Background Paper to Time for Action: The National Council's Plan for Australia to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children, 2009-2021   

9.1 Overview

The following table provides a high-level overview of the support systems for victims/survivors of sexual assault and domestic and family violence in South Australia in terms of the ‘three S’s’ – structural, strategic and sustained environments.

The following table provides a high-level overview of the support systems in place for victims/survivors of sexual assault and domestic and family violence in South Australia in terms of the ‘three P’s’ – prevention, provision and prosecution.

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9.2 Profile

This section outlines in further detail the South Australian Government’s current response to violence against women and their children, using Amnesty International’s structure of the ‘three S’s’ – structural, strategic and sustainable, and ‘three P’s’ – prevention, provision and prosecution.

9.2.1 Structural

The structural arrangements in place to coordinate and harmonise efforts to reduce violence against women are as follows.

• The Office for Women plays the lead role in the South Australian Government’s Women’s Safety Strategy.
• The Office for Women is supported by a whole-of-government Women’s Safety Strategy Reference Group chaired by the Minister for the Status of Women. This group meets every six weeks and has representation from the following:
  • Office for Women;
  • Attorney-General’s Department;
  • Department for Families and Communities;
  • Department of Premier and Cabinet;
  • Department of Further Education, Employment, Science and Technology;
  • Department of Primary Industries, Resources, South Australia;
  • Department of Transport, Energy and Infrastructure;
  • Office for Recreation and Sport;
  • Department of Education and Children’s Services;
  • Department of Health;
  • representation from a non-government domestic violence service.
• Several working groups have flowed from the reference group and have a focus on:
  • Aboriginal family violence;
  • culturally and linguistically diverse women;
  • women with disabilities;
  • women, work and violence;
  • women’s safety and sport.
• A major undertaking by the Women's Safety Strategy Reference Group in 2006 was the development of an integrated services model. This model, the Family Safety Framework, was first trialled in 2007, with further trials in 2008 . It seeks to ensure that services to families most at risk of violence are dealt with in a more structured and systematic way – through agencies sharing information about high-risk families and taking responsibility for supporting these families to navigate the services system. The Family Safety Framework incorporates an agreement to share information between agencies and sets parameters for the sharing of information. Trials of the framework have been conducted in three regions across South Australia: Holden Hill, Noarlunga and Port Augusta policing boundaries. These pilots will be evaluated soon.

9.2.2 Strategic

The Women’s Safety Strategy 2005 is the main policy document addressing violence against women and children in South Australia. It outlines four key directions:

• prevention of violence against women;
• provision of services to those who need them;
• protection for women from experiencing violence;
• performance – monitoring and evaluation of the strategy.

Activities undertaken to progress the strategy are outlined in two main reports – the Women’s Safety Strategy Achievement Report (March 2005 – March 2007), which provides an overview of the initiatives and achievements of the strategy to date, and the Women’s Safety Strategy Snapshots (March 2005 – March 2007).

Strategic initiatives that complement, or are aligned with, the Women’s Safety Strategy include:

• revised information-sharing legislation to enhance the capacity to communicate information about services responding to women, children and perpetrators of violence;
• the Domestic Violence Strategy introduced by South Australia Police. This has resulted in changes to the way police respond to reports of domestic violence and aims to enhance the safety of victims and ensure that perpetrators of violence are held accountable by the criminal justice system;
• Domestic Violence Case Management Standards. These have been developed to ensure that work with perpetrators of violence prioritises the safety of women and children. These standards are being implemented through local partnership arrangements;
• reforms in relation to both sexual assault and domestic violence laws, which are being considered by the South Australian Government;
• the Youth Action Plan for South Australia, which identifies a goal that ‘young people are safe and protected and develop and maintain healthy relationships’;
• the Domestic Violence Workforce Project, which resulted from consultation with the workforce about resources to support staff working with victims of domestic violence;
• the South Australian Women’s Health Policy, which identifies priorities to improve health outcomes for women, including through linkages with the Women’s Safety Strategy. The policy includes the need for health services to promote women’s safety and provide a response to women and their children when needed. Health services must also establish linkages with services to provide community support for vulnerable women and children. Policy initiatives include service standards to inform responses to women who have been sexually assaulted; and responses to ameliorate the impact of violence on women’s wellbeing and health.

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9.2.3 Sustained

South Australia has put in place the following measures to fund and lead responses to violence against women.

• Sustained commitment to the Women’s Safety Strategy is demonstrated through the ongoing coordination role of the Office for Women in South Australia. While initiatives emerging from the strategy have been evaluated, further monitoring and evaluation of the strategy’s affect on reducing violence to women and their children is needed.
• In addition to existing resources, specific funding has been provided under the Women’s Safety Strategy for the following:
  • Community Education Projects;
  • a Community Education Grant Fund;
  • an Anti-Violence Community Education Strategy.
• Other groups that coordinate and sustain responses to women affected by violence include:
  • the Coalition of Women’s Domestic Violence Services;
  • the Onkaparinga Collaborative Approach;
  • the Inter-agency Family Violence and Sexual Assault Working Group in the southern suburbs of Adelaide;
  • the Western Collaborative Approach – an interagency family violence and sexual assault working group in the western suburbs of Adelaide.

