NEW ZEALAND CULTURE OF ABUSE EXPOSED.

Mike King Workplace Bullying Project Be Intent National Workplace Bullying Coalition Hon Melissa LEE Hon Judith Collins KC MP Workplace Bullying Institute Business Leaders' Health and Safety Forum MediaPA WorkSafe New Zealand Young Workers Resource Centre

The article:

"The Impacts Of Repressive Culture In New Zealand"

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK2007/S00537/the-impacts-of-repressive-culture-in-new-zealand.htm#:~:text=For%20many%20years%2C%20New%20Zealand,physically%20assaulted%20by%20their%20partners .

New Zealand is 2nd worst in the developed world for schoolyard bullying (1 in 4) and also 2nd worst for workplace bullying with 1 in 5 bullied.

As New Zealand's leading anti workplace bullying advocate/activist, trying to expose the insidious workplace bullying issue by speaking out publicly and lobbying politicians, I have been denied the right to free speech and have been attacked by corporate lawyers representing state funded organisations and some from within the employment relations judicial system.

Our politicians and mainstream media remain silent, despite my company CultureSafe NZ Ltd being liquidated and many attempts made to bankrupt me personally.

One should never damage the wholesome imagine New Zealand has successfully managed to portray abroad.

An opinion piece by Rafael Delerue that was published on Monday, 27 July 2020, says it all - link above and extract below:

"In a survey conducted in 2016 by New Zealand Health it was estimated that 17% of New Zealand adults suffer some emotional disorder, including depression, bipolarity or anxiety [2]. Another study published in 2009 states that 50% of adults have already suffered from anxiety [3]. Even the economy is affected: more than 4% of the country’s annual budget is used to mitigate these health conditions. But perhaps the most shocking finding is that, among OECD countries, New Zealand is leading the youth suicide rate by far [4]. Young Kiwis kill themselves twice as often when compared to Americans, and five times as often when compared to Britons.

According to Shaun Robinson, chief executive of the NZ Mental Health Foundation, New Zealand is one of the worst countries in the world when it comes to school bullying. Within the OECD it is the second-worst [5]. As stated by the Education Review Office report, led by Dr. Deirdre Shaw and published in 2019, almost half of school students and teenagers reported being bullied in the past month [6]. And school bullying, incredible as it may seem, comes not only from students but also from teachers: 39% of Kiwi students said that teachers ridiculed them in front of others a few times a year, more than any other OECD country, with the exception of Great Britain [7].

People who are bullied are more susceptible to anxiety, low self-esteem, loneliness, depression, difficulty and disinterest in school (including dropping out), in addition to distrusting peers, having problems making friends and poor mental health in general [8]. Despite knowing the consequences of bullying, New Zealand has failed to mitigate the problem. According to research by the Adolescent Health Research Group at Auckland University, since 2001 bullying rates have basically not changed, except for cyber-bullying, which has been increasing. Deirdre Shaw notes that this is not a problem limited to schools:

In 2015, Prime Minister John Key was accused of harassing a waitress by tugging her ponytail many times over several months, in most cases without her seeing him, and then accusing, with a supposed sense of humour, his wife. When the waitress got tired of the abuses and decided to expose the story to the public, journalists asked the Prime Minister to explain the story, which he said it was just a joke and that he had already apologized to her with two bottles of wine [9]. It is difficult to count how many layers of horror there are in his behavior.

It seems normalized here this kind of humour with a provocative bias, although it is often expressed between the lines. This behavior is also not limited to the school environment, but also to universities, offices and small communities. As usual, the bully makes use of a privileged position to oppress those who are most vulnerable, whether women, immigrants, people in lower social class, low in the hierarchy of the company, etc. “Furthermore, [in New Zealand] there is a toxic mix of family violence, child abuse, racism, culture disconnect, isolation and a sense of non-belonging,” explains Shaun Robinson. According to Prudence Stone, from UNICEF New Zealand, there is a strong culture in this country for men to become these tough beer-drinking hard men. In the article The Lies We Tell Ourselves About The Sexual Abuse Of Boys, published in 2020, Emily Writes says that in New Zealand men are forced to hide their emotions and never show weakness [10].

This behaviour not only suppresses emotions but also creates a favourable scenario for abuse and barriers when it is necessary to ask for help. According to mental health expert Mike King, 80% of high school students who have had suicidal thoughts have never asked for help because they are worried about what other people will think, say or do if they share that information [11]. King, who has also tried to commit suicide, says the last thing he wanted to do was call someone or talk to a doctor. “I wanted a friend to walk into my room and tell me they love me, that I mean something in their life,” he reveals.

The PISA 2018 report (which evaluates the education quality around the world) says that school dropout rates have also worsened in New Zealand, and adds [12]:

Etc, etc,