Domestic and Family Violence Safety Hubs

The Hon. J.S. LEE (14:40): My question is to the Minister for Human Services about domestic and family violence safety hubs. Can the minister please provide an update to the council about the government's election commitment to extend these safety hubs into regional South Australia and report on the progress of the hubs?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:40): I thank the honourable member for her question and for her interest in this area. It was very pleasing for the member for Elder, Ms Carolyn Power, and myself quite recently to attend the second domestic violence hub in Berri, following on from the opening of the first one in Murray Bridge, which I have reported on to this place previously.

The Riverland Domestic Violence Service is the site for the expanded hub. It is operated by Centacare, and there are a range of new services which are operating from that particular site. The Riverland Domestic Violence Service is a specialised crisis supported accommodation service, which has a range of services for people and families in this situation. What has been reported to us is that there is a range of services that are now operating on that site, so that it is a co-located hub.

The services that are now available and able to be referred through there include women's health, ac.care, drug and alcohol support, community mental health, targeted intervention service, Housing SA, Yarrow Place, SAPOL services, SA Dental Service, Relationships Australia, Family Safety Framework, psychology support, Women's Legal Service, Salvation Army and the Victim Support Service.

What has been reported to us is that, since this service has been operating, the people who are utilising those services, particularly the staff on the site who operate the specialised services, are seeing fewer families at the crisis end because they are able to manage the family dynamics much better themselves due to having those services on site. The particular specialist services are having to do less of the referral themselves and therefore negotiating those services on behalf of families, which means that their caseloads are actually reducing to much more manageable levels. So we are starting to see in the Riverland that we are getting more of the primary prevention services in place and fewer people who are in that crisis pointy end, who sometimes need to be removed from the family home for safety reasons, so that is really pleasing.

It is a different model to the service at Murray Bridge, which is operated using an extensive volunteer workforce, which is much more about information at that early stage. We were able to meet with a number of the workers at the site who are very pleased with the progress. We are looking to expand the number of services into a range of other regional areas in South Australia, which will follow various models, including those two. I look forward to reporting more of those and more of the government's fulfilment of its election commitments in due course.