Domestic and Family Violence

The Hon. J.S. LEE (15:41): My question is to the Minister for Human Services about the government's new framework to address domestic, family and sexual violence. Can the minister please provide an update to the council about how this framework will improve the safety of women and children across South Australia?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (15:41): I thank the honourable member for her question and for her interest in this important area. I have spoken in this place about the government's election commitments and the fulfilment of those commitments, which have been very well received within our community. There is a range of areas in which the Marshall Liberal government is working to ensure that we improve the safety of women and children who may find themselves in situations of domestic and family violence.

In terms of those commitments, we have implemented the disclosure scheme to enable women or a relative or family member to request information about a partner's criminal history. The Attorney has updated some of the data on that, which has had a very strong start. This parliament introduced the standalone criminal offence of strangulation, which, again, is yielding some frightening data in terms of the number of incidents. I think it highlights an unknown area within our community, but the pleasing thing is that it is being addressed. We have provided funding for Women’s Safety Services for their crisis hotline to operate 24 hours a day, and we have implemented a personal protection app, linking at-risk women to police and domestic violence services.

The Assistant Minister for Domestic and Family Violence Prevention, Ms Carolyn Power, and I have attended all of the round tables throughout South Australia—one statewide and five regional ones. Those have now concluded. On 1 March, we were very pleased to be able to launch the new domestic family and violence framework for South Australia, which addresses the current and ongoing actions in this space for the future.

It is a living document that is available on the Office for Women's website, so it addresses the crisis end, and secondary measures as well as preventative measures. It talks not just about the particular commitments that we had but about the evolution in terms of our thinking within our first 12 months, which means that there is a greater focus on perpetrator interventions, which is consistent with the national Fourth Action Plan, and also in terms of what our first response should be when people come into crisis services, not only what we do with the perpetrator but in terms of those emergency housing solutions.

I think South Australia, it's fair to say, has been a leader in this space. We have also learned a great deal from our colleagues in New South Wales, who have had a very progressive approach to this. We also welcome the funding commitment of the Morrison Coalition government recently in providing additional resources in this space, which is complementary to the work in South Australia. I would encourage everybody who has an interest in this area to access that document, inform themselves and be involved in this process going forward.