Page 4044 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 26 November 2014
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not comparable to police data. We know that reporting rates are very low when it comes to reporting crimes of this nature and that the figures provided by the AFP are not likely to reflect the true incidence of these crimes.
In addition to this, data is collected in a broad range of other contexts—for example, in the criminal justice system, the emergency departments in hospitals, the Forensic Medical Sexual Assault Centre, other community support services, drug and alcohol services, mental health services or the women’s information line. There is no one centralised database that allows us to give an accurate picture of this. In the long term, the aim is to create nationally consistent data definitions and collection methods. All governments that consider the data framework to be a key priority are working together on how this data can be improved.
In keeping with the key priority of the national plan in building a strong and lasting evidence base, the ACT government has contributed to the establishment of the Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety and will continue to support the work of ANROWS into the future.
In the ACT we have recognised that comprehensive collection of data will contribute to provide a fit-for-purpose, rich and flexible evidence base to meet the current and future needs across the field. These needs may relate to topics ranging from primary prevention, to understanding the prevalence and incidence of domestic violence and sexual assault, to response and service provision.
I thank Mr Corbell for his amendment today. I think it goes to the questions that all of us in this chamber would have about how do we have good evidence, how do we collect the data and how do we report the data. I hope Mrs Jones will support this amendment. Mr Corbell has indeed noted March next year as the time when this data may be able to be consistently reported.
This week I released an information sheet providing an outline of some of the data that we do have and the information about ACT government strategies to address this issue. It includes data such as the Domestic Violence Crisis Service reported in their 2012 annual report, that, between 1988 and April 2012, 61 women, nine men and two children known by the service lost their lives as a result of domestic violence in the ACT—far too many, and something this community needs to be aware of.
As many as one in three Australian women have experienced physical violence and almost one in five Australian women have experienced sexual violence from the age of 15. The AFP data shows that, in 2013-14, 274 incidents of sexual assault, including sexual related offences, were reported to them. This data sheet shows that women aged between 25 and 35 are proportionally the highest identified age group experiencing these crimes, at 6.4 per cent. For the information of members, I table the following paper:
Violence against women in the ACT—Data and evaluation information sheet 2014, prepared by the Community Services Directorate.
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