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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-09-05 Daily Xml
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Domestic Violence

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (15:31): My question is to the Attorney-General. Can the Attorney-General update the house about the suite of measures the government has funded in the 2018-19 state budget to address the scourge of domestic violence?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Whilst members on my left may find this highly entertaining, conversely—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left! When government ministers are delivering answers, I would expect there to be information in addition to what is in the public domain, and I am sure that will be the case. Members on my left will cease interjecting. The Deputy Premier has the call.

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General) (15:32): Thank you, Mr Speaker, and how delighted I am to answer this question and provide an update to the house—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN: —regarding the number of measures we are introducing. A considerable amount of work has been done by the Hon. Michelle Lensink in another place and our member for Elder, a powerful member, to bring to the cabinet very important information from the general community about what they want prioritised in relation to the investment commitments we have made.

We committed to do a number of things. There is $11.9 million over the next four years in the budget. What we sought guidance on from the Minister for Women and also from our minister against family violence was making sure we had those priorities in sync with the very people who do the work with this group; that is, those who are looking after women and children who are at risk. The crisis accommodation providers, those unsung heroes in the domestic violence space, made it very clear to us that there simply were not enough beds. Too many families or parts thereof were fleeing out of a crisis situation, so the number one priority that we committed to was the extra 40 new beds in emergency crisis accommodation for those mostly women and children.

There should also be recognition of the fact that the non-government organisations put in extraordinary amounts of time and effort, so the extra $5 million for the interest-free loans is to ensure that when we fund the new domestic violence supported housing, etc., including the renovations and capital upgrades, there are funds available to buy into that. We also needed the government to have a number of commitments supported, including: identifying $1.66 million over four years to extend the Women's Safety Services domestic violence hotline to 24 hours a day; $150,000 on the development of a personal protection app linking at-risk women directly to police and domestic violence services; and $510,000 to support a statewide trial of a domestic violence disclosure scheme to enable women to request information on their partner's criminal history. This is something on which we are all keenly working with SAPOL, the Office for Women and my department to be rolled out fully by 1 October this year.

That is an important initiative. It's one we have begged the former government to consider. They just simply dismissed this and didn't deal with the pragmatic, practical, real-life protections that these people in a crisis need. But also for those who are working in the South Australian Coalition of Women's Domestic Violence Services, we want their community work to be enhanced and the activities that they advocate for—domestic, family, sexual violence, dealing with our new arrivals in South Australia, who are under immense pressure in this regard, and we only need to hear about the shocking tales in relation to dowry violence and abuse that is now being reported—but $624,000 for the next four years to provide that service is really critical and we are really very proud to be able to deliver it.

Members, one in four women experience intimate partner violence in Australia, and every week at least one person is murdered, so we understand the significance. There are plenty of members in this house who understand the significance of this. I have heard you all speak about it. We are acting on it.

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