Why Tika?

AM: I love a good origin story, and my favourite one about Tika is that you came up with the concept while watching the Oscar-winning movie Spotlight! True or false?

ZL: Not exactly true, but it's a great story (laughs). I did find it really inspiring – the fact that a bunch of journalists and lawyers were able piece together decades of harm caused by predatory priests in Boston, by noticing patterns in the parish and court documents. They had to identify who the serial perpetrators were, to be able to piece it all together.

AM: And now we have a secure platform here in Aotearoa that does the same thing, but with AI algorithms..

ZL: The technology will definitely make the process easier.

AM: Two and half years in, how are you feeling now that Tika's going live?

ZL: I'm really excited. It's been a long road. And I'm proud that so many people I admire have shown such faith in this project – especially because it's a world-first.

AM: I think there are smart people everywhere who're looking for systems change when it comes to sexual harm, not just tinkering around the edges. We can't go on accepting New Zealand having the worst statistics of any OECD country for domestic and sexual violence.

ZL: I remember you and I having coffee together in 2023 and just feeling so disappointed that the reporting rates for sexual harm were still stuck below ten per cent.. and had been for a decade! Amazing to think Tika has come out of that conversation and is now a real option for survivors.

AM: Same. Tika is based on the idea of collective action. What's the best way to explain why that's the game-changer?

ZL: We know that most perpetrators have harmed more than one person – sometimes, they've created chains of harm that go on for decades, especially if they've never been held accountable. You've seen that in your journalism with the #metooNZ project, and I've seen it many times as a lawyer supporting survivors. But the way the justice system is set up, it's usually one person making a complaint against one person. It's why only around 1 per cent of sexual assaults end in a conviction.

If you can find the perpetrators who have harmed multiple people, and bring those survivors together to seek justice as a group, you're more likely to have better evidence, which should lead to more cases being taken forward, more early guilty pleas, more convictions – and in the end, less sexual harm in this country because of the deterrent effect. Not to mention, survivors will know they're not alone, and that can be a huge burden off their shoulders.

AM: That bit about feeling alone – that's a key thing, right? A big reason why people tend not to report what's happened to them is that they think they're the only one – and they feel alone and isolated. And there are other barriers of course, shame and self-blame is a big one. It's never the survivor's fault but from my own experiences I know how easy it is to blame yourself. Once you know the perpetrator had a pattern and that there are others – well, I know that sense of community can be life-changing.

ZL: I think one of the most important things about this new system is the way it leaves the decisions, always, in the hands of the survivors who become Tika clients. It gives them agency. And for a lot of people, that's what they feel has been stripped away from them when they're assaulted or harassed. Once you register as a client, you have the chance to find out whether anyone else has named the same person.

AM: And you don't have to do it publicly, it's a secure and private system.

ZL: Right, and you get immediate lawyer client privilege too. If the system finds connections between you and at least two others, you then get a lawyer who will – for free – explain your options, and you get to choose as a group.

AM: Yep, that's one of the things I like most about Tika. The fact that there's not just the option of laying a criminal complaint as a group – your group might not feel that it wants to see the perpetrator go to jail. Everyone's needs are different, right? So the fact that there are other pathways available like a civil claim or restorative justice, that's a really great feature.

AM: What's been the most challenging thing for you in the past two years?

ZL: With this being such a unique concept, there's been a lot to work out just in terms of the legal set-up. We're really lucky to have support from big law firms like Dentons and Hudson Gavin Martin, their pro-bono help has been fantastic.

AM: I agree. And also having Deloitte handle all our financial strategy and reporting. Colenso BBDO doing the marketing. Those big corporates give donors confidence when it comes to giving money to something so new and revolutionary. Actually, that's been the hardest thing for me – getting used to asking for money. I really wasn't any kind of fundraising specialist but I'm getting better at it, I think!

It helps that we know that people tend to give to causes that they feel a personal connection to, and when you think about the fact that more than 900,000 New Zealanders have been directly affected by sexual harm, that's a lot of people with a personal connection. I hope they all hear about Tika and feel they can join this movement, help fund it, and make it unstoppable.