Sexual violence services warn good character ban not enough without funding

Christopher Luxon speaks to media following his speech at the National Party regional conference. Video / NZ Herald

Advocates for sexual violence victims want urgent, bipartisan support to remove “good character” defences in sentencing, plus more support to prevent offending.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the National Party would ban judges from taking good character references into account when sentencing sex offenders.

“No sexual offender is a person of good character. Period,” Luxon said.

National would take the victim-focused policy to the 2026 election, he said.

But a spokesman from Te Ohaakii ā Hine – National Network Ending Sexual Violence Together said the policy should be progressed now instead of being an election issue.

Russell Smith is from the Korowai Tumanako service, which worked in Northland and Auckland with people who had committed harmful sexual behaviour and their victims.

Korowai Tumanako was one of more than 40 specialist sexual violence support and prevention organisations represented by the network, which he helped govern.

Smith agreed with Luxon that no person who committed sexual violence was of good character, with many perpetrators using kindness as a window of trust.

“Often persons use ‘good character’ as a mechanism of harm on the victims that they perpetrate against,” he said.

“Part of the grooming behaviour is ‘good character’, which is sad really.”

Smith said removing good character defence was low-hanging fruit for any Government and it should gain bipartisan support to be progressed now.

Russell Smith, from service Korowai Tumanako and organisation Te Ohaakii ā Hine – National Network Ending Sexual Violence Together, says the Government needs to do more to prevent sexual harm, instead of cutting services.

But he said longer prison sentences, on their own, did not cause behaviour change in offenders and incarceration was not the sole solution to sexual violence.

Perpetrators having specialised therapeutic treatment was the key driver of behaviour change and needed to be properly resourced nationwide, Smith said.

Not every offender met Corrections’ criteria to have this therapy, meaning some had no rehabilitation in prison, he said.

Victims also needed more support, including fully funded treatment, Smith said.

But he also raised concern that intervention and education programmes – which helped stop sexual violence from happening in the first place – were losing Government funding.

Smith gave the example of Wellington-based RespectEd, which will run out of Government funding in August, and funding cuts to the ACC’s healthy relationships programmes in schools.

Labour’s Ginny Andersen says National wants to get tough on sexual violence offenders but is cutting frontline services. Photo / NZME

“They are cutting the heart out of prevention.”

Prevention was better than tough sentences because it stopped victims being harmed – a harm that cost the country more than $6 billion a year, Smith said.

That sentiment was reflected by Labour’s Ginny Andersen, who said National’s announcement to get tough on sexual violence offenders seemed to conflict with cuts to frontline services.

“It seems this Government cut a number of frontline services that provide very important support to prevent both family and sexual violence ... I think what victims within our community want to see is frontline services that deliver real support.”

Andersen said Labour wanted to see more detail about removing the good character defence before it gave its support, as judges already had to weigh if references were relevant.

Denise Piper is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on health and business. She has more than 20 years in journalism and is passionate about covering stories that make a difference.