Wednesday, 4 March 2026

 Sarah CONNOLLY (Laverton) (10:47): I rise to speak on the Legal and Social Issues Committee’s report on the inquiry into capturing data on people who use family violence here in Victoria, and this was tabled last year. We know that when it comes to preventing family violence, the Labor government has done so much and so much heavy lifting over the past almost 12 years, but there is still so much more work to do. This side of the house are constantly looking at what more we need to do to not only prevent family violence but in this case capture the data on people who use family violence here in Victoria.

Cindy McLeish interjected.

Sarah CONNOLLY: I will take that interjection as an appropriate time to say I do commend the minister for going ahead and scrapping good character references. Good character references can be used for many things, including serious assault against men and women, but for our victim-survivors of rape cases, having to sit in court after experiencing what can only be described as the most horrendous crime involving so much trauma – trauma that will stay with that victim-survivor for the rest of her or his life – it is just so good that those good character references are finally scrapped and done and dusted. I know that announcement has been very well received in my community, particularly by women, so I do thank you for that interjection.

Like I said, we know that when it comes to preventing family violence there is so much more work that needs to be done, and because we are on the verge of International Women’s Day and we are looking at celebrating the tremendous contribution of girls and women here to this state and how far we have come and how far we still have to go, I do want to say that it was incredible. I was not here in the house when it took place, but I have certainly been here over the years in which all 227 recommendations have been rolled through this place, and that is the Royal Commission into Family Violence. A previous member of this place, who has now very sadly passed away, brought this to the house and got it through, and a royal commission was undertaken.

I just do want to point out, in light of International Women’s Day coming up, that having women here in a place that is traditionally male dominated, having a voice at the table where important life-changing decisions are made, is the perfect example of why women belong here in the Parliament of Victoria, in the halls of the Parliament, to make these decisions, because life-saving reforms have been made through these 227 recommendations.

But like I said, there is still so much more to do, and thanks to some of these recommendations and reforms, including establishing the Orange Door network, I have two Orange Doors in my region of Melbourne’s west. We have one in Sunshine and one in Wyndham, and they are tremendously important places that women know they can go to to seek help and escape violent partners. It is not just a resource for women, it is women and children who unfortunately all too often experience family violence. It is here at these places we can actually learn a lot about the victim-survivors who experience this.

The same cannot always be said for those who perpetrate violence. If we want to stamp out family violence from our community and our society, we need to know everything we can about the perpetrators of family violence. Like I said, this is something that needs to change, mainly because it makes perfect sense that the more we learn and understand about the factors that may cause someone to perpetrate family violence, the more likely we are to prevent that behaviour in the first place. So this has been a really, really important inquiry.

I do want to acknowledge the tireless work of not only committee members but the committee secretariat, who I know do not often get the shout-out that they deserve. These people perform tremendous work on behalf of the Parliament. I do want to thank all of the staff that were involved in the coordination of this inquiry, the preparation of the reports and the operation of hearings. In my experience they go absolutely smoothly with the committee secretariat. This is a really great report, it makes good recommendations and I commend it to the house.