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.