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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-09-24 Daily Xml
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FAMILY SAFETY FRAMEWORK

Members interjecting:

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (15:01): Listen, mate, I'm busy. While you are sitting there sleeping, I am actually doing work.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY: I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for the Status of Women questions about the family safety framework.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY: The Rann government is strongly committed to ensuring that all women, children and indeed—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY: The safety of women and children might not be of interest to you over there, but it is certainly of great interest to us. We are actually doing something about it, not just talking, so we will let you know what we are doing about it as soon as the minister can answer the question.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY: The Rann government is strongly committed to ensuring that all women, children and indeed the whole community have the right to live safely—free from all forms of violence. Will the minister provide more information on the women's safety strategy? What is being done at the operational level to progress the family safety framework?

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) (15:03): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. The Rann government's law reform efforts in the area of women's safety are being further supported by a strategic and proactive way of addressing family violence in South Australia. The family safety framework seeks to ensure that these services to the families most at risk of violence are dealt with in a more structured and systematic way through agencies sharing information about high risk families and taking responsibility for supporting these families to navigate the services system.

The framework was first implemented in 2007 through family safety meetings at the Holden Hill, Noarlunga and Port Augusta policing boundaries. Evaluation of these sites, conducted by the Office of Crime Statistics and Research, found the majority of victims were assessed as safer as a result of the family safety meeting intervention. Specifically, 62 per cent of victims went from high risk to low risk and three-quarters of the referrals that remained in South Australia had no SAPOL record of revictimisation for at least three months after referral. Improved communication and information sharing about women's safety, enhanced knowledge of domestic violence, and improved response times are other outcomes of this response.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: Following the successful implementation of the framework in these areas, I am very pleased that we have now implemented a rollout to Port Adelaide, Elizabeth and Port Pirie. These three regions are currently involved in high risk meetings around domestic violence, and the family safety framework will enhance their current response to high risk victims of violence. In addition, at the last women's safety strategy whole-of-government meeting, I announced that the three initial trial sites will now be ongoing. These meetings will go a long way towards ensuring that there are further reductions in the rate of domestic violence and family violence against women.

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