Page 932 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 30 March 1993
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The development of an integrated crime prevention strategy for the ACT is an important step towards the elimination of violent crime. The implementation of consultative mechanisms, such as a ministerial crime prevention council and a community based crime prevention committee, will ensure the monitoring of the implementation of this strategy here in the ACT. It has only recently been recognised that one of the most effective measures against violence in our society is to prevent rather than to cure. The adolescent development program, which has recently been initiated in the Department of Eduction and Training, provides an effective form of preventative education. Adolescents experiencing behavioural problems, including violent tendencies, are assisted and counselled before their behaviour becomes irreversible and impacts on the wider community.
This Government has also recognised the need to address violence in certain communities. To this end, the Government has provided for a new position for an Aboriginal drug and alcohol worker, who will provide drug and alcohol education, rehabilitation and support services to the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. The Government will also be jointly funding an Aboriginal crisis accommodation project, to ensure that Aboriginal people are provided with adequate and safe housing.
I have already mentioned in this Assembly the recent initiatives by the ACT Government which provide extra assistance and protection for women who are the victims of domestic violence. The Community Law Reform Committee's discussion paper on domestic violence is a very important initiative which the whole community will have the opportunity to participate in. The review of the Domestic Violence Act is timely and will ensure that women who are victims of domestic violence will be provided with more effective protection and support. The recent legislation to strengthen police powers in domestic violence disputes also assists in preventing violent crime. The police can now search for weapons in domestic violence incidents. This ensures that any threat of violence, if not eliminated, is severely curtailed.
The National Strategy on Violence Against Women is an important document that sets a plan of action for governments and individuals to follow. We must remain vigilant, as law-makers, to ensure that violence against women is not tolerated. We must also ensure that, as individuals, our own behaviour does not engender attitudes that encourage violent behaviour towards women. If we remain vigilant and continue on the path that has been set by this Government, we will certainly go towards eliminating violence against women.
MRS CARNELL (8.27): I am pleased to respond to the Government's statement on the National Strategy on Violence Against Women. There is no doubt that action is required and a national strategy needed to deal with violence and the impact of violence against women. I feel, however, that in part Ms Follett's statement tended to contain more theory than details about how objectives would be met. Ms Follett's statement could have contained more of how, rather than just why. Hopefully, some of the solutions will stem from the Community Law Reform Committee's discussion paper on domestic violence, currently in circulation. I and the Liberal Party are in total support of action taken to prevent violence against women, action to assist women to escape abuse and to set up the necessary support systems required to enable women to regain self-esteem and return to a more fulfilling life.
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