Ms JODIE HARRISON (Charlestown—Minister for Women, Minister for Seniors, and Minister for the Prevention of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault) (17:10): I speak in support of the public interest debate moved by the member for Wakehurst. I acknowledge the member's passion in this particular area. I have had multiple discussions with him, and they have been good discussions.
I thank him for his advocacy. I recognise the hard work of the people in the gallery and thank them for the work that they do in keeping victim-survivors safe and advocating for them. I know that it is incredibly hard work. We need to make sure that the way that we deal with domestic violence is flipped on its head. Only by doing that will we combat domestic and family violence.
I also thank the member for raising the profile of two key events that are fast approaching. The "Let's end domestic violence" vigil outside Customs House is being held this Friday and the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women is being held this Saturday 25 November, which signifies the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, an international way of raising this issue and making sure that people have domestic, family and sexual violence at the front of their minds for at least 16 days every year. I think it should be every moment of every day.
It is timely to be speaking about how we can eliminate domestic, family and sexual violence from our communities. The New South Wales Government is tackling this scourge in multiple ways. The word "scourge" is used fairly often, but I would like to find a word that is much stronger.
The Government is tackling it by keeping victim-survivors safe from the threat of violence and by changing the behaviour of perpetrators and holding them accountable. The Attorney General's second reading speech in this place on the Crimes (High Risk Offenders) Act noted the change to ensure that strangulation is considered to be a serious violent offence and puts serious non‑fatal strangulation in the same category as murder, manslaughter and intentionally inflicting grievous bodily harm.
Perpetrators serving a period of imprisonment for serious non-fatal strangulation may continue to be detained or monitored even after their sentence has been served. We know that prior attempted, non-lethal strangulation is one of the strongest predictors of subsequent homicide, increasing the risk by 700 per cent.
Too many lives have been lost to domestic violence. As the member for Wakehurst's motion points out, six women across Australia were killed in a 10-day period last month. That is a deeply disturbing and confronting number. To shift those numbers, we need to increase the focus on prevention. Prevention programs are key to changing the violent behaviour of perpetrators and ending the cycle of violence. To do that, there are programs like the Tackling Violence program, the Make No Doubt program, a series of men's behaviour change programs, and engagement with schools through the curriculum.
Importantly, as the member for Wakehurst raised, we are working on the New South Wales primary prevention strategy, which is currently undergoing consultation with stakeholders. This Government is committed to finalising and releasing that strategy. We need to make sure that it is well consulted and that it has the support of people who are working in the sector. The member's motion also refers to ways of keeping victims safe from perpetrators. Everyone deserves to feel safe and secure. This Government is investing heavily to ensure victim‑survivors can live safely. We are delivering Core and Cluster refuges for victim-survivors and children fleeing violence. The first two tranches of this program are underway, with 39 projects under contract. Once all three tranches are fully delivered, they will support more than 2,900 women and children fleeing domestic and family violence every year.
We are also focusing on our response to ensure that all Government systems and programs are working in harmony. A few weeks ago, I announced that we are creating the first standalone New South Wales Women's Safety Commissioner, and Dr Hannah Tonkin has recently been appointed. She will be at the heart of our response to making sure that it is a whole-of-government response. I thank the member for bringing this debate to the House and I look forward to continuing this important conversation.
