Page 672 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 23 March 1993
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Reform Committee's further investigation, which they have under way, into the ACT sexual assault laws. My highest priority in all of this work is to ensure the safety of the women and the children of the ACT. While I listened carefully to what Ms Szuty said about the needs of men with families, I believe that overwhelmingly what we are dealing with here is a problem faced by women, and that in allocating government priorities it is essential that priority be given to those women and children.
Madam Speaker, to conclude, I believe that this Community Law Reform Committee discussion paper is a significant document. It is very well informed. It is important reading for everyone who is concerned with dealing effectively with domestic violence in our community, and I would commend it to members. If they have not read it yet I suggest that they do. I would encourage anybody who is interested to make submissions to the committee to assist in the process of making recommendations to the Government.
MR KAINE (Leader of the Opposition) (8.20): Madam Speaker, I do not usually speak in the Assembly on reports such as this. First of all, there are other people who are more knowledgeable on some of these reports than I am and I think that there is a wider forum in which a debate can take place. But there are some aspects of this report that I think are so disturbing that some comment at this stage is called for. The report makes it quite clear that domestic violence is a major issue. It affects the dependent in our community, those that we profess to care about most. As the Chief Minister has pointed out, 90 per cent of the victims of violence are women and for that reason the principal focus of the report is on women. There are, of course, 10 per cent of victims who are not women - that includes men and children - and within the category of people called women there are some special categories of women, including Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders and people from non-English-speaking backgrounds and the like, all of whom have their own particular problems in this particular area, as they do in other areas of our society which affect them.
Madam Speaker, the thing that worried me most about this report was the number of people who are clearly subjected to violence. I thought that the numbers relating to the ACT were quite staggering. In 1991-92 there were 6,091 calls made to the ACT Domestic Violence Crisis Service and in 1,737 cases an intervention service was provided. In a population of 300,000 people I believe that is a cause of grave concern. I am very concerned that despite these worrying figures the report indicates that there is inadequate data collection. Perhaps it is even a greater problem than the statistics indicate. Inadequate data collection in this case may well imply that the problem is understated, in fact. Establishing a reliable statistical dimension to the problem, I think, is essential to dealing with it. That is one of the first things that government, I think, has an obligation to do. Prioritising action on the basis of subjective or unreliable data invites misdirecting of resources and perhaps ignoring of the major issues that underlie this problem.
I think it is outrageous that in our community so many women and children are subjected to what amounts to a regime of domestic terrorism. It is staggering that women are captives in their own homes, are subjected to repeated violence, and in many cases are too terrified to seek help. In this situation it is clear that the power and protection of our courts is void. It provides no protection and no assistance whatsoever to them. These victims are unable to escape from their tormentors and it is quite clear that the protection that the community broadly
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