Wednesday, 4 February 2026

 Rachel PAYNE (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:27): (2266) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Prevention of Family Violence, and the action I seek is for the minister to expand the Alexis family violence response model to the City of Casey. Co-responder programs involve a family violence specialist worker being present during police attendance at family violence incidents. These kinds of programs have been proven to improve the experience of victim-survivors engaging with police and also to reduce rates of misidentification of the prominent aggressor. The Alexis family violence response model is a type of co-responder program currently operating across Prahran, Bayside, Morwell and Wonthaggi. It embeds specialist family violence workers within Victoria Police to provide immediate, coordinated support after family violence incidents. Where other approaches have failed, this program has been successful, helping people disengaged from support services and those facing repeat high-risk violence or complex mental health conditions. Evaluations on the program have found it is helping greatly to reduce family violence recidivism, increasing rates of incident reports and improving victim-survivor safety. It was great to see the government recognise the effectiveness of this program with their October announcement of a $1.5 million investment. This additional funding will help the program expand to two new sites. The locations of these sites will be based on police advice.

With that in mind, I know many would like to see a similar program here in the south-east. Jessica Geddes of Endeavour Hills was only 27 years old when she was fatally bashed by her abusive partner in 2020. The coroner’s report into her death highlighted how a police response, guided by a specialist family violence worker, may have helped her engage with service provisions and offered an alternative option for safety and support. In the City of Casey during the 2024–25 year there were 6519 family violence incidents, a 13.6 per cent increase on the number of incidents the year prior. Expanding the Alexis model to areas of highest need is just common sense. Casey is one of those areas. While I commend the government funding initiative for victim-survivors of family violence, we want to see these programs receive ongoing, sustained funding and include areas where there is highest demand. So I ask: will the minister extend the Alexis family violence response model to the City of Casey?