Page 4046 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 26 November 2014
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emergency line in the 2012-13 financial year, an increase of 47 per cent from five years ago. We also know that any official figures are likely to be a major underestimation of the full scope and nature of the problem and do not capture the more invisible, but no less damaging, psychological and economic aspects of domestic violence.
Noting that, however, more figures were released recently. In 2012-13, of the 274 sexual assaults reported to the Australian Federal Police in the ACT, 55, or 20 per cent, occurred in a domestic violence context, and 33 per cent of all reported assaults were family violence related. In 2013-14 the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre received 15,315 calls, a 29 per cent increase from 2012-13. In 2014 the Domestic Violence Crisis Service responded to 15,109 requests, of which 84.5 per cent were from women. And also in 2014 the Women’s Legal Service reported that 63 per cent of women seeking family law court assistance were experiencing domestic or family violence.
While it is encouraging that women are becoming more likely to report abuse, a greater willingness to speak up is unlikely to explain the scale of the increase. With the rising demand for the 24-hour service, women are left at risk as the service struggles to meet the increasing demand.
Sadly, an increasing number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women have been accessing the Domestic Violence Crisis Service. Despite representing only 1.45 per cent of the ACT population, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people accounted for four per cent of the service’s client group during 2012-13.
The community sector not so long ago called for a holistic and whole-of-government approach to tackling domestic violence, and I do believe the ACT government is taking many practical steps in the right direction. In July this year the government ordered a review into deaths from domestic violence, which is being led by the independent Domestic Violence Prevention Council, which the minister spoke of earlier.
The council consists of a project coordinator and 12 other members, including representatives of different arms of the government, and at least six community members, including representatives of the Domestic Violence Crisis Service, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, the culturally and linguistically diverse community, and a representative of women with disabilities.
The review will consider closed cases of domestic and family violence that led to a death. The findings will hopefully help to identify potential legislative, policy, practice and service reforms, to improve the capacity of the government and community sector to support victims of domestic violence such as sharing information by courts, law enforcement and social services agencies.
We know there have been some other jurisdictions that have done reviews of this kind and they have led to some very good responses. The review was welcomed by the ACT Victims of Crime Commissioner as a way of both identifying strategies for preventing deaths from domestic violence and being a way to remember victims who have died.
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