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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-10-14 Daily Xml
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DON'T CROSS THE LINE CAMPAIGN

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:25): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for the Status of Women a question relating to the Don't Cross the Line campaign.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: On 11 September, the state government launched the Don't Cross the Line campaign to raise awareness of domestic violence in Australia and to transform attitudes towards relationship abuse. On 18 September, Men's Health Australia wrote to the Office for Women expressing concern at what it perceived as the selective use of statistics in relation to the Don't Cross the Line campaign, copied by many state and federal parliamentarians, including the minister and myself.

As I understand it, Men's Health Australia's concerns are essentially that the statistics used in the Don't Cross the Line website overstate the impact of domestic violence on women and understate the impact of domestic violence on men. The majority of domestic violence incidents involve violence against women, and a key social goal is for men to take full responsibility to address violence against women.

To this end, it is vital that the campaign impact is not undermined by debate as to whether the information that undergirds it is reliable. I therefore ask the minister: has the government responded to the concerns raised by Men's Health Australia and, if so, what was the response? Also, what action has the government taken to ensure that the information used in the campaign is both robust and effective?

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) (14:26): I thank the honourable member for his question and I indeed appreciate the opportunity to acknowledge the success of this fabulous campaign, Don't Cross the Line.

As members would know, I was delighted recently to launch a media antiviolence community awareness campaign in September this year. It included TV, radio and other print media that would be made available to the public. The initial response to that campaign has been extremely positive, I might add. I do not have the actual numbers in front of me, but the hit rate on the website has been very high. It is obvious that people are not just going onto the homepage; the hit profile shows that people are actually going into and accessing various information within the site. So, we are very pleased that it has been so successful.

I have reported before in this place that it is quite a confronting campaign, and we do not apologise for that. We are clearly trying to change people's attitudes towards violence and make them more aware of how unacceptable violence is.

As I have said, the major component of the campaign is a website, which is don'tcrosstheline.com.au. I invite people to get online and have a look for themselves. It provides a range of information on changes to rape and sexual assault laws. It also outlines information around the proposed changes to domestic violence laws, as tabled in the other place at present. It also encourages those who may be experiencing relationship abuse or questioning their behaviour and actions to visit the website to seek help and get information that they might need to help them with their issues.

The main target audience is young men and women between the ages of 18 to 25. I am aware that Men's Health Australia has written to the Office for Women and has questioned the statistics outlined or referred to on the website. I have been advised that the Director of the Office for Women has, in fact, personally telephoned and had a long conversation with the author of that correspondence, talking to him about the source of the material and, I understand, has agreed to post that information to him. I think it is really important that we do not forget that the aim of the campaign is to educate young men and women about respectful relationships. That is the purpose of the campaign.

Obviously, the statistics on the website are an important part of the information base in raising awareness about levels of violence in the community, and it is not just about domestic violence but other violence as well. Those statistics have been provided by a variety of reputable sources, including the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Australian Institute of Criminology, the commonwealth Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, and the South Australian Office of Crime Statistics and Research in the Attorney-General's Department. I understand that statistics have also been drawn from recent publications, such as the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children.

I am sure that everyone in this place would accept that violence in the community is significantly under-reported; while we use a variety of sources to obtain information on this significant social issue, we know that many victims do not report their abuse. We also know that men are sometimes victims of domestic or partner violence (I have spoken about that in this place previously), and I suspect that that is also under-reported. However, women are predominantly the victims of domestic and sexual violence, and I doubt anyone here would refute that. In the broader community, men are likely to suffer greater levels of assault and violence from other men, often involving strangers and often involving violence in a public place, but the perpetrators of violence against women are frequently people known to the women, and the violence frequently occurs in a domestic situation.

This campaign is about violence that occurs in a personal relationship; it is not about broader community violence. The campaign is also about informing the community of recent changes to our rape and sexual assault legislation, and it talks about what is and is not okay in a close personal relationship. I acknowledge that there is research and data from a wide range of different sources and that there can be different interpretations of such data. However, I am advised that the data on the Don't Cross the Line website is sound.

The Don't Cross the Line campaign, through its website in particular, aims at informing both men and women in a range of relationships about the difference between abusive behaviour and respectful relationships. Ultimately, the campaign aims to reduce the incidence of rape, sexual assault and domestic and family violence in South Australia, and I am sure that is an outcome supported not only by every member in this place but by all South Australians. I believe that is where our attentions and our efforts should be focused.

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