Page 373 - Week 01 - Thursday, 27 February 2014
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(5) The ACT Victims of Crime Commissioner made a submission regarding the terms of reference for the Royal Commission. I am advised the main themes of that submission were that the Royal Commission should have regard to the support services that will be required to enable victims to give their submissions and that the Commission should include recommendations about reforms to prevent future institutional child sexual assault, support services for survivors of sexual assault and their families and opportunities for compensation for survivors of sexual assault.
The ACT Government has responded to three of the Issues Papers released by the Royal Commission in 2013. They are available on the Royal Commission website (which is at: http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/our-work/issues-papers).
(6) (a) The Victims of Crime Commissioner has advised me that he will employ the following strategies.
• Internal review of the organisational structure of Victim Support ACT and of case management systems
• Renewal of the organisation’s strategic plan to reflect the values that have been identified in the JACS Strategic Plan
• Defining the role of the Domestic Violence Project Coordinator in the context of the ACT Family Violence Intervention Program and the work of the Domestic Violence Prevention Council, and defining this role as separate to the functions and responsibilities of the Victims of Crime Commissioner.
• Identifying opportunities that arise through the interagency activities of the Domestic Violence Project Coordinator and the Victims of Crime Commissioner and identifying areas of reform that have interagency support.
• Stakeholder relationship management will be better managed through the development of written protocols with key stakeholders and this work will be supported by the Victims Advisory Board.
• Advocacy as the public voice of victims of crime: the review called for a better articulation of the model of systemic advocacy that would be most effective. The Commissioner will continue a consultative approach with stakeholders to identify the most effective model for advocacy within the agency.
(b) The Victims of Crime Commissioner’s functions are set out in the Victims of Crime Act 1994 and the Victims of Crime Regulation 2000. Those functions apply to victims generally in the criminal justice system. The Domestic Violence Project Coordinator’s functions are separate to that of the Commissioner’s functions and are set out in the Domestic Violence Agencies Act 1986. They focus on assisting agencies providing support to victims of domestic violence to provide services of the highest standards and facilitating cooperation between those agencies.
(c) The Commissioner is not advocating a split in the agency to deal with the two statutory responsibilities.
(d) The Commissioner has not identified a requirement for additional resourcing to address the identified priority.
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