❓ A WA parliamentary question regarding the state of women's refuge services in light of a reported domestic violence crisis. The Minister acknowledges the issue, details increased funding and services, and outlines a whole-of-government approach.
AnsweredQoN 126Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
FAMILY AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE REFUGE SERVICES
126. Hon ALANNA CLOHESY to the Minister
for Child Protection:
I refer the minister to the report
in today's The West Australian regarding the domestic violence crisis in Perth. Does the minister agree with
the police commissioner, the W omen's
Council for Domestic and Family Violence Services CEO, Angela Hartwig,
and Dr Ann O'Neill when they say that the women's refuge system
is in crisis?
126. Hon ALANNA CLOHESY to the Minister
for Child Protection:
I refer the minister to the report
in today's The West Australian regarding the domestic violence crisis in Perth. Does the minister agree with
the police commissioner, the W omen's
Council for Domestic and Family Violence Services CEO, Angela Hartwig,
and Dr Ann O'Neill when they say that the women's refuge system
is in crisis?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for asking the
question, because it gives me the opportunity to clarify some matters that I had
to go on radio to clarify a bit today. There is no doubt that the number of
family domestic violence incidents has been increasing and in the last 12
months there were around 56 000 notifications to police for intervention. There
is a huge amount of concern to the government and I think to the whole of the Western
Australian population about the number of family and domestic violence incidents
that police have been notified of, yet we know that probably only about 20 per
cent of people actually go as far as notifying and seeking assistance, so there
is still a large number of people who are not yet seeking the assistance that
they need. In terms of the way in which the state government is able to respond
to that, since 2008–09 we have increased funding for family and
domestic violence services from about $21 million to $34.5 million in order to
provide services to people for this area. We have 37 women's refuges
across the state. We are able to provide on any particular night in Perth
places for 100 women and their children, plus for another 50 individual women.
Apart from that, if a person contacts the Crisis Care centre, where most of
these people come from, it can look across those women's refuges and
determine where there is a vacancy. If there is no vacancy, they will be
provided with alternative accommodation in another place until a vacancy
occurs.
Over and above the accommodation
services, we have a whole range of counselling services for people across about
17 different locations. We also have an expanding service for the safe at home
program. Women and children, the victims of the terrible scourge on our
population, should not be taken out of the home; the perpetrator should be
taken out of the home. This provides a much safer stay at home for those women
and children. There is significant expansion in the area of work as well.
Over and above that, we have two new
refuges under construction ready to open in the first quarter of this year and
we also have further expansions in the area of counselling services et cetera.
The government takes this issue very, very seriously, working across a number
of other government agencies, the work of the Attorney General and the work of
the Minister for Police. This is a whole-of-government approach to trying to
address this really terrible problem that we have in Western Australia. Not
only that, we are working in conjunction with the federal government, which
recently announced $100 million to provide a range of additional services.
No-one is suggesting that this is an issue that is completely under control; it
is certainly not. We are aware of it, we are working on it and services are
being developed.
question, because it gives me the opportunity to clarify some matters that I had
to go on radio to clarify a bit today. There is no doubt that the number of
family domestic violence incidents has been increasing and in the last 12
months there were around 56 000 notifications to police for intervention. There
is a huge amount of concern to the government and I think to the whole of the Western
Australian population about the number of family and domestic violence incidents
that police have been notified of, yet we know that probably only about 20 per
cent of people actually go as far as notifying and seeking assistance, so there
is still a large number of people who are not yet seeking the assistance that
they need. In terms of the way in which the state government is able to respond
to that, since 2008–09 we have increased funding for family and
domestic violence services from about $21 million to $34.5 million in order to
provide services to people for this area. We have 37 women's refuges
across the state. We are able to provide on any particular night in Perth
places for 100 women and their children, plus for another 50 individual women.
Apart from that, if a person contacts the Crisis Care centre, where most of
these people come from, it can look across those women's refuges and
determine where there is a vacancy. If there is no vacancy, they will be
provided with alternative accommodation in another place until a vacancy
occurs.
Over and above the accommodation
services, we have a whole range of counselling services for people across about
17 different locations. We also have an expanding service for the safe at home
program. Women and children, the victims of the terrible scourge on our
population, should not be taken out of the home; the perpetrator should be
taken out of the home. This provides a much safer stay at home for those women
and children. There is significant expansion in the area of work as well.
Over and above that, we have two new
refuges under construction ready to open in the first quarter of this year and
we also have further expansions in the area of counselling services et cetera.
The government takes this issue very, very seriously, working across a number
of other government agencies, the work of the Attorney General and the work of
the Minister for Police. This is a whole-of-government approach to trying to
address this really terrible problem that we have in Western Australia. Not
only that, we are working in conjunction with the federal government, which
recently announced $100 million to provide a range of additional services.
No-one is suggesting that this is an issue that is completely under control; it
is certainly not. We are aware of it, we are working on it and services are
being developed.
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