidson said the Ethnic Communities Network represents more than 200 ethnicities, including new and temporary migrants, former refugees, asylum-seekers, long-term settlers and people who were born in New Zealand.

“We have heard loud and clear that ethnic communities want a commitment to safer services that understand cultural diversity, respond to linguistic diversity, have better data on the distinctive forms of violence that communities experience, more education, and better government-led and community-led supports.

“We have also heard about difficulty ethnic communities face in the context of systemic racism and cultural beliefs, especially around gender norms, that has too often led to under-reporting of violence and abuse, and services that are not as helpful and useful as they should be.

“Under Te Aorerekura, we are committed to resourcing diverse communities to take the time to meaningfully engage with us and I am proud that more than $1.765 million has been provided to community to do this,” she said.


Enabling community voice and leadership is part of achieving Shift Two: Towards mobilising communities of Te Aorerekura Action Plan.

Each group has determined their own model for participation, resulting in a raft of committees.

The press statement mentions the establishment of
  • an independent Tangata Whenua Ministerial Advisory group, Te Pūkotahitanga;
  • an Expert Advisory Group for Children and Young People;
  • an Interim Disability Reference Group (a National Disability Expert Advisory Board is to be formed soon, in response to a report from the Disabled People’s Assembly);
Pasifika providers are meeting regularly and recently held their inaugural National Pacific Family Violence and Sexual Violence Practitioners’ Fono in Auckland with over 250 people, including Minister Davidson, in attendance.

The Office for Seniors is working to pilot a regional elder abuse network.

Oh – and the press statement notes that funding is being provided to an existing rainbow network to facilitate LGBTQIA+ communities engagement.

It has taken more than a year to get around this announcement.

In June last year, Davidson announced a team of 11 experts in whānau Māori wellbeing whose job is to advise the government on shaping family violence and sexual violence systems and responses that uphold the Treaty of Waitangi.

Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, lets just take the communists UN's advice? What could possibly go wrong?
At least our treasonous politicians are admitting to being under the control of the globalist cults NGO's.
Who still thinks corporate governments are here to help?