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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-09-11 Daily Xml
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Domestic and Family Violence Safety Hubs

The Hon. J.S. LEE (14:51): My question is to the Minister for Human Services about the government's election commitment to address domestic and family violence. Can the minister please provide an update to the council about the rollout of the state government-led safety hubs across South Australia?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:52): I thank the honourable member for her question and for her interest in this area. As honourable members would be aware, we had a very comprehensive suite of election commitments which we are very proud of to which we had a number of contributors. In this chamber I am pleased to say the Treasurer, and as shadow treasurer, was an active participant as well as our Premier and the Attorney-General among others.

We did have a range of election commitments, including domestic violence stakeholder round tables, and we have had a range of those, including in Adelaide within our first 30 days. We visited a number of regions and spent the day with them. My colleague the Assistant Minister for Domestic and Family Violence Protection, Carolyn Power, and I attended Berri, Mount Gambier, Whyalla, Port Lincoln and Murray Bridge.

As part of those consultations we put to the participants our election commitments and sought feedback from them and some of them have been modified as a result. One of the important ones that we put to them was our safety hubs. We have an effective safety hub here in metropolitan Adelaide, which is operated by Women's Safety Services, which runs a range of programs at its site and has a number of services co-located.

There are a range of particular models that may be adopted in relation to safety hubs. Carolyn Power and I were very pleased to attend the launch of the first one on 5 August in Murray Bridge which is to be called The Haven. It was also attended by the member for Hammond, Mr Adrian Pederick; the local mayor, Mr Brenton Lewis; and a range of volunteers who have put their hands up. It is important to note that volunteers are critical to this particular process.

The Haven is located at the Murray Bridge Community Centre, and the coordinator there is Ms Jade Porter, who I had the privilege of meeting prior to this announcement when I went to visit the safety hub. The particular model that we have established at the Haven is one that means it is available five days a week. The Women's Information Service (WIS) actively recruited volunteers, some of whom I understand are new to volunteering. They have been provided with some training to enable them to assist people. Effectively, it is a connector hub model, based on WIS's shopfront and volunteer program in children's services, with an enhanced focus on domestic, family and sexual violence.

The community in Murray Bridge felt the safety hub model, based on the shopfront, would best suit their needs. The volunteers will provide information and referral services for women and their children at risk in the Murray Mallee region. They are also able to provide advice for family and community members about how to support women who are experiencing violence of any form. The community centre was identified as a supportive space for women at risk because it offers a range of universal and targeted services, it is run by a dedicated board of members, it was able to undertake the WIS safety hub volunteer training, provides a professional environment for volunteers and has diverse facilities.

My department was able to provide some funding to upgrade the centre. It was formerly a netball court space, so some of the services there needed to be upgraded to provide for privacy and additional rooms. We are very excited about the first hub. We will continue to roll out these services going forward, and I look forward to making more announcements on these important services into the future.

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