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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 321 asked in the Legislative Assembly on 18 May 2022 by Ms L. Mettam

Parliament: 41 Session: 1

FAMILY AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SERVICES

321. Ms L. METTAM to the Minister for Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence:

I refer to comments from the Western Australian Council of Social Service calling for additional resourcing for family and domestic violence services, a sentiment echoed by Alison Evans of WA's Centre for Women's Safety and Wellbeing, who also said that additional funding for new initiatives like hubs does not ameliorate the historic and ongoing underfunding of this sector. How does the minister respond to accusations of chronic underfunding from key voices in the sector?

Ms S.F. McGURK replied:

I was amazed yesterday when I was asked a question about domestic violence and about a member trying to level a critique of us, as a government, combating domestic violence. I do not think anyone can say that since coming to office in 2017, this government has not provided singular focus, extra resources and also a strategic approach to tackling a very complex but, unfortunately, very widespread phenomenon in our society. Whether someone is in Parliament House in Canberra or on a mining site in the Pilbara, people are learning this the hard way. They understand that poor and disrespectful attitudes towards women, sexual assault and sexual abuse, and also family and domestic violence are manifest all too often and are often hidden in plain sight. The more that we talk about it, the more that we uncover the extent of the problem. It astounds me that I get questions from the opposition about this government's commitment to tackling FDV when it did absolutely nothing in eight and a half years. In fact, before this budget, the member, as the shadow spokesperson, had put out one press release in her entire time as the shadow minister. She has paid absolutely no attention to this issue.

We will have a matter of public interest on this matter today—another extraordinary strategy by the opposition to give us an opportunity to talk about our many achievements and progress in this area.

Ms R. Saffioti interjected.

Ms S.F. McGURK: That is right. We will have an MPI, so we will go through the things we have done, and they have been significant. To date, including in this budget, there has been $150 million of new funding. We can go through all the different initiatives that we have funded, as well as important law reform and cooperation across all the portfolios and ministerial areas.

I also want to say that it is ludicrous to keep doing more of what we have done before and expect a different outcome. We cannot do that. We have to have a different evidence-based, strategic approach, looking at the evidence of what is effective and bringing the community along to better understand how domestic violence manifests, what it looks like and how we can all therefore step up and change it. The example will be well made this afternoon. I will speak at a discussion about coercive control. We are starting to see in the community a deeper understanding of coercive control, what it looks like and how it can be an early warning sign of some quite troubling and possibly lethal behaviour by perpetrators. That is an example of having a deeper understanding of domestic violence and how it presents.

Yes, we have provided more resources. There is no doubt about that. We have had $150 million of new spending since coming to office. But we have also taken a strategic approach to understanding that not only do we need to keep victims safe and hold perpetrators to account, but also the community needs to better understand domestic violence in all its forms if we want to have any hope of stopping it.