Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I feel it's necessary to set the record straight on the Turnbull government's funding for the 1800RESPECT helpline after the contributions of those opposite. Whilst most of this motion is non-contentious, the allegations that our government is not doing everything it can to empower victims of domestic violence and sexual assault are simply untrue.

While I acknowledge the important work of Rape and Domestic Violence Services over recent years, we must be doing more to ensure that victims of domestic violence and sexual assault are getting all the help they need. When we came to government, 67 per cent of calls to the 1800RESPECT helpline, run exclusively by Rape and Domestic Violence Services, were left unanswered. Of the minority of calls who did get through, they had to wait an agonising 10 minutes. This situation left vulnerable people without an appropriate level of support or a service that could be relied on. With two-thirds of victims' calls for help going unanswered, this government implemented a plan to fix the helpline. We urgently undertook an independent review of the system, after which an emergency triage system was put in place in August 2016. This was called the first response model, and it has significantly improved the service. I'm proud to be able to stand here and say that the 1800RESPECT helpline is now answering 93 per cent of calls, and the average call wait time is down to just 37 seconds. This is a staggering improvement, but we're not going to stop there. We have increased funding for this vital service by $5 million in the most recent budget, bringing our total funding to $19 million in 2017-18 financial year. To put this into perspective, that means an extra 17 full-time specialist trauma counsellors available for victims of domestic violence. Now with a total of 48 counsellors, the service has never been this comprehensive or well funded.

The next opportunity for us to improve the service came this year when the current contract for the provision of the service came up for renewal on 1 July. In keeping with our principles of good governance, we directed Medibank Health Solutions to conduct a tender process to determine the best way of managing the service into the future. Medibank Health Solutions offered four invitations to leading Australian not-for-profit organisations, including Rape and Domestic Violence Services. By their choosing, Rape and Domestic Violence Services refused the invitation to participate in operating the 1800RESPECT helpline. That was their decision and, as such, it was outside of the government's control.

This motion before us talks about the change in funding to the service, but it doesn't say that the funding is being reallocated to other leading not-for- profit organisations, nor does it highlight our government's continually growing fund for domestic violence support services. This motion is not about fact. It's a rather poor attempt at political pointscoring and playing games. Domestic violence and sexual assault, however, are not playthings to be used for dishonest short-term political gain by the opposition and those opposite, and for them to do so is grossly irresponsible and dangerous. Allow me to put this question to those opposite: how many vulnerable women might hear the Labor Party's lies about reducing funding and think, 'Well, no-one's going to answer my call, so there's no point in me calling for help.' It's disappointing that just when we get this service working—which was a mess thanks to Labor's mismanagement—they would spread the harmful lie that the government is not 100 per cent behind those who have been subjected to domestic violence or sexual assault. It's simply not the case. The Labor Party should be joining me in congratulating our government for prioritising support for victims by outlining the huge increase in service funding, and thus encouraging those affected to pick up the phone. This thoughtless scaremongering from those opposite needs to stop, and they need to work with us to develop even better policies to address these very serious issues.

That's what the Turnbull government has been putting its energy into. We have escalated the national conversation and invested more funding than ever before. No Commonwealth government has ever invested this much in this area. In addition to our $100 million Women's Safety Package, which includes specialist domestic violence units around the country and new technologies to assist women experiencing domestic violence, we have launched a powerful national information campaign to change attitudes about violence and disrespect. This builds on our $100 million in new funding for domestic violence measures announced in the 2016 budget, and includes $30 million for legal assistance. With all these policies in mind, the government's commitment to addressing domestic violence cannot be doubted.

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