August 15, 2022
Boarding school bully caught in violence strategy
The Minister of Family and Sexual Violence says Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell’s admission he attacked a younger pupil while at boarding school is reminder violence can happen everywhere.
Marama Davidson says too often violence in leafy suburbs and boarding schools is hidden while that in poor and brown communities is highlighted.
She says this is fostered by politicians offering short sighted-short term click-bait policies such as arming police, increasing penalties and cracking down on gangs, as Mr Uffindell suggested in his maiden speech.
“It distracts away from the support for the most enduring solutions which are whanau and community-led solutions who need the resource to be able to do that mahi and who need the political mandate to be able to do that mahi,” Ms Davidson says.
Such policies run counter to Te Aorerekura – the strategy to eliminate family and sexual violence.