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    Snowqueens IceramenJoanna Rothkopf
    11/11/15 7:24pm

    Real talk: NZ has a serious problem with rape and sexual assault. It’s deeply entrenched and I have no clue on what to do about it because it can’t even be spoken about without being silenced, like the women mentioned here.

    When I was raped at fifteen and taken to the police station by my mother (who refused to let me shower or change clothes because she was certain they would at least try to do something about it) I was told by the police officer interviewing me that the chances of catching the men responsible was unlikely and that it would just cause me stress trying to take it any further. He said that to me after he turned off the recording tape for my statement. I left that day knowing I would never speak to the police should it ever happen to me again.

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      BlueNunSnowqueens Iceramen
      11/11/15 7:39pm

      I’m sorry that happened to you and that you were then let down by people who were supposed to help. Your story and this news story makes my stomach turn.

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      KatmanduSnowqueens Iceramen
      11/11/15 7:42pm

      New Zealand also had that Boys Rape Club that actually had a Facebook page. It was a bunch of reporters who busted the story wide open because the police were complicit in covering up gang raping underage teen girls who were incapacitated by alcohol. The boys would then post the girls names online, slut shaming them.

      Jezebel reported on the story at the time.

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    JujyMonkey: Clever tagline goes hereJoanna Rothkopf
    11/11/15 7:20pm

    So this guy is Australia’s Donald Trump?

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      ladyspiderwebJujyMonkey: Clever tagline goes here
      11/11/15 7:23pm

      I came here to say that but you beat me to it!

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      Whimsical FartsJujyMonkey: Clever tagline goes here
      11/11/15 7:27pm

      I’m not sure if I’m more offended by the Donald Trump remark or the Australia remark. Thinking about it some more, definitely the latter.

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    Rando CalrissianJoanna Rothkopf
    11/11/15 7:15pm

    Read it on the Guardian this morning and I was like...

    GIF
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      meowshittybrowncowRando Calrissian
      11/11/15 7:22pm

      jealous of her weave tho

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      Vkn1981meowshittybrowncow
      11/11/15 8:00pm

      I remember when Xmen3 came out, all my female friends got their hair dyed red and extensions lol

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    germankiwigalJoanna Rothkopf
    11/11/15 7:21pm

    Ugh, John Key is soooooo terrible whyyyyyy did people vote for him, three bloody times in a row, when he was already so terrible the first time he got into office, whyyyyy?!

    Sigh, I miss Helen Clark.

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      Whimsical Fartsgermankiwigal
      11/11/15 7:46pm

      Don’t blame me, I voted Green!

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      Snowqueens Iceramengermankiwigal
      11/11/15 7:56pm

      Yes! An Aunty Helen comeback I can get behind!

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    Woundup_PenguinJoanna Rothkopf
    11/11/15 7:21pm

    I’m from Canada and New Zealand so it’s been a weird couple of weeks for me between celebrating Trudeau and the unending horrible headlines from NZ. But, like, we won the Rugby World Cup so who cares about institutional misogyny?

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      Charmed212xWoundup_Penguin
      11/11/15 7:40pm

      I would say there have also been some horrible headlines out of Canada. Yesterday a Federal Court Canadian Judge said one of the most vile things i have ever heard. He asked a homeless rape victim, “why dont you just keep your knees together” and “why she allowed the sex to happen if she didn’t want it”. The World needs to do better.

      http://nypost.com/2015/11/11/jud...

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      Woundup_PenguinCharmed212x
      11/11/15 8:07pm

      Oh definitely - both countries are fucked up in very similar ways. It was more the direct comparison between the two PMs. Canada is super racist and sexist - I’ve been pretty surprised by the shit people have said since I moved back a few years ago.

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    acornJoanna Rothkopf
    11/11/15 7:24pm

    Seems about par for the course. It’s easy to act outraged over the idea of rape and sexual assault/abuse, but when confronted with actual victims and people who have and are dealing with the fallout of such violence, nope, can’t handle it. Best shut them up.

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      Snowqueens Iceramenacorn
      11/11/15 7:55pm

      As an NZ victim of rape, I am so grateful for those women for standing up and making noise about it. I don't think I could be that strong in the face of complete disinterest by the speaker.

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      Obfuscatio: philosopher at largeacorn
      11/11/15 10:44pm

      Sexual assault is horrible. That they are victims is not why the Speaker tossed them out of the chamber. He did so because he believed they were bending the rules about parliamentary points of privilege.

      Per the article: “... [speaker David Carter] ordered them to stop, saying they were “flouting the rules” by claiming to make points of order.

      Despite the warning, the women continued to speak until Carter had them removed from the House.”

      And: “Carter now says he hadn’t heard Key’s comments when he ordered the women to leave.”

      I have no idea why he didn’t hear the comments, given that he’s Speaker of the House, but there you have it.

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    alconleighJoanna Rothkopf
    11/11/15 7:20pm

    OK obviously fuck all of this but also wow, New Zealand has more than one Green MP? Canada can has??

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      PumpkinSpiesalconleigh
      11/11/15 7:28pm

      NZ’s parliament is incredibly diverse. They have like 57 political parties. As an American, I’m jealous. Not of the misogyny and dudebros tho. They’re apparently everywhere.

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      Whimsical Fartsalconleigh
      11/11/15 7:37pm

      There’s definitely 1 or 2 of the crazier ones that Canada may take off our hands :D

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    stateoflimboJoanna Rothkopf
    11/11/15 9:27pm

    My sister and her best friend are going to ‘woof’ in NZ in January...should I be worrying about her? I mean I had some realistic worries before about single women traveling, ( :( :( ) but...?!

