Domestic Violence Offender Electronic Monitoring

The Hon. M. EL DANNAWI (14:53): My question is to the Attorney-General. Can the Attorney-General inform the council about the recent commencement of the government's laws to electronically monitor serious domestic violence offenders?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:54): I thank the honourable member for her question, and her interest in this area, and I am pleased to share with the council that landmark laws passed earlier this year by parliament commenced operation at the start of this month, on 1 October. In line with a key government election commitment, a bill was introduced in this place to ensure the electronic monitoring and home detention of domestic violence offenders who breach an intervention order with violence or a threat of violence.

The bill, I am pleased to say, as members will remember, passed with unanimous support earlier this year and, after further consultation with key stakeholders, commenced only weeks ago. The new laws now in operation will see any defendant granted bail on a charge of breaching a domestic violence-related intervention order by either threatening or committing an act of violence being subject to mandatory home detention and electronic monitoring.

Such defendants will only be allowed to leave the home for specific reasons, such as travelling to work, with real-time alerts being provided in instances where bail conditions are breached. The bill will add an extra layer of protection to victim survivors and the broader community by providing that, if bail is granted for these defendants, it must be subject to home detention and electronic monitoring conditions.

The commencement of this life saving legislation comes on the back of a suite of other critical domestic violence-related reforms undertaken by this government and many passed with support of all in this parliament, including providing public sector workers access to 15 days paid domestic family and sexual violence leave, as well as legislation that makes the experience of domestic violence a ground for discrimination under South Australia's equal opportunity regime.

The government's recently established Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence is also now well underway, with the commissioner already having spoken with many key stakeholders and community members about how we as a state can together tackle the scourge of domestic violence. I look forward to the continued work of this government and the results of the royal commission to see further protection of victim survivors of domestic violence.