Women's Support Services

The Hon. J.S. LEE (15:12): My question is to the Minister for Human Services regarding respectful relationships and empowering women. Can the minister please provide an update to the council on how the Marshall Liberal government is promoting respectful relationships and empowering women?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (15:12): I thank the honourable member for her question. Indeed, we do run a range of services. We issued a media release in May about all of the initiatives that the government has already issued, which is quite a long list, if anybody wants to go through the complete program.

Since May, we have been able to announce some new initiatives. In particular, these are to assist victim survivors of domestic and family violence. One is the Supporting Parents' and Children's Emotions (SPACE) program, which commenced on 9 August. It provides early intervention support to young parents aged between 12 and 25 years who experience or perpetrate domestic and family violence. The program aims to reduce the risk of children being exposed to domestic and family violence.

What we have been working through, particularly with our interstate and national colleagues through the upcoming safety plan, is we know that children as victims is an area that all governments need to provide more focus on. The drivers in domestic and family violence and the child protection system are often the same and so working together to bring those systems closer together so that we can provide joined-up responses is something that we are very keen on doing.

Also, younger people who are first-time parents is a particular focus of the DHS suite of Safer Family Services. We know that the risk for that cohort of young parents is higher and therefore they are a priority to ensure that they are able to receive support so that they provide safe places for their children. The SPACE program has already been receiving referrals. In its first month, it received 13 new referrals for one-on-one therapeutic counselling, and 40 young parents and children have had the benefit of the program.

It is being delivered through the Women's and Children's Health Network. It is an add-on, as I mentioned, to the Young Parents Program, which is another service delivered through the network. Young parents who are victims have previously fallen into a service delivery gap, so we are very keen on ensuring that this particular group of people, who may otherwise experience significant and ongoing disadvantage, get the support they need.