9.2.4 Prevention

In terms of prevention, the Women’s Safety Strategy Achievement Report 2007 highlighted several initiatives over the two-year period from March 2005 to March 2007. Some of these include:

• administration of Women’s Safety Strategy Community Education Grants to 14 recipients. Examples included the Aged Rights Advocacy Service Inc for the provision of translated written information for older women in the Italian, Greek, Polish and Vietnamese communities on elder abuse and how to access assistance; the Adelaide Central and Eastern Division Of General Practice for the provision of the necessary skills to general practitioners so they can train their peers to recognise and assist patients who live with violence; and the Aldinga Community Centre Inc for the creation of posters in collaboration with Aldinga schools to provide an opportunity for children to express their feelings about safety and violence in the family;
• coordination of events such as the White Ribbon Day (International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women), Reclaim the Night, 16 Days of Activism Against Gendered Violence and International Women’s Day;
• the launch of the Learn2Earn: Young Women's Self Defence and Personal Safety campaign which targets young women at risk aged 16-24 and not engaged in school;
• the development and launch of Stop Bullying in SA (www.stopbullyingsa.com.au)by the Interagency Committee on Workplace Bullying by SafeWork SA;
• the development and launch of guidelines Preventing Workplace Bullying: A Practical Guide for Employers; and Dealing with Workplace Bullying: A Practical Guide for Employees²¹⁷.

Other initiatives developed to address violence against women and their children include:

• Breaking Cultural Barriers – a service for men and women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds provided through the Migrant Resource Centre;
• a Victims of Crime booklet has been published and is given out by police;
• a web site has been established for victims of crime by the Attorney-General’s Department;
• the Indigenous Family Violence Partnership Program, which includes the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs funding for projects and initiatives that aim to reduce and prevent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family violence and child abuse.

9.2.5 Provision

The South Australian Government, through the Women’s Safety Strategy, has initiated services such as:

• the Women’s Information Service Family Court Support Program, which offers free and confidential Family Court support to women who have experienced domestic violence and are attending the Family Court;
• Yarrow Place, which is based in Adelaide and provides clinical forensic, medical and counselling responses to victims of sexual assault;
• the provision of cognitive behavioural programs for men in both Community Corrections and prisons who have been abusive to women and children to address offending behaviour. These include the Stopping Violence Program, the Sexual Behaviour Clinic for offenders against both adults and children, and the Violence Program;
• Keeping Them Safe, which is the South Australian Government’s response to the Layton Review 2003. It outlines the Government’s commitment to child protection reform and its primary purpose is to harness an improved all-of-community-response to ensure safety, well-being and shared opportunities for children in South Australia;
• the Adelaide Magistrates Court and the Elizabeth Magistrates Court, which provide an integrated approach to domestic violence. They operate in partnership with Government and non-government agencies and have well-defined relationships with the court and the police. They provide services to the male perpetrator, his partner or former partner and any children involved in the situation;
• the development of Domestic Violence Case Management Standards by the Department for Correctional Services. These ensure that the safety of women is a priority when working with perpetrators;
• the Rekindling Indigenous Family Relationships project in Riverland, which is jointly funded by the state and Australian Government under the Indigenous Family Violence Partnership Program and is supported by Country Health South Australia through the Riverland Regional Health Service. The program addresses healing and capacity building of Aboriginal people and communities and uses a partnership model to promote inter-agency cooperation;
• two Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander specific domestic violence services that operate in metropolitan Adelaide providing accommodation and support to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children affected by family violence.

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9.2.6 Prosecution

In September 2005, the South Australian Government, through the Department of Justice, committed to comprehensively reform rape, sexual assault and domestic violence laws in the state. The aim was to strengthen the laws relating to these offences so as to provide greater protection to victims and to hold perpetrators of violence more accountable. The reforms were also aimed at improving the response of the criminal justice system to these offences²¹⁸.

The Department of Justice committed to other legislative reforms that improve women’s safety. These include: the Sex Offender Register Bill 2006, which has been passed by Parliament and is awaiting assent; the removal of the statute of limitation that prevented sex-offenders from being prosecuted for offences that occurred before December 1982; new legislation that creates an offence of drink or food spiking and establishes a Commissioner for Victims’ Rights; and Judicial Seminars on child witnesses and child development²¹⁹. The Criminal Law Consolidation (Rape and Sexual Offences) Amendment Bill 2008 and the Statutes Amendment (Evidence and Procedure) Bill 2007 were passed on 9 April 2008. Victims are supported in courts by volunteers or by social workers in the superior courts.

The main legislation includes:

• The Domestic Violence Act 1994 provides for restraining orders in cases of domestic violence. It specifies grounds for making domestic violence restraining orders, terms of the orders, factors to be considered by the court and variation or revocation of orders. It also deals with firearms orders, the service of an order and applications made by or on behalf of a child.
• The Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 Section 19AA deals with criminal law offences against person and property. Part 3 – offences against the person – includes: homicide: unlawful threats: stalking: acts causing, or intended to cause, danger to life or bodily harm: assaults: threats with a firearm; and rape and other sexual offences. Part 4 – offences with respect to property – includes property damage, recklessly endangering property and intent to damage property²²⁰.
• Other legislation that may be relevant to responding to victims of perpetrators of violence to women and their children include:
  • Victims of Crime Act 2001;
  • Children, Young Persons and their Families Act 1997.

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216. Office for Women, Women’s Safety Strategy, Office for Women website, South Australian Government, Adelaide, 2008, viewed October 2008.
217. Office for Women, Women’s Safety Strategy Achievement Report 2007, South Australian Government, Adelaide, 2007.
218. Office for Women, Women’s Safety Strategy Achievement Report 2007, South Australian Government, Adelaide, 2007.
219. Ibid.
220. Australian Family and Domestic Violence Clearinghouse, Policy and Legislation, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, 2007, viewed September 2008.