Royal Commission into Domestic, Family, and Sexual Violence

Wednesday March 20, 2024

Mr BELL (Mount Gambier) (14:45): My question is to the Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence. Can the minister advise if the Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence will visit the regions? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr BELL: With the recent announcement of Natasha Stott Despoja as the royal commissioner, will Ms Stott Despoja be travelling to Mount Gambier and other regional areas to hear directly from regional communities about their experiences with domestic violence?

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD (Reynell—Minister for Child Protection, Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:46): Thank you very much to the member for his incredibly important question. I was very pleased to stand with the Premier and our now announced royal commissioner, Natasha Stott Despoja, to share the terms of reference and details of the Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence just a few weeks ago.

This royal commission sits alongside our government's comprehensive set of commitments in the legislative space, in the policy space, in the service space, to ensure that we are doing all that we possibly can to help to prevent and help to traverse that long journey to the eradication of domestic, family and sexual violence. I am certainly happy to fill the member and the house in further at every opportunity about that comprehensive agenda.

In speaking about the terms of reference and announcing the royal commissioner herself, we did make it very clear that this royal commission will identify any gaps in services and systems. It will also be a really important opportunity to raise community awareness, to ensure that there is deep community discourse and to ensure that survivors of domestic, family and sexual violence have an opportunity to be heard.

The short answer to your question is that the royal commissioner will be seeking to meet with community members, including in regions and in remote areas. She will be obviously setting out that program of visits and the schedule for those visits and exactly which locations. I will very proactively be sharing them with this house and in the media also, as will the royal commissioner herself, so I will certainly be very happy to keep you up to date, obviously particularly about your region, in terms of the opportunities for those brave survivors to be heard and also for those incredible service providers to be heard.

I know that we share a mutual friend and acquaintance in Susie Smith, who has been an absolute stalwart of the service system in the domestic, family and sexual violence space. Susie is also the co-chair of Embolden. I know that she has taken, rightly, a very, very keen interest in the announcement about the royal commission, and I am sure she will also share your view that of course we want women and service providers in the regions to be heard. We will make sure that opportunity occurs for individuals, but also we look forward, as I said, to the commission finding those opportunities to raise community awareness through their visits and their discussions that they schedule.

One of the terms of reference in the royal commission relates to how we can tackle gender inequality that we know is a key driver of domestic family and sexual violence. I certainly also look forward to that discussion in communities right across our state and also that discussion in here. I will certainly keep you up-to-date about impending visits to the South-East. As I said, I know the commissioner will be having her own program of announcements in relation to that as well.

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