Angie Warren-Clark Labour MP

In the Wellbeing Budget, the Government is delivering on our plan to address the long term-challenges facing New Zealand.

One of those challenges is family and sexual violence. New Zealand has one of the worst rates of family violence in the OECD. One million New Zealanders are affected by the trauma of family and sexual violence every year, including 300,000 children.

We can't sit by and let this continue. We have to take action to support survivors, and help break the cycle in our community.

I'm proud that the Prime Minister has announced the largest investment ever into responding to and preventing family and sexual violence.

This package is first and foremost about supporting survivors and ensuring the immediate safety of victims and children. It offers better victim support through expanding essential specialist sexual violence services including a 24/7 crisis helpline. It also includes supporting victims through the court process, increasing capabilities for victims to submit their statements via video link, and providing specialist training to legal professionals on how to deal with family and sexual violence cases.

Women's Refuge's Chief Executive Dr Ang Jury supported these new moves to curb domestic and sexual violence, and said 'the money's being spent in very sensible ways.”

Violence affects how children learn, it affects mental wellbeing, and puts people in a constant state of "fight or flight”. It also increases the risk of suicide.

We know violence and poverty are linked. Our plan to help improve the wellbeing of New Zealanders will lift more families and children out of poverty. Our Families Package means 384,000 families are better off by an average of $75 a week, our extension to paid parental leave gives parents more time in those vital first months with their babies, and our Winter Energy Payment is helping more than one million Kiwis stay warm each winter.

I'm proud to be part of Jacinda Ardern's government – a government that is going to break the cycle of family and sexual violence. We will continue to tackle the long-term challenges, and to place the wellbeing of New Zealanders firmly at the heart of what we do.