Page 728 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 31 March 2021
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should I call? Who would I call? What number would I call?” The fact that we needed to have that conversation means that it is not as well-known as it could be. The minister and I are some of the more informed people in the community about government services and yet I would not necessarily know what to search for. Maybe I would have, but not everybody would. I have said in public that I would love to see social media advertising of this number and I would like to see it on the back of toilet doors and all of that stuff so that someone’s friend can say to them, “Well, if you’re concerned about that you should call this number for the ACT and someone will make sure you know what’s available to you.”
I am grateful for the work the police do in this space. I am grateful for the fact that people also will and do turn up to the ED. They need to be treated with appropriate respect and given options if they do—and I am sure they are. I just want us to have another look at it, and it is good that the minister is supporting that.
I also want to mention Victim Support ACT, which Ms Cheyne raised. I know Mr Davis was keen to see that supported as well. The information that has come back from the rape crisis services is that when they have finished dealing with the initial issues around the person’s needs it is often Victim Support that they go to. So the transition from one service to the other needs to be smooth. Then we have to make sure that there is capacity. My understanding is that there may be a bit of a backlog in Victim Support ACT. So when we are looking at the upcoming budget it might be possible even at this late stage to make sure that Victim Support has enough capacity to do the counselling required after the initial help from the Rape Crisis Centre.
It is always good to focus on the great work being done by FAMSAC at the Canberra Hospital and the numbers of clients they are seeing. I suspect there are a lot more that they are not seeing, and I believe we can improve that number. The number of people who go to FAMSAC and get those samples taken and get the support that FAMSAC has to offer is a reflection of how much we are empowering those people once these events have occurred. A greater number would be something to celebrate.
I thank Minister Berry for the conversation that she is starting via the sexual assault and prevention response working group. I obviously started my work on this motion before I knew about that, but that is all part of the same conversation and we are so pleased to be involved.
I thank all those who are a part of this conversation and I also acknowledge those who find this conversation really stressful. In every workplace there will be people—perhaps more blokes than ladies—who find this conversation horrible and do not want to listen to or talk about it. I thank them for putting up with it. You cannot make somebody want to have a conversation, but it is happening and I thank them for engaging with it. It is not easy to know what to say sometimes, but I am happy to do the heavy lifting on this one; I am very comfortable talking about these things. But thank you very much to all those who have had the grace to keep this conversation going, even though it might not be their preferred topic.
I thank all members who have spoken today: to the health minister, Ms Cheyne, Dr Paterson, Ms Berry for the ALP’s support; to Mr Davis for the Greens’ support;
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