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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-02-23 Daily Xml
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NATIONAL PLAN TO REDUCE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND THEIR CHILDREN

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (15:04): I direct my question to the Minister for the Status of Women. Will the minister inform the chamber about the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children 2010-22?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Public Sector Management, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises) (15:04): I thank the honourable member for his important question. Although he may not have an interest in pulses, he certainly has an interest in chickpeas and lentils and healthy diets! Nevertheless, the honourable member has an ongoing interest in this very important policy area, which he has shown great interest in and active support of through his role as a White Ribbon Ambassador, as have many other members in this place. The Hon. Ian Hunter and the Hon. John Gazzola have had a very active part in progressing that agenda.

I am very pleased that last week I announced that the South Australian government endorsed the new National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010-22. The national plan is a single unified strategy that brings together Australian government efforts to reduce violence against women. I believe that the national plan is the very first of its kind to focus so strongly on prevention, including building respectful relationships amongst young people and working to increase gender equality to help stop violence from occurring in the first place.

In my view, the national plan will help us with a real and sustained reduction in the level of violence against women, in part because the Gillard government is working cooperatively with all states and territories on this plan. I think members will acknowledge that no group or government can really tackle this problem in isolation. They need the cooperative activity of a coordinated approach.

South Australia will use the national plan to help guide local planning for services to assist women who are victims of violence, and the state's Women's Safety Strategy is being refreshed and revamped to bring it into line with the priorities outlined in the national plan. The Gillard government is clearly very committed to the national plan.

For members' interest, some of the key actions under the national plan include supporting local community action to reduce violence against women; a commitment to support the inclusion of respectful relationships education in phase three of the Australian curriculum; provision of telephone support for front-line workers, such as allied health, child care and paramedics, to better assist clients who have experienced violence; new programs to stop perpetrators committing acts of violence and national standards for perpetrator programs; and establishing a national centre of excellence to evaluate the effectiveness of strategies to reduce violence against women.

Evaluation is very important in guiding our future directions. It is one thing to have a good idea and put a program in place, but we need to make sure that that program is doing what we expect and want it to do and that we are in fact using the Australian dollar very wisely and responsibly. That sort of work will very much help provide guidance and direction in relation to that. The other is a personal safety strategy and national community attitudes survey to track the impact of the new action plans every four years, to mention just some of the initiatives that have been announced so far.

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