❓ The Minister outlines the government's investment in family and domestic violence prevention, including funding for one-stop hubs and response teams, highlighting a commitment to victim safety and perpetrator accountability.
AnsweredQoN 278Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
FAMILY
AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE — ONE-STOP HUBS
278. Ms J.J. SHAW to the Minister for Prevention of Family
and Domestic Violence:
I refer to the McGowan Labor government's unprecedented
efforts in tackling family and domestic violence and keeping Western Australians
safe.
(1) Can the minister update the house on this
government's investment in measures to support survivors of family
and domestic violence, including the establishment of the Armadale family and
domestic violence hub?
(2) Can the
minister outline to the house how this investment will help improve our
frontline response to family and domestic violence incidents?
AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE — ONE-STOP HUBS
278. Ms J.J. SHAW to the Minister for Prevention of Family
and Domestic Violence:
I refer to the McGowan Labor government's unprecedented
efforts in tackling family and domestic violence and keeping Western Australians
safe.
(1) Can the minister update the house on this
government's investment in measures to support survivors of family
and domestic violence, including the establishment of the Armadale family and
domestic violence hub?
(2) Can the
minister outline to the house how this investment will help improve our
frontline response to family and domestic violence incidents?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the
member for the question and for her interest in this area.
(1)–(2)
I am very proud of the announcement we made recently in the lead-up to the
state budget, which was an additional—that is, a new spend—$34.4
million of funding to support our program to prevent family and domestic
violence. I will go through some of the detail. It has been significant in the
last five years when we have seen a dedicated
approach, partly from having an appointed minister, but also a program of
change across a whole area of work—keeping victims safe, holding
perpetrators to account, law reform, making sure
that our justice system is up to the task and leading a conversation in the
community that says domestic violence is not acceptable, and our
government has been doing just that.
One of the components of the $34.4
million is $14.7 million to deliver our election commitment to our third
one-stop hub, which will be in Armadale. These are new facilities. We have two
already existing, one is in Kalgoorlie, which I visited recently with the
member for Kalgoorlie. Mara Pirni Healing Place is a fantastic facility for
people coming forward and getting assistance. The second one is in Mirrabooka,
where we have a number of services behind the counter, under one roof. Perhaps
people are not ready to go to the police or
a refuge or do not identify with going to a refuge, but this is somewhere where
they can go and get some advice, tell their story once and have a range
of co-located services to give them advice right
there in the heart of the community. We have announced two new hubs, one in
Armadale and one in the Kimberley. From hearing the discussion on the
one in Armadale, I suspect that they will look different in every single
community because the reality is that all our communities are different. We are
having conversations and discussions locally to see what that is like.
I do not know whether this quick
story will translate well for Hansard , but when we were launching the
Armadale hub and we had some media there, a member of the Aboriginal community
came along and interrupted me. He said that he was annoyed that Aboriginal
people had not been consulted about this process
and that he was sick of governments and others coming in and telling them what
to do. Other p eople were tapping him on the shoulder and saying, ''No,
we have been consulted. We know what's going on.'' I said, ''No, we've been talking to
elders.'' He said, ''I'm sick of it.'' People kept
tapping him on the shoulder . Later on he said, ''Okay, I have to
admit: I was part of the consultations. I didn't remember; I've
got this new condition called CRS: can't remember sh—''!
He actually had been involved in the consultation, but he had this particular
condition and could not remember it.
I
digress. We have $14.7 million for the Armadale hub and we are also spending
$7.7 million on enhancing our family
and domestic violence response teams. There are 17 joint response teams around
the state. Police work with child protection workers and local women's
services to assess risk and respond to reports of domestic violence incidents.
We will spend $7.7 million on an essential coordination and support team that
will increase training for those teams and provide some very welcome
information sharing. Finally, we are also spending $4.5 million to extend two
programs in the Kimberley for another four years. Those are the Derby family violence service that the Emama Nguda Aboriginal
Corporation offers in conjunction with Anglicare WA, and Change Em Ways,
a program working particularly with men.
There
is a lot of work to do in domestic violence, but I am very proud to work on
that with other government ministers and the sector. The Minister for
Health bemoaned the fact that she did not get any response from the opposition
on her mental health announcements. She should be careful what she wishes for, because the opposition put something out about our
domestic violence response, and the member for V asse accused the state
government of having a single-minded approach when it came to preventing family
and domestic violence. That is a curious
criticism, considering she has released only one single media statement focusing on domestic violence since becoming shadow minister a year ago—one
media release!