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      Zeetalstateoflimbo
      11/12/15 10:55am

      Overall, it’s a pretty safe place. Just like traveling anywhere, you have to be aware o what you are doing. But most WWoOFing is very safe. As they’ll be traveling together, that’ll help, too.

      I lived, and am returning to live permanently, in NZ. I’ve traveled alone as well as with other women as well as with my husband and kid. It’s usually very safe.

      Most of the rape/sexual assault happens within relationships — domestic violence is also a huge problem there, as is child abuse/molestation. But, it usually happens “behind closed doors.” Like most places, “stranger rape” is fairly rare.

      Culturally, people don’t want to deal with “behind closed doors” things in NZ, which is partly why this is such a huge problem in NZ. There are lots of people working to change things culturally so that this doesn’t happen.

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      stateoflimboZeetal
      11/12/15 12:27pm

      Thank you for your reply! I don’t know much about NZ, except that it looks very beautiful. I’m glad to hear that people are working to change the ‘behind closed doors’ attitude, that sucks everywhere you go. My biggest hang up was that she is going for 4 months and will be far away. That makes supporting her in times of trouble/need hard. But honestly overall I think she will have a great time and come back with some amazing experiences I’ll be ‘hella jelly’ over.

      Good luck to you on your move!

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    jmofatJoanna Rothkopf
    11/11/15 9:22pm

    I’m confused. The quotes sound like the PM is for detaining the sexual offenders, but the women are offended by his statement? Is there a missing quote?

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      sukatrajmofat
      11/11/15 10:43pm

      I had a really hard time figuring out what was going on also. I finally went to the guardian site and it looks like this is what is going on:

      1. australia is deporting a bunch of people, including native new Zealanders who have been living in australia but who have been convicted of crimes with sentences of over 1 year. They’re being detained at a place called Christmas Island, and I guess they’re currently in limbo - not yet deported from Australia but it looks like that’s going to happen.

      2. Members of the labour party were raising concerns about these people being indefinitely detained.

      3. when they raised those concerns, the prime minister got all hot and bothered and likened all the detainees to murderers, rapists and child molesters, and then said if the labour party wants to back the rapists then fine; meanwhile, we (his party) will back the people of new Zealand.

      4. Problem was, there were several female members of the labour party who were victims of sexual assault, so his comment really pissed them off. They demanded an apology, other members of parliament (from the other party) got all pissy with the women about not following parliamentary procedure, and kicked them out.

      I am happy to be corrected by anyone here if I’ve gotten this wrong. I have to say it was disturbing to me how hard it was to understand what was going on, even after reading the guardian article, because (and I’m being dead serious here) I’m 53 and I feel like my mental faculties are declining. The amount of shit out there that confuses the fuck out of me these days is freaking me out, especially since both parents are/were Alzheimer’s patients.

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      watusukatra
      11/12/15 12:06am

      You’ve pretty much got it.

      The background is that for generations it’s been very easy for Kiwis to move to Australia, and thousands have done so -a large portion of which are working class people attracted by better opportunities in Australia.

      Lots of Kiwis in Australia have lived there for a very long time and/or only really known Australia as their home.

      Some of these people have made bad life decisions and got into trouble with the law in Australia.

      Some of them don’t even have travel documents etc because they haven’t needed them for so many years - another excuse to lock them up.

      Australia then enacted this new law that sees anyone who’d served a >1 year sentence, deported.

      The law -or at least the vote winning“keep Straya safe” strategy designed to keep the population scared -also seems to catch people deemed undesirable even without conviction. There is an Afghanistan conflict veteran currently detained in Western Australia, a man who according to his wife was ironically assigned to security detail of this current “you guys support rapists” PM, John Key, when he visited the troops. His unproven “crime” is simply being accused of being a member of a bikey gang. That’s been enough to have him uprooted from the life he was creating in Australia. (although if it’s true then yeah he’s a bit of a fuckwit, eh?)

      Anyway, the uproar here in NZ is that all of a sudden Kiwis aren’t being given special treatment anymore, and that it’s a bit socially and morally irresponsible for people who’ve known no other home to suddenly be sent back to a place that isn’t their home anymore (In NZ, a heavily immigrant nation, on the whole it can take a lot to have someone deported who has been here a long time or has many connections here). Also that rather than some sort of more humane process, the Australians are incarcerating these deportees (on an island thousands of KM away from their families in Australia) as part of the process of sending them home, rather than some sort of more humane procedure for people who’ve actually served their time. It’s just rapid right wing fear-mongering way to behave that rubs many on the NZ left, the wrong way, and when we wanted our PM to at least say something in protest to the Aussies, he decided to be a coward and display faux sympathy and waffle on about Australian sovereignty (as if we were asking him to send an invading rescue party to Christmas Island).

      Plenty people here in NZ like it though - they love the idea of punishing criminals for the rest of their lives, rather than trying to help make them part of society again. Seems to be a particularly right-ish trait.

      Anyway, it’s all very ironic seeing as though you’d think Australia of all countries wouldn’t think a bunch of convicts couldn’t amount to anything.

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    TheKidnapperJoanna Rothkopf
    11/11/15 7:23pm

    Good to know comparably shitty politics exist in Middle Earth too.

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      mindon mymoneyTheKidnapper
      11/11/15 7:45pm

      It was pretty turbulent in the books.

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