Page 3600 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 18 September 2019
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disability, substance abuse issues, addiction, homelessness and social and economic hardship. This is making a tangible difference in people’s lives.
I conclude by putting on the record my thanks to the organisers, in particular the co-captain of the Lime Stones, Chris Endrey, who goes to an extraordinary effort to make it and the lead-up to it a real festival of spirit. Here’s to next year’s cup.
Mirjana Wilson—tribute
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) (5.43): Madam Speaker, today I take the chance to use this adjournment to acknowledge Mirjana Wilson, who has been working as the Domestic Violence Crisis Service CEO for the past seven years and has been employed there for the past 15 years.
DVCS provides support to members of the ACT community who have experienced intimate partner domestic and family violence and those who have been engaged in it and want it to stop. Mirjana steps down after successfully leading DVCS through a period of significant change and transition to a holistic service provider for all of those affected by domestic and family violence. DVCS is more than just a crisis delivery organisation, because the entire family affected by domestic and family violence can access support.
On domestic and family violence and Mirjana’s work at the service, Mirjana was interviewed for the Canberra Times when she announced her retirement. She was frank—as we all know Mirjana can be—and to the point. She said:
We need to call it out and name it openly, and make it a priority to identify those men who use violence … But equally we need to better understand why they do it.
Seeking a career change from education 15 years ago, Ms Wilson joined the non-government not-for-profit support service firstly as a front-line counsellor. She quickly rose up the ranks. She says that there needs to be a holistic response. She said:
I got a bit sick of mopping up the damage … I thought what else can we do here if we just work in the pointy crisis end all the time and just respond to people who are in immediate crisis?
We still need to do that and we do it very well, but what about the people who use violence?
So we’ve expanded into that area, as well as others such as providing long term therapeutic support for children that have witnessed violence in their families.
On Mirjana Wilson’s work with the ACT government, in my time as Minister for Women and Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Mirjana Wilson has been an incredible and very knowledgeable sounding board in providing
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