John Key doesn’t care about rape victims (he doesn’t much care about women and children at all)

Splashy title, I know. Let’s break it down a little. Tuesday November 10, 2015 - John Key shouts across parliament that Andrew Little, leader of the opposition party, is supporting rapists, child molesters and murderers over the rights of other New Zealanders by questioning the government’s inaction over the Christmas Island human rights violations. Keep this in mind, would you? We’re going to come back to it later.

November 2008 - National becomes the governing party of New Zealand, with John Key as its leader. 2009 - The Taskforce for Action on Sexual Violence (established under the Labour government in 2007) recommends a drastic increase to the funding of the specialist sexual violence sector. The National government responds by cutting funding to this sector.

National resolves to decrease spending by ACC by $2 billion. Much of this is achieved by cutting funding to emergency services supporting victims of rape, sexual assault and domestic violence. This includes counseling services for survivors.

‘Double Bunking’ is introduced in prisons, despite overwhelming evidence that this leads to an increase in rape and sexual assault between prisoners.

National cuts funding to HELP, and they are forced to lay off staff and drastically reduce their emergency support services to victims of rape and sexual abuse.

2011 - National cuts funding for the Women’s Refuge by $800,000. The Family Violence Fund is established, however it is only accessible for the establishment of new social programs, not for existing ones or day-to-day expenses.

Further ACC funding cuts result in reduced counseling available for survivors of rape and sexual abuse.

Rape Prevention Education Auckland, Counselling Services Centre in Counties-Manukau, and Auckland Sexual Abuse Help all announce they are unable to cope with the volume of requests since funding cuts in 2009.

The Human Rights Commission releases a report stating that NZ prison conditions violate human rights, and that crowding and ‘double bunking’ are leading to increased cases of rape and sexual assault between prisoners. No actions are taken to remedy this.

Minister for Social Development Paula Bennet announces she will be scheduling some meetings to deal with these issues, but no increases to funding are announced, and the issue seems to slide back under the rug.

John Key defends his decision to be interviewed by convicted domestic abuser Tony Veitch, saying that his “history” was not his concern. During the interview he made a “wishlist” of the female celebrities he found attractive.

2012 - Hawera Rape Crisis is forced to close due to lack of funding.

Auckland HELP is forced to run a public campaign in order to keep their services going.

Wellington Rape Crisis is forced to close their doors for one day a week in order to remain financially solvent.

Rape Crisis centers across the country announce they are desperately underfunded, running on shoestring budgets, and having to cut services in order to stay afloat.

More “restructuring” of ACC leads to a loss of over $6 million in funding to rape prevention services. The HELP Foundation loses a further $200,000 in funding.

Maori sexual assault services are reduced to just two providers nationwide.

Abuse and Rape Crisis Support is forced to reduce its counseling hours due to funding cuts. Manager Anne Kent says the group is now largely reliant on public donations.

2013 - The police diversion scheme is changed, so that donations are no longer accepted as a condition of diversion. This is done to avoid the inconvenience and costs of court appearances and paperwork. This results in a massive loss of donations to organizations such as Women’s Refuge and Rape Crisis. No changes in government funding are made to compensate for this.

Christchurch’s only Rape Crisis center is forced to close after being turned down for government funding. A mere $30,000 would have kept them going.

Despite public support, HELP is forced to close their Auckland 24-hour crisis phone line due to lack of funding. Before closing, they dealt with around 250 calls a week.

Palmerston North Women’s Refuge announces that their safe house is at capacity almost every night, with enough calls to run another safe house also at capacity. They announce the service is increasingly difficult to run due to lack of funding.

Sexual violence agencies across the country announce victims are being forced to wait up to three months to access services such as counseling, stating their funding is stretched to the breaking point.

John Key responds to the actions of the Roast Busters group (a group of young men who drugged and gang raped children as young as thirteen, and posted pictures of the acts online), saying they should, “Just grow up.”

2014 - Election Year! National introduces a variety of measures to reduce domestic violence, but does so without consulting any of the organizations set up to help victims. Many of the measures are criticized as being ineffective, and largely a smoke screen to cover how appallingly underfunded this area is. Women’s Refuge chief executive Heather Henare expresses concern that the measures only cater to the 18% of domestic violence cases which are reported, leaving more than 80% of the country’s victims without help.

