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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-06-23 Daily Xml
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DON'T CROSS THE LINE

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (14:47): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for the Status of Women a question.

Leave granted.

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: In 2008-09, the state government committed $868,000 over four years to the Don't Cross the Line community awareness campaign. Will the minister inform the council about the latest Don't Cross the Line initiative?

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, Minister for Gambling) (14:47): The honourable member is quite right, that in the 2008-09 state budget this government committed $868,000 over four years to the anti-violence community awareness campaign. The campaign is aimed to inform, educate and ultimately reduce rape, sexual assault and domestic and family violence in South Australia.

The anti-violence community awareness campaign aims to change community attitudes, increase awareness for workers who respond to perpetrators and victims, encourage a culture of perpetrator accountability and highlight the important work, including legislative reforms, which are being undertaken by the South Australian Labor government. The campaign focuses on prevention and early intervention to increase community awareness that violence will not be tolerated and on driving the message of respectful relationships.

Recognising the recent focus of the campaign on domestic violence as well as the identification in the review of the Women's Safety Strategy of the need to ensure a focus on rape and sexual assault, I am delighted to announce a new initiative to raise awareness of violence against women. This initiative has a specific focus on women's safety that incorporates a focus on licensed venues.

Yarrow Place Rape and Sexual Assault Service is a statewide service that responds to rape and sexual assault in South Australia. It provides a 24-hour crisis response service for victims of recent rape and sexual assault. Referrals to the service come from police and health services, crisis phone lines and individuals themselves. It provides clients with a variety of services, including crisis and ongoing counselling, medical care, forensic medical examinations and access to support groups.

Yarrow Place is also a registered training organisation and an RTO, with a range of accredited training packages which focus on capacity building around responding to disclosures of sexual violence. All training packages include content on myths and attitudes towards women and sexual violence, as it recognises that these are fundamental to the perpetration and prevention of violence, particularly towards women.

The hotel industry is one of the largest employers in South Australia, with more than 24,000 people employed in the state's pubs, and even more men and women who frequent those places. This project recognises the potential of the industry to promote messages that will assist in strengthening community attitudes about the prevention of violence against women.

Given these issues, Yarrow Place has developed a proposal for a violence against women awareness and prevention in the hotel industry project. This 12-month project will involve work with the AHA and United Voice, the Office of the Liquor and Gambling Commissioner and also the Office for Women.

The project will enable them to explore the hospitality industry's role in the prevention of violence against women; develop specific strategies to increase awareness of rape and sexual assault in the hospitality industry (this may include specific training programs for hospitality industry students); the inclusion of rape and sexual assault information with existing occupational health, safety and welfare training programs for the industry; and also discuss and plan for long-term industry strategies to ensure that the outcome of this project can be sustained into the future.

I am delighted that Mr David Di Troia, Branch Secretary of United Voice, and Trevor Evans, the Manager for Human Resources and Industrial Relations for the AHA, have advised their support for this project and their willingness to work with Yarrow Place. The project will commence in July 2011. As well as being a wonderful part of our Don't Cross the Line strategy, this project also reflects the directions of the national plan to reduce violence against women and their children.

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