The government’s come up with half a million dollars to provide housing for those who commit family violence.

Yes, you did hear right.

Half a million dollars to house those who commit family violence; those who beat up their partners or have been removed from their family home. Many of those homes, as we know, house children too.

Now before you get hot under the collar on this, let me just give you some more information.

So it’s going to be trialed over two years in Christchurch and Waikato. And here's why.

At the moment, when a court order bans an offender from the family home because they've committed acts of violence, many of those offenders have nowhere to go. And so this money is being set aside to give offenders somewhere to live in the meantime.

The idea behind this, according to the Social Development Minister Anne Tolley, is that it will prevent more acts of violence. The minister says when an offender is banned from their family home, often they have nowhere to go so they sleep in a car or on someone's couch, and that creates more tension. And then what happens?

In some cases, the situation escalates. The offender will become angrier, and that anger often spills over and they go back to the family home where they’ll commit more violence potentially against the household.

The Minister of Justice, Amy Adams, says the scheme is a vital cog in helping to end a vicious cycle.

I'm not sure it ends a vicious cycle. The viciousness is still there, it's just in another house.

But what it does potentially do is protect children and largely women against more acts of violence.

And so to that end, is it money will spent?

Half a million dollars to provide violent offenders with accommodation when a court order bans them from returning home?

It's a bit of a tough one to get your head around isn't it. Unless you can put yourselves in the position of the victims. Those who live in fear, those who've been threatened or beaten up, or watched their home being ripped apart. Then, I think, it makes sense.

If it proves successful in this two year trial, if things go well in Christchurch and the Waikato, then the program will be rolled out nationwide.

Can you see merit in this?