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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 6 Hansard (17 June) . . Page.. 1692 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

Central to the model is a body responsible for the development of policy, the council, and a body responsible for the day-to-day coordination and implementation, the domestic violence project coordinator. The ACT is in an excellent position to implement an innovative model such as this. The Government does talk about whole-of-government approaches, so they should like it. We also have a chance to put the ACT back on the front foot and not lagging behind other States. As I said before, we do not have very good statistics on domestic violence to enable us to know the scale of the problem we are tackling.

The Government seems to think that the domestic violence coordinator position is an added extra. It is not. Anyone who has read this report will see that the domestic violence coordinator position is central to implementing a multisystems whole-of-government approach. The breadth of the functions that have been given to the council - all unpaid people with otherwise busy lives - is enormous. The objective of the council is to reduce the incidence of domestic violence offences. The functions of the council are:

(a) to promote collaboration among government agencies and non-government organisations involved in -

(i) law enforcement; or

(ii) the provision of health, education or welfare services to victims or perpetrators of domestic violence or otherwise relating to the incidence or prevention of domestic violence;

(b) to assist and encourage the agencies and organisations referred to in paragraph (a) to promote projects and programs aimed at enhancing the safety and security of victims of domestic violence offences, with particular regard to children;

(c) to advise the Minister on any matter relating to domestic violence;

(d) to inquire into and provide advice to the Minister on matters relating to domestic violence that have been referred to the Council by the Minister;

(e) to establish and maintain links with and among government agencies and non-government organisations concerned with domestic violence;

(f) to assist government agencies and non-government organisations to develop procedures for the collection, standardisation and sharing of statistical information relating to domestic violence offences;

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