CORONAVIRUS —
FAMILY AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE — FUNDING
492. Mr
A. KRSTICEVIC to the Minister for Prevention of Family and Domestic
Violence:
I
have a supplementary question. To get things in perspective, we are talking
about the 18 organisations, minister. Did the minister request additional funding from the Premier and Treasurer for
the important family and domestic violence counselling, advocacy and
support services contracts; and, if so, why did they refuse to provide
additional funding?
Ms S.F.
McGURK replied:
I have been working very hard ever
since I was sworn in at Government House, three and a half years ago, to make
sure that we understand what the priorities are for the services that respond
to domestic violence in our state. As I said, there is a lot of work to do.
Mr A. Krsticevic interjected.
The SPEAKER: Member for Carine,
you are on three.
Ms S.F. McGURK: There is a lot
of work to do to keep victims of domestic violence safe, to make sure that
perpetrators are held to account, that our justice system is responsive to the
particular dynamics involved—there is no better example of that than
the significant law reform before the WA Parliament that will be considered by
the other place this afternoon—and to make sure that violence is
stopped before it starts, with programs such as 16 days in WA and Respectful
Relationships in schools. I am very proud that $53 million of new funding has
been delivered to the sector. As I said,
there is a lot of work to do. The previous government left us with a lot of
work to do but we are getting on working in partnership with the sector and the
community to stop domestic violence in WA.