The Tasmanian Liberal Government is determined to address the appalling social ill of family violence.
As Premier I will personally lead the Government’s action against family violence, which will include a comprehensive Family Violence Action Plan to be released in August.
In addition, Cabinet has agreed to the formation of a Family Violence Cabinet Committee to oversee the development and implementation of a coordinated, whole of Government response to family violence in Tasmania.
I will lead the committee, which will include the Minister for Education, the Attorney-General, the Minister for Women and Human Services, the Minister for Health and the Minister for Police.
The first meeting of this committee was held yesterday, at which key timelines and milestones to deliver a Tasmanian Family Violence Action Plan were agreed.
The Action Plan will be developed with service providers, those affected by family violence and Government Agencies.
Consultation will be led by the Minister for Women Jacquie Petrusma, and will begin next week with the establishment of an External Consultative Group. The membership of that group will be announced soon. The Action Plan has five key objectives:
The release today of the internal review of Safe at Home is an important part of the process to improve our state’s response to family violence and will be used as part of the development of the Action Plan.
Tasmania’s Safe at Home Program was designed to meet the needs of victims, while holding offenders accountable for their behaviour and aiming to reduce recidivism.
An internal performance review undertaken to ensure the program is meeting its objectives has made 17 recommendations, and the Government is adopting all of them.
The recommendations include:
The implementation of these
recommendations will form part of the whole of Government Family Violence
Action Plan. We have already started work to implement a number of the
recommendations, while the remainder are being prioritised.
The Government is committed to doing everything it takes to address the
very serious problem of family violence, and ensuring there is a cultural
change in attitudes towards this social ill.