Wednesday, 15 October 2025

 Pauline RICHARDS (Cranbourne) (10:35): I am very pleased to have the opportunity to speak on the Legislative Assembly Legal and Social Issues Committee report Building the Evidence Base: Inquiry into Capturing Data on People Who Use Family Violence in Victoria. I am particularly delighted to be able to thank the committee for the important work that has been undertaken on this matter, which has been a priority for this government and for Labor governments for the period that we have been working hard to respond to this most important law and order challenge.

I do want to thank and pay credit to the chair, the member for Lara, and also thank the deputy chair, the member for Euroa. I also acknowledge the member for Geelong, who has done a great deal of heavy lifting in so many areas of important public policy, and I will actually identify some of that as it relates to First Nations people in this report. Certainly this week, more than any week, we are conscious of the work of the member for Geelong. I also thank the members for Mornington and Eildon for the work that they have done, and the members for Clarinda and Bayswater. This has been really important work, going into some granular elements of how we can capture data and what difference we can make to this extraordinary and important work.

As I said, I did want to identify the member for Geelong for the great deal of policy work she has done over many years. But in the context of this report I think it is typical that, because of the work of so many of our Labor colleagues, traditional owners and the work that they do in responding to family violence really do set us up as a state that can look to our First Nations people for how we respond in a way to an issue that is always dealt with with community first. Whether it is our healthcare settings, whether it is the way we care for our children or whether it is the way we respond to how families interact, our First Nations people get it right because First Nations people know what is best for communities. We have important lessons to learn from our First Nations people, and that is also captured in this important report.

We do know that family violence remains one of the most pervasive and devastating social problems in our community. I spoke about family violence as a priority for me in my inaugural speech, and I have spoken many times in this place about the role that my mother played as being formative for me. My mum is 93 and still identifies the work that she undertook as a family counsellor and family violence worker in the City of Monash as being the most important work that she did – I am sure apart from raising four children and many grandchildren – this important work of identifying where the gaps are, how we need to hold perpetrators to account, how we need to prevent harm and how we need to support victims.

The committee observed that the data about perpetrators or, more inclusively, people who use violence is held in many places, and to understand that with greater depth and to understand the complexity of that will allow us to have stronger and more connected data and a stronger response. Of course I was, as many people were, in the room when it was announced way back in, I think, 2014 that the previous Andrews Labor government, now continuing with the work of the Allan Labor government, would hold a royal commission into family violence. I know those 227 recommendations have been a focus of this government and the work of people who care deeply about responding to this great challenge. I am incredibly proud to this day to have been a participant and a part of that response.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank those who made submissions to the inquiry. I understand there were seven days of hearings and 72 written submissions. We know that we can do better; this government is focused on responding to family violence. I would like to take the opportunity to thank of course the Orange Door in Cranbourne and all the amazing workers who respond to family violence.