❓ The Minister for Police details her attendance at a COAG domestic violence summit, highlighting WA's presentation on the Kimberley Family Violence Regional Plan and the challenges of addressing family violence in remote areas. Interjections from the opposition disrupted the Minister's initial response.
AnsweredQoN 860Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE — COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIAN
GOVERNMENTS SUMMIT
860. Ms E. EVANGEL to the Minister for
Police:
Can the minister please tell the
house about her attendance at the Council of Australian Governments'
domestic violence summit?
Ms
M.M. Quirk interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Girrawheen!
GOVERNMENTS SUMMIT
860. Ms E. EVANGEL to the Minister for
Police:
Can the minister please tell the
house about her attendance at the Council of Australian Governments'
domestic violence summit?
Ms
M.M. Quirk interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Girrawheen!
AnswerView source ↗
This is how the opposition reacts to
a question on family violence. Members opposite interject before I can even get
a sentence out. The member for Girrawheen has no credibility.
The SPEAKER : Member for
Girrawheen, you have been called twice. I want an answer through the Chair.
Mrs
L.M. HARVEY : Thank you, Mr Speaker. I was very pleased to represent the
state government in Brisbane at a COAG family violence summit. Ministers and
Premiers from every state were there to present to 190 delegates, including the
Prime Minister, on parts of our family violence strategies that could be of
benefit and that fitted in with the national Australian strategy for reducing
violence in our community, particularly family violence.
Ms
M.M. Quirk interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Girrawheen!
Mrs
L.M. HARVEY : With the help of the Minister for Child Protection, who
assisted me in putting together some of the policies that she has carriage of,
I presented the Safer Families , Safer Communities Kimberley Family
Violence Regional Plan 2015–2020.
Dr
A.D. Buti interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Armadale!
Mrs
L.M. HARVEY : Members will be interested to know that colleagues from the
east coast were quite astonished when they were presented with the task and challenge
we have in trying to manage family violence in a geographical location such as
the Kimberley. It covers 423 000 square kilometres, about 180 or so
communities, and six towns. In fact, when I put it to my colleagues on the east
coast that the Kimberley—this is just one region—is twice the
size of Victoria and 71 times the size of Brisbane, the city in which we were
presenting our policies, there was a lot of interest on behalf of the Prime
Minister and other states in the family violence regional plan, particularly
our approach of engaging with the communities and the work we are doing at
present to link all our existing services to provide an integrated, culturally
appropriate response to family violence. We have improved our responses to
victims and to perpetrators and we are working on establishing a better data
baseline so we can monitor and evaluate the work we are undertaking.
Some of our significant improvements have been made by better
screening and assessment and referral forms for victims of domestic violence.
We have engaged additional crisis accommodation services and additional
services for victims. Kimberley district police have been working very hard on
improving their responses to attendances. They are gathering a lot of available
evidence for issues such as violence restraining order breaches and violent
behaviour, regardless of whether a victim wants to press ahead with charges,
which is important when there is a lot of cultural and family pressure on
individuals who are victims of violence. Forums have been held with local
magistrates, all our service providers and police—all the people on the
ground—regarding the use of VROs in the region to make sure victims and
offenders understand what a violence restraining order means, that they can be
varied and do not necessarily need to be cancelled if the conditions are not
workable, and those sorts of things. We will continue with that work. It is a challenging
environment but we have very engaged, enthusiastic and passionate people on the
ground who are working with government across multiple agencies to ensure our
response to family violence in the Kimberley improves. It will take us some
time to get it to the level we need, but we already have a significantly
improved service out of our inquiry into family violence and out of the
development of our strategy.
a question on family violence. Members opposite interject before I can even get
a sentence out. The member for Girrawheen has no credibility.
The SPEAKER : Member for
Girrawheen, you have been called twice. I want an answer through the Chair.
Mrs
L.M. HARVEY : Thank you, Mr Speaker. I was very pleased to represent the
state government in Brisbane at a COAG family violence summit. Ministers and
Premiers from every state were there to present to 190 delegates, including the
Prime Minister, on parts of our family violence strategies that could be of
benefit and that fitted in with the national Australian strategy for reducing
violence in our community, particularly family violence.
Ms
M.M. Quirk interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Girrawheen!
Mrs
L.M. HARVEY : With the help of the Minister for Child Protection, who
assisted me in putting together some of the policies that she has carriage of,
I presented the Safer Families , Safer Communities Kimberley Family
Violence Regional Plan 2015–2020.
Dr
A.D. Buti interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Armadale!
Mrs
L.M. HARVEY : Members will be interested to know that colleagues from the
east coast were quite astonished when they were presented with the task and challenge
we have in trying to manage family violence in a geographical location such as
the Kimberley. It covers 423 000 square kilometres, about 180 or so
communities, and six towns. In fact, when I put it to my colleagues on the east
coast that the Kimberley—this is just one region—is twice the
size of Victoria and 71 times the size of Brisbane, the city in which we were
presenting our policies, there was a lot of interest on behalf of the Prime
Minister and other states in the family violence regional plan, particularly
our approach of engaging with the communities and the work we are doing at
present to link all our existing services to provide an integrated, culturally
appropriate response to family violence. We have improved our responses to
victims and to perpetrators and we are working on establishing a better data
baseline so we can monitor and evaluate the work we are undertaking.
Some of our significant improvements have been made by better
screening and assessment and referral forms for victims of domestic violence.
We have engaged additional crisis accommodation services and additional
services for victims. Kimberley district police have been working very hard on
improving their responses to attendances. They are gathering a lot of available
evidence for issues such as violence restraining order breaches and violent
behaviour, regardless of whether a victim wants to press ahead with charges,
which is important when there is a lot of cultural and family pressure on
individuals who are victims of violence. Forums have been held with local
magistrates, all our service providers and police—all the people on the
ground—regarding the use of VROs in the region to make sure victims and
offenders understand what a violence restraining order means, that they can be
varied and do not necessarily need to be cancelled if the conditions are not
workable, and those sorts of things. We will continue with that work. It is a challenging
environment but we have very engaged, enthusiastic and passionate people on the
ground who are working with government across multiple agencies to ensure our
response to family violence in the Kimberley improves. It will take us some
time to get it to the level we need, but we already have a significantly
improved service out of our inquiry into family violence and out of the
development of our strategy.
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