Southern Women Matter

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (15:35): I rise today to speak about an extraordinary campaign being led by a group of remarkable women and many others who support them, including me. I have just had the pleasure of joining this group, Southern Women Matter, who have been tirelessly campaigning for a very much needed southern domestic violence prevention hub.

Today, these outstanding leaders brought their campaign to the steps of our parliament and they brought with them a petition signed by 3,320 other southern community members who wholeheartedly echo their determination to secure a domestic violence prevention hub in the south. I was honoured to table this petition in this house with many of these campaigners present, including City of Onkaparinga Mayor Erin Thompson, members of the Southern Domestic Violence Action Group, support organisations, representatives of local church groups and other community groups and individuals, and fellow southern MPs the member for Kaurna and the member for Hurtle Vale.

For more than 18 months, this group has been campaigning for a properly funded prevention hub, and campaign we must. The horrendous rate of domestic violence continues to rise in South Australia, with more than 1,000 additional offences reported in the past year. Despite the City of Onkaparinga region being the largest council area in South Australia, there are no prevention services within it to support women experiencing domestic violence.

Women at risk of violence need the earliest possible access to therapy, counselling and other services to keep them safe. They need preventative services and community education as well as clear pathways into appropriate services. The lack of appropriate prevention services to support women in the south experiencing domestic violence is appalling and every single one of us is sick and tired of scrambling around to find somewhere to send women when they most need support before they are harmed.

The horrific statistics about the prevalence of domestic violence persist. These statistics represent women and their children who are struggling, frightened and at risk in homes across our southern streets. We do not ever want to mourn another woman or child or hear of any woman being subject to control or emotional, psychological, financial or physical abuse, or fear or intimidation.

The human services minister's comments during estimates last year, that there is no ongoing funding for DV prevention hubs, are just not good enough. When members of the Southern Women Matter group wrote to the minister calling on her to fund the southern hub, they were sent a list of phone numbers for telephone and other services, some of which no longer exist.

These women deserve better. Women and children experiencing violence deserve better. Southern women matter and the government must listen to them and heed their call for a domestic violence prevention hub to provide a first point of contact and sustained support through a woman's journey to safety and recovery. This hub should be a place of collaboration, with local community members and organisations working together to raise awareness about and prevent domestic violence. It needs specialised workers providing community awareness, case management, trauma and PTSD counselling and therapy, and referral to appropriate health, community and legal support and to those incredible workers who work in acute crisis services.

Again, I thank all who joined me on the steps today in the rain, in the cold, to support other women and to agitate for those experiencing domestic violence to get the support they desperately need. I assure the Marshall Liberal government that these are determined southern women, and they will relentlessly raise their voices and will not stop doing so until their very reasonable demands are met. These campaigners are strong, resilient and compassionate. They are prepared to be a voice for those women who are not heard and most need to be. They will keep being that voice until it is heard, until the southern hub is funded.

I thank them for their leadership and passion to raise awareness about the horrific scourge of domestic violence and to take relentless action to prevent and end it for as long as it takes to ensure that every woman feels safe and is safe wherever she chooses to be, including in her home. We know that the earliest possible prevention and intervention are crucial if we are to achieve this, and we know that women deserve better and that southern women absolutely matter.

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