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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-10-14 Daily Xml
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Motions

Dailler, Ms G.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (16:01): I move:

That this council urges the Attorney-General to—

1. Refer the death of Graziella Daillér, who died on or about 15 May 2014, to the Coroner for a coronial inquest; and

2. Request an inquiry into all the circumstances leading up to Graziella Daillér's death, including but not limited to—

(a) ascertaining the actual date of death;

(b) identifying the cause of death;

(c) identifying the circumstances of the alleged killing by Dion Muir and his death;

(d) identification and assessment of the involvement of agencies, including SA Police, prior to the deaths;

(e) identification and assessment of the response of agencies, including SA Police, after receiving notification that Graziella Daillér was missing and at risk of harm; and

(f) any other circumstance that contributed to the death of Graziella Daillér.

This motion is in relation to a request by the family of Graziella Daillér to have a coronial inquest into her death. People would be familiar with the case through the media as it has been reported. Unfortunately, we are too familiar as a society with domestic violence and deaths from domestic violence. I think the statistics that used to be quoted were one death a week in Australia, and that is now two reported deaths a week, at the hands of partners.

I would like to acknowledge at the outset of my contribution that there are a number of members of the White Ribbon Foundation of this chamber and their contributing to ending domestic violence in Australia.

We are very familiar with the horrific toll that this problem is causing in Australia and there have been many speeches on it so I do not intend to cover that ground again. In South Australia there have been coronial inquests into the death of Zahra Abrahimzadeh in 2010 and Robyn Hayward in 2009. Those inquests were held in 2014 and 2012 and made a number of recommendations.

There are some similarities, particularly with the Zahra Abrahimzadeh case, and this situation with Graziella Daillér. Her family have sought an inquest into her death, and the motion outlines the terms of what is requested by them.

I would also like to acknowledge the member for Bragg, the Liberal Party spokesperson for Attorney-General matters, who has met with the family. It was her initiative that this motion be put to the parliament. Things being as they are, with the various agendas of our different houses, Ms Chapman's motion is listed for 19 November so I have had the opportunity to address this matter before her but I do acknowledge that it is on her initiative that the Liberal Party is bringing this motion before the parliament.

In this particular situation, Ms Daillér was found dead at her home on or about 15 or 16 May 2014. Her former partner, Mr Dion Muir, was also found deceased at the premises and the matter was reported as a murder suicide. Ms Daillér's children have spoken publicly about this plight and they have stated that Mr Muir, as her former partner, had an intervention order and yet was allowed to continually harass their mother. I will quote from an article in The Advertiser, dated 13 July 2014, by Jordanna Schreiver, entitled 'Murdered woman's family calls for inquest, electronic monitoring'. It states:

…Dion Muir was repeatedly allowed to harass their mother, despite being under an intervention order.

The intervention order which I have mentioned, and I now quote again:

'We feel really angry and let down…it's really good to see that they (the Abrahimzadeh family) got some answers and we'd like a little bit of that,' Mrs Palmer said.

That is Mrs Natasha Palmer, who is one of the three children. The other two children are Adelaide Holly and Vincent Holly. Mrs Palmer went on to say:

'I feel that my mum would still be alive if the courts had kept him in jail and not let him go.'

The article continues:

Muir had a court hearing on April 7 this year—

This is 2014—

for breaching an intervention order issued against him by Ms Daillér. Muir had repeatedly damaged Ms Daillér house and car after she left him in 2012. Ms Daillér was preparing to return to her native France for good to escape her tormentor. The children do not blame the efforts of police, but say police and courts need more power to prevent and punish perpetrators of domestic violence, including electronic monitoring of people subject to intervention orders.

Mrs Palmer is quoted as saying:

'He was denied police bail on a couple of occasions, but the courts would let him back out on the streets. Even though she's got an intervention order, it's just useless…police and courts need to work more closely together.'

Apparently the relationship had existed for approximately 12 months. I think the family have outlined their case for why a coronial inquest into their mother's death would be useful. I acknowledge that there are a number of initiatives that have been taken by this parliament and this government, including changes to our intervention orders in late 2009, from memory, and also that we have a number of interagency organisations working together in a formal sense, and I think those have been discussed at length by a number of members—the Multi-Agency Protection Service and Family Safety Framework, to mention two, which are providing very useful assistance.

However, these are specific matters about someone who was continuously able to breach intervention orders, and I think that those matters certainly deserve further investigation. There is the ability for the Attorney-General to direct for an inquest under section 21 of the Coroner's Act and, therefore, we believe that the Attorney-General ought to utilise this power within the Coroner's Act to conduct an inquest into Graziella Daillér as requested by her family. I endorse the motion to the house.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. J.M. Gazzola.

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