Page 3357 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 12 October 1993
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That showed a very high level of acceptance of the proposition that domestic violence was very properly a criminal law matter and very properly a matter for police responsibility. National surveys as recent as 1989 indicated that an overwhelming proportion of Australian males felt that domestic violence was not a crime and was not a subject for police intervention.
One of the concerns of groups advocating stronger domestic violence laws has been that police attitudes have reflected the general Australian male attitude, which is that this is really not a criminal problem; it is a matter that should be left for a man and wife to sort out behind the closed doors of the family home. The fact that the Institute of Criminology, having taken an attitude survey of serving AFP officers, have found that an overwhelming majority of AFP officers take the contrary view is very encouraging and leads us to believe that the campaigns that have continued to be run - the things as trivial as putting signs on the back of buses saying "Domestic Violence is a Crime" - are starting to work. We are gradually, drip by drip, working away on the consciousness of the general community and getting people to accept that this is a major problem.
The report of the committee, when it is finally presented, will, I am sure, be another landmark in reform of domestic violence laws in Australia, keeping up the tradition in the ACT of progressive laws. I hope that when it comes down it too will enjoy the general support of members in this chamber that domestic violence law reforms to date have enjoyed in this place. This piece of preliminary research, which normally would have just gone before the committee and been filed away as a research paper, was of such quality and significance that the Government took the view that it was appropriate to bring it before the Assembly. I and, I am sure, the committee and those professionals at the Institute of Criminology who were responsible for the research will be heartened by the general bipartisan nature of support in this Assembly for domestic violence legislation. I thank members for their general support for domestic violence legislation and I confidently anticipate that when we bring forward the final report or reports of this committee that bipartisan support will continue.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
ADJOURNMENT
MADAM SPEAKER: It being 9.30 pm, I propose the question:
That the Assembly do now adjourn.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Assembly adjourned at 9.30 pm
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