Page 2711 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 10 August 2016
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community as a whole—that the impact of domestic and family violence in our city, in our neighbourhoods, regardless of social status, income or ethnic background, are so pervasive, are so destructive and leave so much trauma and harm that it is now time, beyond time, to respond to the issues, the challenges and the harm that this particular type of activity causes.
The government commissioned three reports into family violence: the Glanfield inquiry report, the family violence death review, and the gap analysis work. Together they give us a full picture of the seriousness of this issue and the need for all of us to respond to it. This is outlined in the government’s response to family violence that was released on 28 June this year. It sets out the clear direction for strong action against violence, and what we all need to do to work together to reduce its prevalence.
Underpinning this is an investment of over $21 million to tackle the issue of family violence in our community in this year’s budget. This is the single largest spend across government and non-government organisations on this particular issue in the history of self-government. It demonstrates a best practice approach for how our response to family violence needs to change to meet the needs of victims and their families and to hold perpetrators to account.
There are nine initiatives within the JACS portfolio that have been funded to address family violence, with a value of $9.6 million. They include the establishment of the family safety team and a full-time coordinator general. The Office for the Coordinator General for Family Safety will be responsible for facilitating and coordinating work across the ACT in relation to this policy issue. They will also provide accountability to government in ensuring that commitments made in this budget to address family violence are met. There is over $3 million to fund this important coordinating capability.
Some $1.46 million is being allocated to support implementation of a broad range of law reform matters identified by the Australian Law Reform Commission and New South Wales Law Reform Commission respectively. These will improve the ACT’s legal framework for protecting people from domestic, family and sexual violence and will improve access to legal responses for victims of violence.
This includes extra capability for the Director of Public Prosecutions worth $1.36 million; extra capability for Legal Aid ACT, $1.21 million; and extra capability for ACT police—$1.18 million—to fund additional resources to increase the capability of each of these organisations to directly support and protect the victims of family violence and bring perpetrators to account.
A crucial $1.22 million is provided to make an investment in a range of justice services when it comes to translation and interpreting services. The lack of third-party interpreter services for victims experiencing domestic and family violence in our courts and tribunals is an injustice that must be addressed. These women, and overwhelmingly they are women, coming from non-English speaking backgrounds, often in precarious circumstances due to ambiguous immigration status—they may have been here sponsored by a spouse who has committed violence against them and is now estranged from them; they may not be Australian citizens; they may not be able to work legally in Australia; and they certainly do not have English as a first
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