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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-02-04 Daily Xml
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DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:45): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for the Status of Women a question relating to domestic violence.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Yesterday, in answer to a question on the rebranding of the Liberal Minister's Council for Women as the Premier's Council for Women, the minister misconstrued comments by an honourable member to make a cheap political point on domestic violence. South Australian women want real outcomes on the ground.

I raise the issue of domestic violence courts. South Australia has two domestic violence courts, one in Adelaide and one at Elizabeth. Offenders who plead guilty to domestic violence offences and are deemed suitable for the program complete a 12-week course of group counselling before they return to the court for sentencing. I note that none of those courts are in country South Australia, and the only suburban court is in a low socioeconomic area.

Considering that the minister chose to give us some stats on domestic violence yesterday, this one might be of interest to her. The Australian Institute of Criminology shows that in 2004 the levels of physical and sexual victimisation reported by women in the survey tended to be relatively similar, irrespective of the combined income of their whole household. In that context I question the lack of domestic violence courts beyond the working class area of Elizabeth.

In the South-East, for example, there were 250 cases of domestic violence reported to local police in 2006. The South-East Regional Domestic Violence Service helped 177 women and 330 children in 2007-08. Local agencies saw the need for a domestic violence court and in 2008 came together to establish one. The South-East Regional Domestic Violence Service coordinator at that time said:

Unless the community is able to attract dedicated resources the program will be limited, as those facilitating the stopping violence group work are doing it on top of their substantive positions.

In other words, they are volunteers. She goes on:

Unlike the metropolitan court diversion programs, which are fully resourced as stand alone projects and able to offer continuous group work, this program is largely underfunded. It has been put together in a spirit of goodwill by various agencies dedicated to making a difference and stemming the level of violence within families...Ms Smith said the court provided the opportunity for counselling with a focus on rehabilitation. "A lot of women don't want their partner to go to prison because where does that leave them financially...they want to stay in the relationship but they want the behaviour to change, they deserve to feel safe."

So, at the beginning of 2008 a series of agencies came together, and on 22 January 2008 a Mount Gambier Domestic Violence Court was established. It proved to be highly successful, yet in spite of their best efforts—

The PRESIDENT: Order! I remind honourable members that matters of interest follows question time.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —they failed to receive government funding and the court is suspended and not currently operating. Does the minister accept that all women, no matter where they live, have the right to support services and to be safe from domestic violence, and will the government provide funding to ensure that the Mount Gambier Domestic Violence Court is able to resume operation?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister Assisting the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Energy) (14:49): I thank the honourable member for his question and the opportunity to speak further about the work that this government has done on domestic violence. In terms of commenting on his opening statement, we all know that yesterday the Hon. Robert Lawson had to stand up in this chamber and make a personal explanation.

An honourable member: He did the right thing.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: Yes, he did do the right thing, as my colleague said, because he knew that the Hansard transcript showed quite clearly that his words did in fact reflect—

The Hon. S.G. Wade interjecting:

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: One issue at a time. Just sit back and relax; there is plenty of time for me to go through the issues you have raised. Mr Lawson demonstrated quite clearly that he had made a mistake in, as he said, inadvertently referring to domestic violence as a petty crime. He had to put on the record that in fact he should not have used those words, and he acknowledged that, as I had pointed out to him in this chamber, domestic violence is not a petty crime. I went to some lengths to talk about the statistics around that in terms of assault, homicide, etc.

So, in fact, it was not a cheap trick, as Mr Wade's own colleague incorrectly stated in this chamber, and that was that domestic violence is a petty crime. To have the audacity to stand up in this chamber and accuse me of making up a story about this is just outrageous. It is a good opportunity to point out that the Hon. Robert Lawson actually did say something quite incorrect and, given his background, I am surprised that he would have used those words, but I do admire the fact that he had the integrity to get to his feet and explain that they were not the words he intended to say, albeit that he did say those words.

Moving on from words and getting on to services, the Rann government is strongly committed to ensuring that all women and children—and indeed the whole community—have the right to live safely and free from domestic and, in fact, all forms of violence. The Rann government law reform efforts in the area of women's safety are being further supported by a strategic and pro-active new way of addressing violence in South Australia. We have established a family safety framework that seeks to ensure that services to families most at risk of violence are provided in a more structured and systematic way, through agencies sharing information about high risk families and taking responsibility for supporting those families to navigate through the service system.

We know that issues around domestic violence can span many agencies and many portfolio areas, so it can be difficult, around issues of confidentiality in particular; it can be very difficult to share information quickly and easily. So, this program attempts to navigate a way through that for those people identified as high risk.

The Hon. S.G. Wade: More rhetoric!

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: It's not rhetoric—

The Hon. S.G. Wade: Well, it's not a service on the ground.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: It is a service on the ground. Our family safety framework is a service that is placed on the ground, and it is in fact a service that has improved the lives and safety of many women who have participated and their children. It has assisted them by providing services quickly, identifying their problems quickly and identifying the issues involved in being able to address those in a timely way.

An evaluation has been conducted through trials conducted in three different areas, and they have been very promising. The trials have been held in Holden Hill, Noarlunga and Port Augusta, and they show that the safety of those people in those programs was improved. The evaluation found that the majority of victims were assessed as safer as a result of the family safety intervention. Specifically, 62 per cent of victims went from high to low risk as a result of those interventions, and three quarters (75 per cent) of referrals that remained in South Australia had no SAPOL record of revictimisation for at least three months after the referral, which is the time frame in which we conducted that evaluation. That was completed late last year, and we can see that that intervention has produced extremely good results.

Other areas that were involved included a public education campaign targeting young people, particularly young men, trying to bring about an increased awareness around issues of respect for other people, particularly in close relationships. To run that public campaign we have designated if I recall—I do not have the figures in front of me—around $600,000. This government has also done a great deal in terms of rape and sexual assault reforms. We have certainly considerably improved the protections for victims and made it more difficult for perpetrators to slip through the cracks and not take responsibility for their actions.

We also have an agenda of overhauling the domestic violence laws. We have conducted quite a deal of background research into that area and can look forward to new legislation being tabled later this year. This government has done a great deal in terms of domestic violence protections. Our court system is obviously part of that. I am happy to look further into the distribution of and demand for services throughout the state, but clearly the Rann government puts its money where its mouth is in terms of not only rolling out services but also improving legislative protections for victims of domestic violence.

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