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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-09-16 Daily Xml
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DON'T CROSS THE LINE

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:26): 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 29 June, in this council, the minister described the Don't Cross the Line campaign as:

...a campaign to ensure that we protect all victims of domestic violence and that we put in place strategies to ensure that we develop better respectful relationships, particularly between young men and women.

Subsequently, the Ombudsman made adverse findings against the Office for Women particularly in relation to its misuse of data on the Don't Cross the Line website. As a result, the website has been updated. The updated Don't Cross the Line website includes a page called 'Information for the media', which gives the facts and statistics supporting the campaign. All the information on this page relates to violence against women. This page includes a reference to the National Crime Prevention study which states:

A study of 5,000 Australians aged between 12-20 found that about one-quarter (23 per cent) of the 5,000 young people reported at least one act that could be described as physical domestic violence against their mothers or stepmothers.

The source study did indeed find that 23 per cent of Australian young people had experienced male to female parental violence, but the study also found that 22 per cent of Australian young people had experienced female to male parental violence.

In spite of the difference being only one percentage point, the Don't Cross the Line website fails to mention violence against males. The continued lack of balance in campaign material confuses the goal of the campaign, brings the campaign into controversy and distracts from the fact that women are more likely to be the victims of more severe violence, sustain more injuries and experience more fear. I ask the minister:

1. Is the government's Don't Cross the Line campaign a general antiviolence campaign or a violence against women campaign?

2. If it is the former, will the minister direct that the campaign material be revised to reflect that balance, including by revising the website to include statistics about violence against men?

3. If it is the latter (a campaign to deal with violence against women), will the minister clarify that fact both on the public and on the parliamentary record?

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 for the City of Adelaide) (14:28): I thank the honourable member for his question. The Don't Cross the Line campaign includes amongst other things a website, and indeed the core of that campaign is about promoting respectful relationships amongst young men and women.

The Don't Cross the Line website provides information for both men and women. It promotes a positive message about respectful relationships to both men and women, and it provides a range of resources for men and women as both victims and perpetrators. I have not reported on the Ombudsman's report. I do not think that had been delivered at the time I spoke on the issue. However, I did identify that we had been made aware, through a complaint that was before the Ombudsman, that there were problems with the statistics on the website or the way that some of those numbers had been reported and that we had had a review of the data by an independent body and the website had been amended accordingly.

The changes made are consistent with the Ombudsman's reports and findings, and we have complied with all of the changes and adopted all of the recommendations proposed by the Ombudsman in accordance with the reports that the Ombudsman utilised to assist him in his analysis. I have been advised that the information on the website has been thoroughly checked and is accurate, and we now have an ongoing monitoring system to make sure that as future research is done and other findings come in to the public arena our website will be amended and updated accordingly.

I have also said before in this place that violence against men and women manifests itself in slightly different ways. For instance, we know that men are more likely to be victims of violence that occur in public places, with the perpetrators being strangers, whereas I have been advised that violence against women tends to happen in domestic or private dwellings and the perpetrator tends to be people that they actually know. Clearly, as minister for women, I am very keen to make sure that the issues around violence towards women are addressed and that we employ strategies and programs to prevent violence against women. There are a number of other programs and strategies in place under the purview of other ministers that deal with those other issues resulting from violence towards men and the circumstances that tend to surround that violence.

I have said in this place before, I am sure, that this is not a contest about who is the biggest victim. It is not a contest, and I will not enter into such a debate. Any violence against any human being is to be abhorred. This is not a contest. To ensure that our resources are targeted, structured and focused in an efficient and effective way, we need to understand the patterns around violence, for both men and women, to make sure that we harness the best programs possible to address that violence and, as I have said, violence against women is slightly different from violence against men. I can only stress that this is not a competition about who is the biggest victim. All violence against men, women and children is abhorrent, and we should all continue to work on ways to make sure that that does not happen.

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