FAMILY AND DOMESTIC
VIOLENCE RESTRAINING ORDERS
565. Mr S.K. L'ESTRANGE to the Premier:
I refer to media reports that there
has been a 38 per cent surge in applications for family and domestic violence
restraining orders over the three years until 2018–19. Can the Premier
confirm that there is a gridlock in Western Australia's courts, with
women waiting months, even years, for family violence restraining orders?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
I
do not have the figures to hand. The Minister for Prevention of Family and
Domestic Violence just advised me that yesterday
we were able to announce the provision of 100 new tracking or monitoring
devices—the ankle bracelets—for perpetrators. Clearly,
family and domestic violence over the COVID-19 period has been an issue. The
Commissioner of Police has advised me that, overwhelmingly, crime rates have
fallen during the last six months, related
to COVID-19 obviously, but in the case of family and domestic violence, for
probably quite obvious reasons, the rate has increased. Obviously, we
have announced a range of packages, whether those packages involve
accommodation, tracking devices or new laws. In fact, we have done more in the
area of combating family and domestic violence than, I think, any government
ever. One thing we did was to ensure that all cases are reported by the police,
and no doubt that will mean an increase in reported cases of family and
domestic violence simply because all incidents are required to be reported as
opposed to before. No doubt that statistic will be used against us, but what
was the alternative—to allow cases to not be reported? That is one of
the things that we have done to ensure greater accountability on this issue. In
terms of the detail—the member will probably ask me a detailed
follow-up question—it would have been nice if he could have given me
notice about something like this.