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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-09-14 Daily Xml
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Homicide Victim Support Group

The Hon. R.B. MARTIN (14:54): My question is to the Attorney-General. Will the Attorney please inform the council about the Homicide Victim Support Group SA seminar that he attended yesterday?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:54): I thank the honourable member for his question and his interest in this area. Yesterday morning, I had the pleasure of opening the Homicide Victim Support Group SA's information seminar for families and friends of homicide victims. The Homicide Victim Support Group South Australia is a group largely made up of volunteers who provide support to people who have lost family, friends or loved ones to a homicide.

Chaired by Lynette Nitschke, the support group provide a critical support network to guide families and friends of people tragically lost to homicide through the justice system during what is almost always the most traumatic period in their lives. I am very proud that the Attorney-General's Department recently provided additional funding for the work of the Homicide Victim Support Group for additional staff to help to provide support for the group in governance, communications and managing functions and events. This includes the development and distribution of newsletters, organising monthly meetings, attending and taking meeting minutes and organising guest speakers.

I have been pleased to inform the chamber on other occasions of the work that the government has done in supporting victims, including victims of homicide, and laws that we have changed over the last couple of years, including laws in relation to concealing bodies.

In addition to the extra funding for the Homicide Victim Support Group, which was $8,000 a year and is now $18,000  a year, we have provided an additional $70,000 to the Victim Support Service for their Court Companions program for victims of crime. The Court Companions program facilitates volunteers supporting victims with information about the courts and their processes and provides in-person trauma-informed victim supports and support to witnesses and their families. The additional funding for the service was to boost their volunteer workforce by up to 10 new volunteers, ensuring a greater capacity to provide supports during trials, and was in addition to the $600,000 allocated from July 2022 to June 2026 in the restoration of funding for the Victim Support Service.

I would like in ending to thank Lynette Nitschke, who has had many decades of selfless work supporting those who have gone through the trauma of losing a loved one to a homicide and has certainly turned her tragedy of losing her daughter, Allison, who was tragically taken 32 years ago next week, into helping so many other people.

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