VICTIM SUPPORT SERVICES

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (15:11): I seek leave to direct a question to the Leader of Government Business.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: My questions in relation to victim support services are:

1. Did the minister make a request to the Attorney-General for an increase in the budget for victim support services for the last budget period?

2. If she did, was she successful in that bid?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the Status of Women) (15:12): In relation to the victim support services fund, I did have discussions with the Attorney-General and we were successful in achieving moneys to assist us—I am just trying to remember the details of this—I think in relation to our domestic violence—

The Hon. S.G. Wade: The Coroner's Court.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: No, it wasn't the Coroner's Court. It was in relation to domestic violence and, if I recall correctly, it was to assist in the payment of the administrative costs of our Family Safety Framework, and we were successful in achieving that. I could not tell you the exact amount but it was a sum of money to cover those administrative costs, which we were very pleased to do because our Family Safety Framework has been demonstrated to be a highly successful strategy in helping to protect women who are at high risk—or any victim at high risk of domestic violence, but we know that most of those are women.

It has been a very successful strategy, and we have rolled that Family Safety Framework out to all the metropolitan regions and to several regional centres. We rolled the framework out to particularly those centres where there was already DV service infrastructure available to help us build the framework on. However, we have now completed most of those and we are now going into those regions that do not quite have the same infrastructure, so we needed additional administrative support to help us reach those centres. That is why we needed the funds at that particular time and we were very grateful to receive them, and we think also that it is extremely good use of those funds.