The summary of findings provides impetus for policy interventions. It is imperative that organisations tasked with addressing domestic violence have a visible and inherent ‘women’ focus to their work, processes, and outcomes. Given that current key actors fail to do so; an independent Unit should be established within the Ministry of Women’s Affairs tasked with “Eliminating Domestic Violence”. The creation of this Unit would enable it to model gender analysis in all its work and explicitly take into account gendered structuring of people’s lives. The Ministry of Women’s Affairs is ideal organisation for the proposed Unit, given its historical and current focus on creating better outcomes for New Zealand women. Identifying the work functions of the proposed Unit is beyond the limited scope of this report and further study is required in this respect.
For much needed technical, financial, and human resources, it is recommended the Minister of Women’s Affairs seek Cabinet approval for funding and diversion of some financial and human resources from FACS, Taskforce for Action on Violence within Families and Families Commission to the proposed Unit. This seems appropriate as evidence illustrates replication and repetition of government resources among the four actors tasked with addressing domestic violence. A cost-benefit analysis may be required (not included herein) to inform future direction or strategies of FACS, Taskforce for Action on Violence within Families, and Families Commission. Notwithstanding, it’s imperative that the proposed Unit works alongside CYF, MSD, WINZ, and Police with reciprocal information sharing to avoid repetition of work and resources.
Coordination on family violence prevention or support programmes also needs to extend beyond government agencies. Therefore, it is recommended that legislation be put in place so that all organizations (public or private) advocating for women affected by domestic violence register with the proposed Unit to ensure coordination of work, message, relevance, and to avoid repetition of government resources. It is also essential that information is shared among government, NGOs, researchers, and victims of domestic violence clearly and easily. This will ensure that we move away from a fragmented system to some centralization in terms of getting consistency in work, message, relevance, and to ensure government resources are allocated more efficiently. To this effect, it is recommended that the proposed Unit publish a central website as the “focal” point for all domestic violence data, statistics, research publications, funding information, and help contacts for women.