I also caution the opposition on
advocating a group called DVassist, which is a perfectly good service. It has been funded by the federal government and we
have never put state money into it. Of course, the federal government's
money is now winding up, and what is happening? It is turning to us to plug the
holes it has left in the budget commitments it has failed to meet. We will not
be able to do that; we are committed to our
funding. In fact, in the footer of the opposition's press release is a reference
only to DVassist, not to any of the
established helplines or to any of the state government–run and
well-researched state government helplines. It is irresponsible for the
opposition to refer only to DVassist at the bottom of its press release. It is
not funded and it operates in a very limited way. That is a very irresponsible
thing to do, and it shows the opposition's lack of understanding of
domestic violence in our state.
member for the question and for her interest in this area.
(1)–(2)
I am very proud of the announcement we made recently in the lead-up to the
state budget, which was an additional—that is, a new spend—$34.4
million of funding to support our program to prevent family and domestic
violence. I will go through some of the detail. It has been significant in the
last five years when we have seen a dedicated
approach, partly from having an appointed minister, but also a program of
change across a whole area of work—keeping victims safe, holding
perpetrators to account, law reform, making sure
that our justice system is up to the task and leading a conversation in the
community that says domestic violence is not acceptable, and our
government has been doing just that.
One of the components of the $34.4
million is $14.7 million to deliver our election commitment to our third
one-stop hub, which will be in Armadale. These are new facilities. We have two
already existing, one is in Kalgoorlie, which I visited recently with the
member for Kalgoorlie. Mara Pirni Healing Place is a fantastic facility for
people coming forward and getting assistance. The second one is in Mirrabooka,
where we have a number of services behind the counter, under one roof. Perhaps
people are not ready to go to the police or
a refuge or do not identify with going to a refuge, but this is somewhere where
they can go and get some advice, tell their story once and have a range
of co-located services to give them advice right
there in the heart of the community. We have announced two new hubs, one in
Armadale and one in the Kimberley. From hearing the discussion on the
one in Armadale, I suspect that they will look different in every single
community because the reality is that all our communities are different. We are
having conversations and discussions locally to see what that is like.
I do not know whether this quick
story will translate well for Hansard , but when we were launching the
Armadale hub and we had some media there, a member of the Aboriginal community
came along and interrupted me. He said that he was annoyed that Aboriginal
people had not been consulted about this process
and that he was sick of governments and others coming in and telling them what
to do. Other p eople were tapping him on the shoulder and saying, ''No,
we have been consulted. We know what's going on.'' I said, ''No, we've been talking to
elders.'' He said, ''I'm sick of it.'' People kept
tapping him on the shoulder . Later on he said, ''Okay, I have to
admit: I was part of the consultations. I didn't remember; I've
got this new condition called CRS: can't remember sh—''!
He actually had been involved in the consultation, but he had this particular
condition and could not remember it.
I
digress. We have $14.7 million for the Armadale hub and we are also spending
$7.7 million on enhancing our family
and domestic violence response teams. There are 17 joint response teams around
the state. Police work with child protection workers and local women's
services to assess risk and respond to reports of domestic violence incidents.
We will spend $7.7 million on an essential coordination and support team that
will increase training for those teams and provide some very welcome
information sharing. Finally, we are also spending $4.5 million to extend two
programs in the Kimberley for another four years. Those are the Derby family violence service that the Emama Nguda Aboriginal
Corporation offers in conjunction with Anglicare WA, and Change Em Ways,
a program working particularly with men.
There
is a lot of work to do in domestic violence, but I am very proud to work on
that with other government ministers and the sector. The Minister for
Health bemoaned the fact that she did not get any response from the opposition
on her mental health announcements. She should be careful what she wishes for, because the opposition put something out about our
domestic violence response, and the member for V asse accused the state
government of having a single-minded approach when it came to preventing family
and domestic violence. That is a curious
criticism, considering she has released only one single media statement focusing on domestic violence since becoming shadow minister a year ago—one
media release!
I also caution the opposition on
advocating a group called DVassist, which is a perfectly good service. It has been funded by the federal government and we
have never put state money into it. Of course, the federal government's
money is now winding up, and what is happening? It is turning to us to plug the
holes it has left in the budget commitments it has failed to meet. We will not
be able to do that; we are committed to our
funding. In fact, in the footer of the opposition's press release is a reference
only to DVassist, not to any of the
established helplines or to any of the state government–run and
well-researched state government helplines. It is irresponsible for the
opposition to refer only to DVassist at the bottom of its press release. It is
not funded and it operates in a very limited way. That is a very irresponsible
thing to do, and it shows the opposition's lack of understanding of
domestic violence in our state.
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