Ministerial Statement

Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Report

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (16:15): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Mr Speaker, today the South Australian government released the report of South Australia's historic Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence, entitled 'With courage: South Australia's vision beyond violence'.

The South Australian government established the royal commission after the murder of four women in South Australia in one week in November 2023, horrifying the community and domestic family and sexual violence experts and advocates alike.

Natasha Stott Despoja was appointed as the royal commissioner commencing on 1 July last year. In completing her inquiry, she has undertaken extensive consultation, including 10 days of public hearings, over 380 written submissions, receipt of 1,147 Share With Us responses and 173 listening sessions. The royal commission's work has been guided by both an advisory group and an Aboriginal partnership committee, deliberately and purposefully seeking to understand lived and living experience of those impacted by domestic, family and sexual violence.

The royal commission has made 136 comprehensive and wide-reaching recommendations which provide a road map towards generational reform in South Australia, structured around key themes, including:

structural reform focused on creating a cohesive and effective system;

increasing the awareness and visibility of domestic, family and sexual violence by investing in workforce education and the justice system, as well as increasing community awareness;

supporting safe help-seeking and access to crisis response;

strengthening focus on people who use violence through programs and legislative reform;

building holistic supports for survivors that focus on longer term recovery and healing; and

establishing a strong foundation for prevention.

To ensure that the broad suite of recommendations can be properly considered and addressed, the state government has immediately accepted seven of 136 recommendations to be pursued within timeframes recommended by the royal commission, namely:

the establishment of a dedicated ministerial portfolio for domestic, family and sexual violence;

the establishment of a government stewardship function to lead collaboration across government agencies, recognising that the implementation of generational reform will require whole of government coordination and effort;

the development of an implementation plan by the Senior Leadership Committee—being South Australian government chief executives—for the phased implementation of the commission's recommendations;

requiring performance agreements for state government chief executives to include achievement of the actions and impact identified in the implementation plan—recognising domestic, family and sexual violence as a whole of government priority;

the development of a five-year statewide domestic, family and sexual violence strategy; and

the establishment of separate lived experience advisory networks for adults and children, with a smaller group providing advice and expertise to the minister—acknowledging the strong message from victim survivors that their voices and expertise must be central to designing, delivering, and evaluating services and policies.

Implementing these recommendations puts in place the architecture for a lot more further work so that the scope and breadth of the remaining 129 recommendations can be properly considered by government. The royal commission benefited from the experience of the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence, cautioning against reactive implementation in favour of a considered and resourced implementation plan that is not rushed.

The commission has helpfully provided guidance on the suggested sequencing of implementation and ideal timeframes for the commencement of the work to implement each recommendation, providing a pathway to improve the way we respond to the scourge of domestic, family and sexual violence and preventing it from happening in the first place. On behalf of the state government, I welcome the findings of the royal commission and thank the commissioner, Natasha Stott Despoja AO, and her staff for their considerable work.

Importantly, I want to recognise and honour the brave South Australians who lived or are living the experience of domestic, family and sexual violence who came forward with courage—great courage indeed—to tell their own often harrowing stories. Ending domestic, family and sexual violence is a collective responsibility. It requires strong leadership, and today the work begins to respond to the 136 recommendations in a way that delivers change strategically, methodically and in a way that can deliver lasting change over time.

This is an incredibly important piece of work and I would like to put on the record my particular thanks to Natasha Stott Despoja for leading the royal commission, ably assisted by a number of staff throughout government. I am reluctant to name anyone, but I think Kim Eldridge in particular, who is an outstanding woman who has demonstrated extraordinary capability, has made a substantial contribution to this effort. I sincerely hope that members are able to familiarise themselves with the report.

The royal commissioner has made clear that she stands willing and available to provide substantial briefings to any member in this place or members of the media who would like it. The Voices report I particularly commend as well, because anyone who reads that document will feel somewhat determined to make sure that this is not a document that goes on a shelf but rather provides a road map to have meaningful impact in our community.