National Network of Stopping Violence Services
In an Oct-Nov 99 MENZ Issues article: ‘Men’s Leadership Gathering Report‘, we discussed the conflict at the NNSVS 1999 AGM. Two agencies were expelled from the organisation and three suspended, in a strategic move which prevented them speaking out at the meeting. This move could result in these agencies becoming ineligible to receive Justice Dept contracts, so the livelihoods of the workers affected are being directly threatened. These heavy-handed tactics send a powerful message to any other members who may be thinking of straying from the one true (radical feminist) path. This is a classic example of power and control being exercised using fear of punishment.
After the article above was published, a number of agencies contacted us to express their concerns about the administration of this organisation. The demands of Political Correctness in the domestic violence industry mean that every one of our informants are afraid to speak “on the record.” However, we were able to obtain several documents relating to the meeting, including a set of ‘unofficial minutes’, which detail the behind-the-scenes manipulation of the democratic process.
Photo: Paul Prestige, Executive Officer of the National Network of Stopping Violence Services hands out an anti- fathers’ group flier claiming to be Truth about Men’s Rights Groups at a September 2001 Union of Fathers demonstration in Cuba Mall.
The same flier was distributed at the 2001 Father & Child Trust Social Policy Forum by members of the Coalition for Safe Families and Rape Crisis. It insists: "It is incontestable, however that the large majority of adult victims of serious domestic violence have been women and their abusers have been men."
In July 2002 we learned that Paul Prestidge is now employed as the National Coordinator, Community Organisations Grants Scheme, at the Department of Internal Affairs.
As this is New Zealand’s main funding agency for voluntary organisations, it does not bode well for the future financial support of fathers’ support groups.
