Page 784 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 18 March 2015
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last year; consultation with groups representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, including the ACT Elected Body; a joint meeting with the chair of the Domestic Violence Prevention Council and representatives from a range of ministerial councils; and follow-up meetings with the school sector, the Ministerial Advisory Council on Ageing; the Refugee, Asylum Seeker and Humanitarian Entrance Committee, the Victims Advisory Board and the Domestic Violence Prevention Council itself.
This has been a very important range of consultations. Some of the opportunities in areas of focus emerging from the our responsibility consultations have included the need to engage business to improve social outcomes; the use of better and relevant data to shape approaches and to inform and influence decision-makers; the intergenerational impact of violence, including the need to intervene earlier to prevent the intergenerational transfer of clients into refuges; the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse women, Indigenous women and women with disabilities; promotion of gender equality in schools; joined-up systems and services to deliver appropriate responses; a focus on the child protection system and the out of home care system; and trauma-informed practice training.
The government is pleased to join with the opposition in both supporting this motion today and moving agreed amendments to it. Effective responses to the type of violence that we see in our community require a whole-of-government approach and a widespread community engagement. I think we are certainly seeing a broad groundswell of more intense community engagement than we have seen for some time on this issue.
The amendments I am moving to Mr Hanson’s motion are consistent with the government’s current approach of working together with our partners in the community to ensure a proactive response to domestic and family violence that is targeted, long term and effective. Included in the amendments that I have circulated this morning is a proposal to work with the Domestic Violence Prevention Council, our standing ministerial advisory body on domestic violence matters.
We are asking them to convene an extraordinary meeting in April ahead of the COAG meeting to allow for an informed discussion on actions to date, on key issues emerging and for members of the Assembly to have the opportunity to meet directly with that council and, indeed, a number of other individuals who I believe should be brought together, such as the Victims of Crime Commissioner and others, to be informed, to share views and to reach a broad understanding of the way forward on this very, very important issue.
Under the Domestic Violence Agencies Act 1986, the DVPC can inquire into and provide advice to the minister on matters relating to domestic violence that have been referred to it by the minister. The additional funding I announced last week will help the DVPC in this important work. It will help them in particular with the referral I gave them last year into the deaths of approximately 72 women over the last 25 years who have been killed in the ACT as a result of domestic violence matters.
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