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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-09-08 Daily Xml
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DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:52): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for the Status of Women a question about domestic violence.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: In a press release in November 2005, Premier Rann said that he had sought a review of domestic violence laws. The Premier's press release stated:

The proposals for legislative and procedural change will be developed over the next three months. I propose to announce detailed changes to the law early next year. Legislation will be introduced as a priority following the election in March 2006.

Three years later, on 8 January 2009, in a letter to the Premier's Council on Women, the Premier stated:

In the first half of this year, we intend to introduce legislation addressing domestic violence in parliament. We will ask members to prioritise this legislation to ensure that both South Australian victims and perpetrators of domestic violence understand that this government does not accept domestic violence in our homes.

The Coalition of Women's Domestic Violence Services SA and the Domestic Violence Death Review Advocacy Coalition SA held a public gathering last Friday to publicly acknowledge and mourn recent deaths due to domestic violence. Members from all sides of the council joined the commemoration, including you, Mr President.

The death of a woman at Pennington on 28 August 2009 was the eighth death in South Australia due to domestic violence in 2009. In publicising the rally on behalf of the Coalition of Women's Domestic Violence Services and the Domestic Violence Death Review Advocacy Coalition, Maria Hagias said:

It is important that South Australian women are not left behind. Women in other Australian states are benefiting from progressive domestic violence legislation and death review processes. In South Australia, there has been no progress in the domestic violence legislation since our last rally on 26 March 2009, nor has there been any movement towards the introduction and establishment of a domestic violence death review process. This is despite Queensland joining New South Wales, Victoria and a number of international countries in introducing a domestic violence death review in their state.

My questions to the minister are:

1. Why has the government breached its undertaking to the women of South Australia to introduce domestic violence legislation soon after the 2006 election and, again, in the first half of 2009?

2. Now that a number of international jurisdictions and the three largest states of the Commonwealth of Australia have committed to death review programs, what is the Rann Labor government waiting for?

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) (14:55): I thank the honourable member for his question and for the opportunity to talk about this government's achievements and its plans to continue its efforts to protect women and children from domestic violence.

An honourable member: Table the bill.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: A bill will be tabled shortly—and a great deal of work has gone into that bill. A review was conducted by Maurine Pyke QC, and a lot of work and detail went into that as well. That report was then put out and a great deal of consideration and further consultation took place around that. This government is making every endeavour to ensure that South Australia has the best possible legislation for the women and children of South Australia, and an announcement will be made shortly. This piece of legislation will be one of which we can be very proud. This government is working very hard to ensure that it addresses issues around domestic violence through the following:

supporting the work of the Family Safety Framework, which focuses on women and children at high risk of serious injury or death;

undertaking a review of the domestic violence service sector;

developing new domestic violence legislation; and

participating in research on domestic violence death reviews.

The proposed new domestic violence laws are intended, in particular, to improve the system of restraint and intervention in domestic violence, and to give the police more power to intervene at the time an incident occurs. They will make it easier for victims to remain in the family home, as the focus will be on removing the perpetrator from the home; this is particularly important when children are involved because when safe housing has to be found for women and children it can be very dislocating for children's lives and their schooling, as well in terms of their support systems of family and friends. This change will turn the tables in a significant way. The laws will also ensure that the police can impose restraint conditions quickly and without having to wait for a court listing.

The bill, which is currently being drafted, will stop alleged perpetrators from personally cross-examining their victims in court, and it will cover a wider range of relationships, including the relationship between a carer and a disabled or ill person. There will be increased penalties for breaching an order, and the bill will broaden the definition of family violence to cover physical, sexual, economic and emotional abuse. These are some of the matters being considered in the drafting of this new bill.

The Office for Women and the homelessness strategy division of the Department for Families and Communities are also working in partnership to develop a specific domestic and family violence service sector. The aim is to develop strong and positive working relationships between domestic and family violence support services, accommodation services, and law and justice services. A steering committee has been convened to oversee this process, and it consists of representatives from the Department for Families and Communities, the Office for Women, Health, and SAPOL representatives from the domestic and family violence service sector, including Aboriginal family violence in the Domestic Violence Coalition. The key features of the proposed model for South Australia include the following:

improved conditions for the domestic and family violence support and accommodation services, with the criminal justice system;

support for women to remain in their own homes when it is safe to do so, and helping to make their homes safe so that they can stay there;

consolidation of domestic violence support and accommodation services across the state to produce more efficient and effective responses; and

culturally appropriate responses to the issue of Aboriginal family violence.

I am advised that phased implementation of the endorsed model is expected to be carried out from January to June 2010. So, that is another area of significant undertaking by the Rann Labor government.

Domestic homicide review teams—and a lot has been said about this recently—focus attention on victims' contact with and access to intervention strategies and their effectiveness. These domestic homicide review teams are not about blaming service providers but are about understanding agencies' roles and their constraints in order to move forward for the improvement of service delivery and for effective risk assessment and management to prevent deaths in the future.

Domestic and family violence death reviews have recently been established in Victoria and New South Wales. Queensland has also announced that it will be establishing a death review panel. The Southgate Institute has established a research group, which aims to inform the development of the domestic violence death review process, with the ultimate goal of reducing domestic violence related deaths. The institute is also undertaking a research project to explore family violence homicides in South Australia.

The Office for Women is closely following existing domestic and family violence death review models being undertaken in other states to identify good practice models for our consideration here. So, we are looking at that. We are particularly interested in the evaluation of those models. There are different models in different states, and we are very interested to see what might be considered the most effective type of model.

Clearly, women's safety is a top priority for the Rann Labor government. Women and children clearly have a fundamental right to live without fear of violence. The Rann Labor government has undertaken significant initiatives, and we will continue our hard work to protect women and their children.

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