Page 716 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 31 March 2021
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piece of training material that we can in our society. Let us get to a position where the phone number to call to be guided through the system and to access the most specialised counsellors we have is well-known, easy to remember and everywhere—on social media, on toilet doors, in manager’s training packs and on emergency fridge magnets.
Justice must be served. It is our role here in the ACT Assembly to ensure that every person who puts their hand up and says that they have experienced sexual violence is taken seriously and given the very best we can manage in our system for them. I believe we can do better. I believe that this minister can make this happen. I believe that we can, together, stop these perpetrators from moving from one person to another and harming more people.
I will be supporting the amendments presented here, which are a mix of amendments from the Greens and Labor that have been through a process of detailed discussion with my office. I make special mention of Mr Davis; the minister; and Catherine Bergin in the minister’s office who, as well as assisting us in all things pandemic, has professionally worked through these matters and this motion with us.
On a final note, I want to say thank you to Brittany. I went to the March 4 Justice to listen and to add my presence to that of so many others to be a voice for those who are voiceless. I listened, I did my research and I tried to put myself at the service of those who Brittany believes the system is failing. I know that this has been an excruciatingly painful time for her. I know that day to day it must be very harrowing to live the experiences that she has had over and over. You are courageous and a leader. For all this, and for all you will do for others who are abused, and to see justice done, thank you from the heart.
MS STEPHEN-SMITH (Kurrajong—Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Minister for Families and Community Services and Minister for Health) (3.10): I want to start by thanking Mrs Jones very much for moving this motion and for her constructive engagement with me and my office, and also Mr Davis and his office. I am seeking to move an amendment that provides some clarifications and additions that have been discussed with Mrs Jones and her office. I understand it is the agreed process that Mr Davis and I will move our own amendments. They simply reflect the good-natured negotiations that just went on until a bit late in the day yesterday. I thank Mrs Jones and Mr Davis and their offices for the constructive approach that everyone has taken. I seek leave to move the two amendments together.
Leave granted.
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I move:
(1) Omit paragraph (1) and substitute:
“(1) notes that:
(a) at present Canberra’s Forensic and Medical Sexual Assault Care (FAMSAC) service operates out of The Canberra Hospital (TCH) –
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