Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to speak today on the motion of the member for Griffith regarding a significant issue facing our community. Domestic violence and sexual assault are serious and real issues that we must tackle across Australia, and particularly on the Central Coast. These crimes affect deeply the lives of many individuals and families in our communities. It's crucial for those families and victims to know they're not alone. That's why the government is committed to ensuring that there is high quality and accessible support available for those facing, or who are at risk of facing, sexual assault and domestic violence situations.

1800RESPECT is an outstanding national service that provides counselling for members of our community affected by sexual assault and domestic violence. Services like 1800RESPECT give many vulnerable people a place to turn to in order to seek the professional help they need at a time when they need it most. While I thank the member for Griffith for shedding light on this exceptional national service and the work of many victim support organisations, it is unfortunate that this issue arises in such a manner, because the focus should be on helping those that these services assist—the victims of the crimes of family violence and sexual assault—instead of using it for political pointscoring. I note that Labor has claimed that, due to a supposed 75 per cent reduction in government funding, the 1800RESPECT service has been negatively affected, yet the government has not, nor does it intend to, reduce funding for the 1800RESPECT service; quite the opposite.

The coalition government is undertaking a major effort to make 1800RESPECT the best service of its type in the world. We've worked hard at turning around a system that was failing to help victims of domestic and family abuse and sexual assault. In fact, I'm advised that the service had previously only been answering 33 per cent of calls. That meant that around two-thirds of people contacting the service didn't get to speak to a counsellor. Worse still, of those calls that were answered, waiting times to get to a counsellor were more than 10 minutes. I think all sides of the chamber today can agree that this is unacceptable.

In response, in 2014, the government committed $3.8 million to Rape & Domestic Violence Services Australia to see more calls answered. Unfortunately, this failed to change call answer rates. The government commissioned an independent report on the best way to improve the service. One of the key outcomes the report recommended was a triage systems with counsellors with a three-year degree and minimum two years counselling experience to answer the calls. This has meant that many calls, like simple requests for information, could be dealt with immediately. What's more, if callers required more specialised counselling, they were transferred to an even more experienced counsellor, so they didn't have to retell their story. The improvement was immediate. Now I'm told that more than 90 per cent of calls are answered with an average wait time of 37 seconds.

We are now continuing our process for improvement of 1800RESPECT and putting an extra $5 million a year into the service until December 2019. In this financial year, this will see over $19 million in total provided to 1800RESPECT.

The government also finalised its tender process for the trauma specialist component of the service, which was due to expire. The minister has advised that four highly skilled and respected organisations have offered to take part in a new panel arrangement and, across the four trauma specialist partners, the $5 million extra funding will be used to increase the number of trauma specialist counsellors from 31 to 48.

I understand that Rape & Domestic Violence Services Australia have refused to take part in the panel arrangement, citing a loss of revenue and privacy concerns. However, the minister assures me that, because recordings and file notes of counselling conversations are the subject of legislated privilege, the counselling communication is protected. I'm further assured that every effort will be made to absorb staff from Rape & Domestic Violence Services Australia across 1800RESPECT, and additional money will be used to provide training to all 1800RESPECT.

Running a campaign with the Australian Services Union against our government on such an important issue is not what the Labor Party should be doing. What we ought to be doing together is talking about how we can best help people in crisis in raising awareness in our communities. There are a number of important events that are being organised across our country for White Ribbon Day—for example, on Saturday 25 November. In my electorate, there is always an incredible show of support from the local police area command, businesses and families as together we walk up The Skillion in Terrigal. It's a walk I have joined for a number of years now, and I intend to do so again. I call on all speakers to unite and focus on backing important services like 1800RESPECT, and I invite the opposition to do the same.

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