Family violence costs country billions

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 13, Issue 595, 18 July 1995, Page 9

Family violence costs country billions

Family violence may well be costing New Zealand at least $1.2 billion a year, says Wendy Slieker, Executive Director of the New Zealand Women' s Refuge Foundation. Last year, 10 women were murdered by their partner or ex-partner while 8700 women and 12,300 children sought a Refuge house or its community-based services to escape the violence in their homes. "But the real costs of family violence are now beginning to be identified and they are staggering," says Wendy Slieker. A new study by Suzanne Snively for Coopers and Lybrand takes a national view and is the first attempt to estimate the national costs of family violence. "The individual's costs can include health care, accommodation, legal services, loss of direct income/child care, serious injury and death. The government's costs run through four portfolibs - health, social welfare,justice and the police. "The study' s conservative estimate is that family violences costs New Zealand $1.2 billion dollars a year, but it could be as high as $5.3 billion when taking into account work days lost through family violence," says Wendy Slieker. She says the police pro-arrest policy makes it more possible for a battered woman to remain in her own home

and as a direct result, Refuge' s community-based work is up 30 percent in the last year. "While we're not seeing strong increases in the number of women staying in Refuge, we are supporting more and more women in their own homes and providing commu-nity-based services for them. " Annual appeal important She says this makes 1995's annual appeal all the more important, particularly since an additio'nal $1.2 million allocated in the 1995/96 government budget was tagged. "That money can be used for new services only, so we can't support the work we're doing now. Does it really make sense to grant an organisation like Refuge money for new work when they desperately need money to keep their existing work going? "We' ve estimated the unpaid hours of Refuge workers using the basic minimum wage - it comes to $2.5 million or 399,738 hours annually. "Refuge filled 1 27,000 bed nights in the last year. Using a basic $30 to cover the costs, that's $3.8 million. "When the true economic cost of family violence is recognised by the government, Refuge won't have to find an extra $5.6 million a year to house 5000 women and 8000 children every year, drive more than 930,000 kilometres, answer 280,000 telephone calls, see 8000 people in the community or put 9000 people through education programmes," says Wendy Slieker.