Domestic and Family Violence Prevention

Ms HUTCHESSON (Waite) (14:45): My question is to the Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence. How is the government supporting women experiencing violence in regional communities?

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD (Reynell—Minister for Child Protection, Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:45): Thank you to the member for this really important question and for her steadfast commitment to helping prevent the horrific prevalence of violence against women, a prevalence that our government is utterly determined to tackle.

We want support services for women experiencing domestic, family or sexual violence to be local, accessible and relevant. That is why we are really proud to be bolstering staff in the 10 regional safety hubs across the state. With support through the federal government's initiative of 500 additional frontline support workers across Australia, we have secured our state share and we are working diligently to ensure this additional resource is benefiting communities everywhere.

A further allocation to all 10 regional safety hubs sees each hub now employing a full-time staff member to help women access information, local connections and early support should they experience domestic, family or sexual violence. As I have previously spoken about, prior to coming to government, sadly, these hubs had no paid staff members allocated to them.

The safety hubs offer a free service that is open to local people, including those who are concerned for friends, colleagues or relatives. Often co-located within other easily accessible public facilities such as community centres, service provider organisations or libraries, the hubs are designed to be safe and welcoming spaces that break down any stigma women may face when seeking support with an experience of domestic, family or sexual violence.

Just last week, during our country cabinet, I was really pleased to visit the Women's Wellbeing and Safety Centre in Port Lincoln, operated by Yarredi Services, which provides an extraordinarily valuable safe space for women and their children to access early support. I am really pleased that through the additional FTE allocation for Port Lincoln, service availability through the hub and through the Port Lincoln Domestic and Aboriginal Family Violence Service can be extended to more women and children on Lower Eyre Peninsula.

It was particularly pleasing to see the therapeutic play space created here for children, staffed by the remarkable Yarredi children's workers, who are undertaking groundbreaking play space work that helps to break the intergenerational trauma and cycles associated with violence.

As well as seeing benefits in Port Lincoln, with half of our state's additional frontline workers set to support regional and remote communities, each of our safety hubs, as well as local services, will have increased capacity to ensure they are meeting the needs of women experiencing violence through services based where they live.

I can further advise that, amongst other new workers employed through our state's rollout of the additional frontline workers, there are two new workers employed in our southern domestic violence prevention and recovery hub, The Yellow Gate, as well as additional staff to support programs such as MAPS and the Women's Safety Contact Program run by the incredible people at Women's Safety Services.

I thank the excellent workers in Port Lincoln and across our regions, who provide such a welcoming and supportive environment for women as they traverse the horror of violence. Their work and the way in which they undertake it is kind, compassionate and always unfailingly focused on empowering women at their hardest moments.