Labour proposes a plan which focuses on prevention, community outreach, and justice reform, which includes an investment of an extra $60 million in funding to family and sexual violence services. They do this after heavily consulting with services such as Women’s Refuge. Key declines to comment on this, however makes fun of Labour leader David Cunliffe for starting his speech by saying he’s embarrassed to be a man, and makes a weird analogy about a rugby club.

The National budget includes an increase in funding to sexual violence services of $10.4 million over the next two years. Although this is much needed, it comes five years after the Taskforce for Action on Sexual Violence first recommended a funding increase. Five years of drastic funding cuts in which many providers were forced to lay off staff, reduce services or close down altogether.

This $10.4 million is less than the yearly budget for ministerial travel. It is one third of what National spent bailing out Rio Tinto. It’s almost a third of what we’re spending to talk about replacing our flag with another flag that most of the country hates.

The government shows support for accused rapist and Malaysian diplomat Muhammad Rizalman, allowing him to return to Malaysia without trial. Eventually, when media pressure becomes too great, Key finally expresses outrage over the situation, and requests he be returned to NZ, but only after long months of silence.

Key promotes a National MP (with name suppression, but we all know who it is) to the position of Chair of the Law and Order Committee at the same time he is under investigation for the sexual assault of minors.

The Manawatu Women’s Refuge is forced to close one of their safe houses, opened only a few months previous due to increased demand, because of lack of funding.

Wellington Rape Crisis manager Eleanor Butterworth announces that although 20% of staff hours are spent on funding applications, they are still running on a deficit of up to $100,000 a year.

Rape Crisis centers across the country once again announce they are on the verge of closing down due to increased demand and lack of funding.

John Key makes a joke about convicted murderer and pedophile Phillip John Smith’s escape from prison.

2015 - John Key is accused of bullying and harassment by a waitress, who claims he repeatedly touched her hair, pulling on her ponytail, despite her asking him several times to stop. Videos emerge of him touching the hair of young girls without their permission. Although not a criminal offense, most of the country agrees this is pretty creepy behaviour, and shows a lack of respect for others’ personal boundaries.

John Key shouts across parliament that Andrew Little, leader of the opposition party, is supporting rapists, child molesters and murderers over the rights of other New Zealanders by questioning the government’s inaction over the Christmas Island human rights violations. Speaker of the House and National party politician David Carter refuses to order an apology from Key, and about half of Labour’s MPs walk out. Key refuses to retract his statement, or apologise.

The following day around a dozen MPs, mostly women, mostly from Labour and Greens, staged a walk-out.

One by one, each of them stand and try to tell their stories about their experiences with sexual assault, and to explain why they were hurt and offended by John Key’s comments. One by one they are silenced, and thrown out. I’m just gonna say that again, a little louder, for all you people in the back.

David Carter and John Key actively silenced the voices of survivors of rape and sexual assault. David Carter interrupted, cut off their microphones, and eventually threw them out of the House.

Key still refuses to apologize, and stands by his statements.

A man who won’t do anything about human rights abuses because he claims to be so concerned for the victims of rape and sexual assault is unwilling to listen to the very people he’s apparently protecting.

John Key and his buddies don’t care about survivors. They want us to shut up. When we won’t shut up, they want to treat us as hysterical and unreasonable. They want to use our trauma as a tool to avoid answering to valid criticisms from the opposition, but they’ve done less than nothing to help any of us when we needed it. Since coming into power, they have continually cut funding to the services we need, and ignored our cries for help. They throw us the occasional, election-year bone, and expect us to be so grateful that we won’t speak up when they try to use us as nothing more than fodder for PR stunts.

NZ. Get mad. Write letters ( speakers.office@parliament.govt.nz, david.carter@parliament.govt.nz) . Support the MPs who walked out. Sign this petition calling on Key to apologize, and fully fund the sexual violence sector: http://www.actionstation.org.nz/saysorryjohn Donate to your local Women’s Refuge and Rape Crisis if you can afford it.

For fuck’s sake vote this motherfucker out in 2017.

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