Domestic and Family Violence

The Hon. C. BONAROS (14:52): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Human Services and the status of women a question about domestic violence.

Leave granted.

The Hon. C. BONAROS: The Prime Minister sparked concern in the community recently when he warned of a disturbing 75 per cent increase on search engine Google for people seeking information on domestic violence support services since the coronavirus pandemic national shutdown commenced. It is in this environment that domestic violence experts and SAPOL are said to be bracing for a spike in domestic violence incidents, with experts fearing that incidents of abuse will increase the longer the pandemic continues and the longer families are in isolation in their homes. We know that the victim of domestic violence is most likely to be impacted by domestic violence in their own home.

I have written to the Attorney-General about this issue, amongst a number of other issues, seeking some advice from the government about what we are doing to address this. My questions to the minister are:

1. Is the government concerned about the potential for more domestic violence incidents in the current COVID-19 environment, specifically when unemployment is suddenly skyrocketing, households are being asked to isolate for long periods of time, and children are potentially at home from school for many weeks or months to come?

2. Is the government engaging in discussions with domestic violence support agencies and women's shelters?

3. Have any of those organisations already sought additional support and funding in the current environment?

4. What measures are being taken by the government in relation to the specific issue of domestic violence and the support offered to those services in this coronavirus environment?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:54): I thank the honourable member for her question and for her interest in this area, which I think is one which shares multipartisan support. As we know, there are a number of White Ribbon ambassadors who are in the parliament. It's been very pleasing over my time in parliament to see more and more members of parliament, including our male colleagues, engage in this important area.

The answer to all of her questions is probably yes. We are concerned about the impact of isolation on the incidence and pathways for domestic and family violence. Women's Safety Ministers, which is all of the state, territory and commonwealth ministers, has been elevated by COAG to a COAG council and we have had several teleconferences in the last few weeks.

The national hotline, 1800 RESPECT, has actually seen a drop in calls. We suspect that what's behind that is women are isolated at home. Potentially, the perpetrators are using the current crisis as a means of isolating them further and, therefore, it's more difficult for women to make those telephone calls when they need to. I must again emphasise—and I can't emphasise this point enough in relation to any of these services—that we are constantly monitoring what the situation is within our community and it does change, so I would hate for my advice to the parliament to be taken as standing for a time. It is something that is ongoing.

In terms of the incidence itself and the callouts, that information would be held by the police commissioner, and I would need to double-check that information with him. The federal government, through our last COAG Women's Safety Ministers meeting, has advised states and territories that it's making more funding available. The Office for Women has been working through what the most appropriate means of funding that would be. It is incredibly welcome at this time. As everyone would know, the state budget is under pressure and we are being called on for all sorts of things to fund all the time, so to get that level of assistance from the commonwealth is very welcome. The Office for Women is working through those priorities.

We've got the Committed to Safety document, which outlines the approach to South Australia. It's pretty comprehensive in terms of primary, secondary and tertiary responses to family violence. It has identified gaps and, as a strategic plan, it enables us to very quickly slot in, when we get additional funding, what those new priorities should be. I look forward to providing some more public information about how we will provide that additional funding to assist people to stay safe in their homes.

The PRESIDENT: A supplementary question.