Page 4203 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 24 October 2018
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the DVPC’s earlier recommendations regarding collection of domestic and family violence data in the ACT. In addition, in preparation for the national data collection and reporting framework, which is meant to be operational in four years time, the ABS has already developed a framework to guide the collection of this data, including advice on implementing data collection storage and reporting.
In light of these facts, it would, in my opinion, be a shame not to move forward as quickly as possible on this recommendation. And it would certainly be a shame to put off till the launch of the national data collection and reporting framework in 2022 the crucial data collecting that will help us give visibility to the now invisible children and young people who are affected by domestic and family violence.
As one of those former invisible children, I therefore call upon this government to take decisive action, as it did with recommendation 1, and commit to better collection and use of data and evidence to inform domestic and family violence strategies for children and young people, with a commitment to begin taking steps no later than the end of this financial year. There may be obstacles, but this recommendation is neither controversial nor inherently risky.
The rest of the recommendations in the DVPC’s report are likewise important. I therefore call upon the government to report back to this Assembly by the end of 2018-19 with an outline of what they will be doing in response to these recommendations. Madam Assistant Speaker, I commend this motion to the Assembly.
MS BERRY (Ginninderra—Deputy Chief Minister, Minister for Education and Early Childhood Development, Minister for Housing and Suburban Development, Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Minister for Sport and Recreation and Minister for Women) (4.33): I thank Mrs Kikkert for this motion today, which highlights the important role that the Domestic Violence Prevention Council performs for the ACT. The DVPC not only provides a very important role in advising me, the minister responsible for the prevention of domestic and family violence, which they do so wholeheartedly, with passion and drawing on their expertise, but also importantly plays a critical role for the whole of the ACT and has done so for many years.
It is important to cast our minds back to that first extraordinary meeting held in Canberra in 2015 following a number of very distressing cases of domestic and family violence resulting in the death of a number of Canberrans. This historical meeting, of course, was integral to the government’s future commitments in this very important area. Like the first extraordinary meeting, the second one in April was cross-party, cross-government and across our community and gathered buy-in from all quarters. As I said, the work that flowed from the 2015 extraordinary meeting helped to inform the government’s unprecedented investment in this issue.
In 2016, again, as members may remember, the government formally responded with the ACT government response to family violence and announced the safer families levy, which would raise a dedicated revenue source to commit an additional $21.42 million to new initiatives and important reform work. This work and the additional commitments continue and has now risen to more than $24 million over
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