Entries open for business awards
Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) and NZI have announced that entries are open for the 2023 NZI Rural Women NZ Business Awards.
The Family Violence Act 2018 must protect victims’ privacy and accessibility to support services, says Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ).
“Sharing and disclosing information between government sectors, such as health and education, may place the privacy of family violence victims at risk," says RWNZ national president, Fiona Gower.
“Although RWNZ supports the Government’s efforts to create an effective preventative response to family violence through information sharing, we do not support a system that puts people at risk and leaves victims feeling vulnerable and unable to seek help because they are afraid of confidentiality breaches,’ she says.
“However, for many rural families, there are no “on the ground agencies” to provide services desperately needed and this remains our fundamental concern.”
“Rural victims of family violence often cannot leave their situations easily and this isolation and lack of support is significant as 39% of rural women will experience violence, compared to 33% of urban women, as cited in our submission on the Family Violence Legislation Bill in July 2017,” says Gower.
The Ministry of Justice recently released a summary of feedback on draft guidance for information sharing under new family violence legislation.
The Family Violence Act 2018 outlines how and when family violence agencies and social services practitioners can share information about victims or perpetrators of family violence.
“The purpose of the new law is to encourage agencies to work together to identify, stop, prevent and otherwise respond to family violence,” says Jan Logie, Under-Secretary to the Minister of Justice (Domestic and Sexual Violence Issues).
“We’ve consulted closely with the family violence sector to ensure our guidelines and processes are clear, and victim safety is at the centre of our decision-making.”
The Ministry of Justice will now update the guidance, taking into account the comments and suggestions made. The updated guidance will focus on enabling safe, appropriate and consistent practice across the sector. It will be released when the Family Violence Act comes into effect on 1 July 2019.
Red meat farmers have dealt a major blow to their umbrella farmer body, Beef + Lamb New Zealand - rejecting an increase in directors’ fees.
The Climate Change Commission wants the new Government to reduce NZ Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction volumes as son as possible.
Southland-based Mataura Valley Milk can now lay claim to be the first all-electric dairy factory in New Zealand.
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Meat co-operative Alliance Group has bagged four gold medals at the Outstanding NZ Food Producer Awards, achieving top honours for every cut entered.
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