Thursday, 13 November 2025

 Katie HALL (Footscray) (10:24): I am pleased today to be making a contribution to the committee reports with regard to the report from the Legal and Social Issues Committee which was tabled in the Parliament this year in April regarding the collation of data for family violence. The report noted 71 findings and made 61 recommendations and focused on how the Victorian government could achieve a more holistic understanding of people who use family violence.

I think family violence of course is an issue in this state and this country that has been under-reported forever. Although we have made great strides and of course had the landmark Royal Commission into Family Violence in Victoria, which those opposite referred to as a lawyers picnic, there is still an enormous amount of work to do. I would like to acknowledge the work of the committee members and in particular the chair, the member for Lara, for their outstanding work on this very important issue.

The recommendations in the report include making sure there is improved mapping on what data exists about what people who use family violence do and bringing together some of the siloed information that we collate here in Victoria. Some of the key issues identified in the report are Indigenous data sovereignty, the rectification processes to correct misidentification and learning about what works and the programs we have for people who use family violence. I think the main and key recommendation of the report is that the Victorian government embark on a population-based survey to bring some of that data together.

I speak to this report with some fantastic organisations in my electorate of Footscray. I noted when I was looking into this report that McAuley Community Services for Women, which is a specialist family violence agency in my electorate of Footscray, provided a submission to the inquiry. McAuley’s work is well regarded in this country and internationally for their research-based interventions, and in the financial year of 2022–23 McAuley supported more than 1000 women and 861 children through their services. Their work, led by the most remarkable woman in Jocelyn Bignold, has led to some really fantastic and innovative pilots, including the work that they do with perpetrators of family violence. I really commend an initiative which is called Safe at Home, which basically flips the ‘Why didn’t she leave’ narrative to ‘Why wasn’t he removed from the family home’. They are doing fantastic work with police, with specialist workers and with perpetrators who are suitable to participate in the program. I believe a pilot initiative of Safe at Home is currently underway in Geelong.

We also of course – and I note this through my role as Parliamentary Secretary for Homes – have a number of initiatives to support women experiencing homelessness as a result of family violence. I commend the report.