Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence

The Hon. J.S. LEE (14:38): My question is to the Minister for Human Services about the government's strong plan to improve the safety of women and their children. Can the minister please provide an update to the council about the rollout of regional safety hubs to assist those experiencing or at risk of domestic, family and sexual violence?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:38): I thank the honourable member for her question and for her ongoing interest in this issue. The Assistant Minister for Domestic and Family Violence Prevention, Mrs Carolyn Power MP, and myself were very pleased to announce quite recently that two of the new safety hubs will be rolled out in regional South Australia.

This follows from an election commitment to look at the introduction of safety hubs in regional South Australia, based on the very successful Women's Safety Services SA model, which has been an amalgamation of a number of metropolitan regional services and is co-located with SAPOL, Corrections and a range of other services. It's also where the 24/7 domestic hotline is run from. We thought that to bring services together was a very helpful initiative so that women and children particularly could receive services at one site.

Safety hubs are local places where women and their children who are experiencing or at risk of domestic, family and sexual violence can access information and support from staff and volunteers face to face. They can take a range of forms, as I mentioned, in that they provide a single entry point for integrated services, which may include SAPOL, social housing representatives, education, child wellbeing and protection services and programs, legal services and social workers. Certainly within government the discussions between child protection and domestic violence have been taking place for some time and we recognise that there is a great deal of crossover in the needs of both of those groups.

There is a range of models that we have considered and which we took to our regional consultations, which I have spoken about previously. Firstly, there is the crisis or front-end response, which is similar to the Women's Safety Services hub, and there is also a hub-and-spoke approach which provides outreach to surrounding communities and I think, from memory, that was one that the South-East was particularly interested in. There are also virtual hubs that facilitate access to information and support from services, and there is also a shopfront model for diverse services with a focus on early intervention.

The two locations for the first hubs are Murray Bridge and Berri in the Murray Mallee region. The Murray Bridge Safety Hub will be located in the Murray Bridge Community Centre to provide targeted and appropriate information and referrals to enable access to support for people who need it. The Berri Safety Hub, which is to be located with the Riverland Domestic Violence Service, which is auspiced by Centacare, will provide specialist support for a range of services, including on-site supported crisis accommodation and other housing options; domestic, family and sexual violence services; counselling; targeted early intervention and mental health services; financial advice; and legal support.

The learnings gained from implementing these models will be used for the other seven hubs which we hope will be up and running by June 2021. We thank the community for its input into this important initiative and look forward to improving the rates of family and sexual violence into the future.