Chicanery behind clamour for increased funding for sexual abuse services

Email : credo@surfer.co.nz

20^th April 2014

Hon. Paula Bennett,

Minister of Social Development,

Parliament Buildings,

Wellington.

Dear Ms Bennett,

Chicanery behind clamour for increased funding for sexual abuse services

For nearly forty years I have been observing and documenting the rise, and the activism, of the anti-male, anti-family, rape and family violence movements, and what I regard as their  pernicious impact upon NZ society. A major part of this activism is currently being played out in lurid, melodramatic fashion, aided by a collusive news media, to pressure you for greatly increased sexual abuse agency funding in the pending May Budget.

Yet all is not as it may seem; permit me to explain. In general, prior to the 1980’s people seeking rape, sexual abuse  domestic violence assistance and counselling sought this from church-based, family-oriented social services agencies. By 1979 ideologically driven anti-male, anti-family radical feminist influences began to infiltrate, and eventually dominate,  this situation

Evidence came in the form of two most compelling pieces of information:-

(a)      On rape : Rape Crisis was included in a lengthy list of activist groups thus : “Anarchists ….and latterly their more  Marxist ‘libertarian socialist’ and ‘anarcho-communist’ fellow leftists” etc. This by Christine Dann, of more recent times a Green Party senior staffer. (1)

(b)     On domestic violence and the establishing of Women’s Refuge (originally named Halfway House) “Halfway House was conceived by some Auckland feminists as being a tactic towards our liberation. Basically we wished to attack the institution of  marriage, and to salvage what womanity [sic] we could in the process.” Etc.(2)

So persistent and deceitful conspiring by these activists has clearly succeeded in creating a state-funded juggernaut in relation to rape/sexual abuse and family violence issues. In the process it has marginalised church-based, family-oriented services, virtually to the point of obscurity. This insidious process, moreover, has been achieved deliberately and systematically; indeed, one which I have researched and can demonstrate to you if required.

Should you question my charge of “persistent and deceitful lobbying”, a classic example was the scandalous duping of the NZ public with the publicity for the June 1988 Telethon. There, with shocking and melodramatic graphics, one was persistently told that  “one in four NZ girls is sexually abused before (they) turn eighteen. Half of them by their father, while one in ten boys can expect the same sort of treatment.” Only near the culmination of this fraudulent campaign (which was raising funds for family violence/rape/ agencies, no less!)  did the truth emerge. When pressed, Dr. Hillary Haines (later Lapsley) lesbian psychologist and deputy director of the Mental Health Foundation which had supplied the bogus figures,  brazenly admitted “of course they are only guessing with those figures, but in a sense it doesn’t really matter. The main point is that they shock! (3)

That astonishing admission of such breathtaking trickery was far from being the end of the matter however. Less than a year later, on 20^th April 1989, Kim McGregor, repesenting the HELP sex abuse centre, was repeating that lie on Newstalk ZB’s Bob McNeil midday radio talkback programme. When I phoned in to challenge this I was viciously slated, and accused of not caring about child abuse!

Over the years repetition of that lie has continued, clearly to exaggerate the need for sex abuse agency services, and invariably with any attempts to challenge it being suppressed. The latest example was by Wellington Rape Crisis manager Eleanor Butterworth at the recent enquiry into sexual violence services in NZ. (4) Yet my letter to the editor the same day, and quoting that scandalous admission of “guesstimates” has not been published.

To me the most devious and persistent perpetrator of that infamous falsehood is (now Dr.) Kim McGregor, now of the Rape Crisis-linked Rape Prevention Education (RPE) group – a misnomer if ever there was one, according to the warped ideological thinking of the rape lobby – see below. Just a glance at the RPE website demonstrates how blatantly and persistently – indeed even desperately – this lie gets constantly repeated.

In recent years that website has featured former Prime Minister Helen Clark, and later, Prime Minister John Key,  supporting that infamous lie, and even, at times, with this falsehood prefaced with the headline  “DID U KNOW” etc.Then, at the recent April 2^nd Auckland session of the sexual violence services enquiry, McGregor was heard  in numerous Radio NZ news reports, clamouring for  huge funding increases.

 As ideologically driven lobbyists, they are clearly in pursuit of greater power and influence. They have infiltrated schools and other areas of the community  and helped marginalise church-based helping agencies, yet claim to be overworked. Ms Bennett, I  contend that many of these lobbyists are simply vying to justify their existence, and that there should be a major re-evaluation of the present social services system  in this regard.

Behind their de-goodism bleats lie a warped and nonsensical belief system : that only women are victims of domestic violence, never men, and that  women are never violent, only  men; that a woman/girl  never, ever lies about domestic violence or rape/sex abuse, thus at times  leading to false allegations and gross injustices to accused men (to say nothing of likely ACC payouts to their accusers!); that regardless of the circumstances and the reality of any particular situation, a woman’s behaviour or state of dress (or even undress?) can never, ever be considered a contributing factor in a rape case.

Yet that kind of warped thinking influences the “counselling” and “therapy” of hugely Government-funded agencies. Now we learn that ACC is to double its budget for “sensitive claims” (sexual abuse or rape cases) at the end of 2014! (5)

With respect, Ms Bennett, I suggest to you that it is sheer confidence trickery for such lobbyists to claim their goal to be the prevention of rape/sex abuse. Surely, more likely,  the encouragement  of it, in order to  justify their very existence!

Such a scandalous situation  calls for an urgent enquiry. Also for a closer look at what is possible and available in the way of such social services from pro-family, church-based ones, as well as more funding for them as appropriate.

I await your reply in due course.

Sincerely,

(Barbara Faithfull) B.A. (Psych.Anthr.)

References

1. “Radical Feminism and the NZ Political Scene” in The Republican, July 1979.
2. Under “Evaluation and Conclusion”, Chapter 13, of He Said He Loved Me Really, by Bronwyn Banks, Jenny Ruth and Joy Florence, (Auckland 1979)
3. In “Statistics : The Facts”, Auckland Sun (now defunct) 18^th June 1988, page 27.
4. “It means getting your head around the fact [sic] that 1 in 4 women and 1 in 8 men have experienced sexual violence in their  lifetime” etc. In “Sexual Violence Enquiry Reveals Gaps in Services and Funding Shortfall”. NZ Herald 8^th April 2014.
5. As above, NZ Herald 8^th April 2014.