Question Time

Domestic and Family Violence

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:08): Happy birthday to the member for King on St Andrew's Day—the patron saint of Scotland, of course. My question is to the Premier. Does the Premier support a royal commission into domestic and family violence?

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:08): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. As I have enunciated in the media over the course of the last few days—I think I first said it on the weekend and then earlier this morning on ABC radio and, more recently, at a press conference we have just had—the government is keen to work with this sector that represents the interests in and around domestic violence and other key agencies to establish a path forward about how we can best respond to the extraordinary incidents that we saw in recent weeks.

We have a meeting, a round table, with the sector on 13 December along with the minister responsible for issues associated with domestic violence. We will have that meeting on 13 December and thoughtfully go through a range of options, and naturally there will be a discussion around a royal commission.

As a government, making a judgement around a royal commission is something that we want to think through carefully and make sure it's done properly. We can't make a judgement of this significance in haste, but we don't rule it out either. But we certainly want to be satisfied that if there was going to be a royal commission that it would serve a purpose that can't otherwise be met without a royal commission and the delay that that would necessarily bring.

We are conscious also of the fact that there have been other inquiries that have occurred around the country in regard to domestic violence, including a royal commission in Victoria that came up with over 200 recommendations in their own right. In Queensland there wasn't a royal commission, but there was a substantial task force that was undertaken that provides a number of recommendations that we can look at as well. So these are various things we will consider.

Notwithstanding all of those possibilities that arise out of those recommendations, there has been a significant suite of actions that this government has already taken and continues to take to respond to the concern of domestic violence.

Domestic violence as a challenge within our community did not start in the last fortnight. This has been here for all too long, and as the alternate government we thoughtfully developed a suite of actions, a number of policies, to confront domestic violence that we are progressively rolling out.

If I was to highlight one, which I know is very close to the minister's heart and one she has been working on rather assiduously over the course of at least the last 12 months, it is regarding the introduction of nation-leading legislation with respect to coercive control. Coercive control is an insidious form of domestic violence that has otherwise not been outlawed. We see there being the capacity for South Australia to yet again provide a position of leadership in substantial progressive legislative reform through the establishment of the criminalisation of coercive control.

There is a discussion paper that is out in the public at the moment. We always made clear that it was our intention to introduce legislation in the first half of next year. We are on track to realise this. It being the first legislation of its type in the country, it does mean that it takes time because it means we can't pick up an existing bill and just replicate it here in South Australia.

So it has to be done with the active engagement with the sector and active engagement with law enforcement agencies because we don't want to criminalise an act without the law being able to be enforced. We thank SAPOL and other agencies for engaging in that process, and we look forward to that legislation being introduced at the beginning of next year on top of the other measures that I have run out of time to talk about.