Tariana Turia

Wellington, Dec 15 NZPA - The Government confirmed today it was continuing to fund the `it's not ok' campaign against family violence and said there would be added emphasis over Christmas when financial stress increased tensions in families.

In Parliament, Labour's deputy leader Annette King questioned Social Development Minister Paula Bennett about the campaign, asking whether it was going to be stopped in June next year and replaced with a campaign aimed at Maori whanau only.

Ms Bennett replied that victims were disproportionately Maori.

"If the victims are disproportionately Maori, shouldn't the solution be as well," she said.

That led Ms King to issue a statement saying Ms Bennett had appeared to confirm funding was going to be axed, but that was contradicted by Associate Social Development Minister Tariana Turia, who heads the ministerial committee on family violence.

"I want to assure the public that the `it's not ok' campaign is continuing," Mrs Turia said.

"In fact there will be added emphasis over Christmas, as we all know that this is a time when financial stress exacerbates existing tensions in families."

She said the Government wanted to move beyond a public relations campaign and focus on "practical actions" families could take to keep each other safe.

Ms King said in Parliament 33 women had been killed through family violence so far this year, double last year's figures.

"Why are these statistics being withheld from the public by the Government?" she asked.

Mrs Turia accused her of political point-scoring around family violence and playing with statistics.

"The latest family violence statistics released by the police for 2008/09 show of the 54 homicide offences classed as murders, 23 were recorded as family violence murders," she said.