Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Social Services. Will the minister update the House on what the government is doing to provide support services to people affected by family and domestic violence. How important is it that the government provides these services in our community?

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question on this very important issue. Of course, on 28 October of this year, the Prime Minister announced $100 million worth of support to the third action plan for reducing violence against women, and, in September of 2015, the Prime Minister announced a $100 million Women's Safety Package. The question was directed to the way in which these fund important services. Perhaps there is no more important service being funded with this very large increase in funding, which has been made possible by the commitment of the Prime Minister, than the 1800RESPECT hotline. That translates to practical assistance for women in need, on the ground. Since its inception, the hotline has been—

Mr Hill interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Bruce.

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

operated by Medibank Health Solutions, and it has used trauma counsellors from the rape and domestic violence services. Since 2010, there has been a much greater awareness of the issue and that has given rise to a greater number of people wanting to use this hotline. That is, in itself, a measure of some success as awareness increases.

The unfortunate outcome, however, was that, before we undertook recent reforms, the call wait time had blown out to over 10 minutes, which had meant that a whole range of women who were seeking assistance had actually given up waiting, and the call abandonment rate had lifted to 44 per cent. As a government, with the funding that the Prime Minister allocated, we did three things. Firstly, we commissioned an independent report to look into best practice models here and overseas. Secondly, we worked with Medibank Health Solutions to try and tailor the single best practical option that we could institute here. That option involved a first responder triage model, so that the first person you would talk to would be someone with at least a three-year degree qualification in a relevant tertiary field plus a minimum of two years experience in counselling. If you needed specialist trauma counselling, you were seamlessly directed to that at the very point of the phone call. Thirdly, we steeled ourselves to what is, inevitably, the level of criticism you get when you engage in reform of this nature. Ms Jenna Price, through the Sydney Morning Herald, said that this would destroy 1800RESPECT. The member for Griffith, in agreeing with that, said that the changes were terrible and that they would divert people away—

Mr Perrett interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Moreton.

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

from specialist trauma counselling. It might assist the member for Griffith to know that these have been the results: 80 per cent of calls are now answered in 20 seconds. The average call wait time has dropped from over 10 minutes to 35 seconds. The call abandonment rate in this incredibly important area has dropped from 44 per cent to 5.5 per cent. They are not terrible changes, as we were led to believe by the member for Griffith in the context of the election campaign; they are tremendous changes that help women in their greatest time of need when domestic violence—(Time expired)