Domestic violence recidivism has increased by 11 per cent to 2013 reoffences since 2015, data obtained by NSW Labor has revealed.
This is despite one Dominic Perrottet’s Premier’s Priorities being to reduce domestic violence reoffending by 25 per cent by 2023.
NSW is also behind in its commitment to meet the Closing the Gap, Family and Domestic Violence target of 598 incidents per 100,000 residents by 2031. In 2021, NSW had an incident rate of 1,328 per 100,000.
Jodie Harrison, NSW Shadow Minister for the Prevention of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault said the NSW public rightfully expected a certain level of integrity and commitment to action when our Premier announced a particular issue as a priority.
“Premier’s Priorities are not a set and forget mechanism and should not be treated as one," Ms Harrison said.
“The most recent data on recidivism of domestic violence offenders in NSW is a sobering read and hopefully a wake up call for the NSW Premier.
“More action is needed immediately to ensure this trend of increasing instances of domestic violence and domestic violence recidivism does not continue."
Documents obtained by the NSW Opposition reveal that upon being sworn in as Premier, Dominic Perrottet was briefed that the existing Premier’s Priorities were not on track and was given five choices of what to do moving forward:
- Commit to the existing set of priorities
- Rework targets for existing priorities
- Modify the scope of each priority to deliver a new agenda
- Add or subtract priorities
- Launch a new set of priorities
After eleven months as Premier, he has not committed to any of these.
These revelations come one week after it was revealed at budget estimates the NSW Government’s highly publicised domestic violence funding announcement from October 2021 had resulted in little action.
In response to questioning from Labor MLC Penny Sharpe, Minister for Women’s Safety and the Prevention of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Natalie Ward, noted that tranche one of three of this funding amounted to a mere ten percent of the overall funding promised ($47.24 million). Minister Ward was also unable to say when the first specialist housing as a result of this funding would be opened.
