Wednesday, 2 April 2025

Legal and Social Issues Committee

Building the Evidence Base: Inquiry into Capturing Data on People Who Use Family Violence in Victoria

Chris CREWTHER (Mornington) (10:29): I rise to speak on the Legal and Social Issues Committee’s final report on the inquiry into capturing data on family violence perpetrators in Victoria. Firstly, I will note it has been wonderful to be part of this committee. I will soon be leaving this committee, unfortunately, to participate more in the Electoral Matters Committee, but it has been great to be part of this committee on the organ and tissue donations inquiry and more.

On this inquiry into data on family violence perpetrators in Victoria, I want to express gratitude to everyone involved, from the work of the chair, the deputy chair and the secretariat to colleagues and others. In particular, the secretariat were amazing. Jessica, Danielle, Fred, Caitlin and everyone else who was involved have been amazing. Family violence is one of the most urgent social challenges facing our state, so their work was extremely important. But I also want to acknowledge the work of the chair, the member for Lara. I know we had many robust debates throughout this inquiry, but we managed to come to compromises and solutions when it came to the recommendations in the end. So I want to congratulate the chair on all her work, and it does show that Liberal and Labor can actually work across the chamber sometimes and actually get joint results. I want to also acknowledge my other colleagues, the member for Eildon and the member for Euroa on the coalition side, along with the members for Geelong, Bayswater and Clarinda. In particular I want to acknowledge the member for Eildon. Her attention to detail is amazing, and it has been terrific to work with her. She does not miss an ‘i’ or a ‘t’; she dots her i’s and crosses her t’s on everything, and it has been absolutely tremendous to work with her. She has really increased the value of this final report.

If we look at key statistics, in 2023–24 Victoria recorded over 100,000 family violence incidents. This has risen from approximately 88,000 in the 2019–20 period. For too long, understanding of perpetrators has been fragmented, incomplete and at times dangerously distorted. Without accurate, inclusive and coordinated data, we will continue to struggle to develop effective interventions, hold perpetrators to account and keep victim-survivors safe.

I want to quote a student called Charli Runge, a student at Balcombe Grammar School, who spoke on this issue earlier this week through a Committee for Frankston & Mornington Peninsula event. She said:

On the 25th of October 2023, Lillie James, aged 21, was murdered at the hands of her previous partner, Paul Thijssen. After ending their relationship just days prior, Lillie James was brutally killed in the bathrooms of a school gymnasium with a hammer by Thijssen.

She went on to say:

On the 16th of November 2020, Cleste Manno, aged 23, was murdered at the hands of her ex-partner and work colleague, Luay Sako. After a year-long campaign of harassment and stalking, Sako stabbed Celeste Manno 23 times in just 2 and a half minutes.

She went on to say:

The impact of this crisis extends beyond just the women affected and these impacts are felt across our nation. Domestic and family violence is the leading cause of homelessness for women in Australia. This places additional strain on support agencies such as The Salvation Army and leads to an increase in the need for crisis housing, which in turn has negative effects on our economy.

She went on to say:

It’s time for the government to take a stand and enact meaningful change. We need stricter penalties for breaching restraining orders and harsher sentences for those convicted of killing women.

Thank you, Charli Runge, for your comments and your passion in this area.

Going into this inquiry we looked at many different things. We looked at the fact that data is often siloed across systems, collected inconsistently, stored in disconnected formats and rarely shared in ways to build a full picture. We need a statewide data-mapping project to identify where this information lies, where the gaps are and how these gaps prevent meaningful insights. Current data reflects only those who come into contact with police or the justice system, and many perpetrators outside the justice system are not counted at all. We looked at the highlighted risk of over-reliance on demographic profiles, which leads to stereotypes and allows some perpetrators to escape scrutiny altogether.

We also looked to the future. We have 61 practical and well-reasoned recommendations in this final report, which I hope will be fully implemented. We looked at better training and tools to embed the multi-agency risk assessment and management framework in trials of minimum-standard datasets to create clear system-wide processes to correct the misidentification of victim-survivors as aggressors. We call for investment in research, including proactive information sharing; support for service providers, hospitals, schools and community legal centres; better attention to elder abuse; and collaboration. This is not just a justice issue; this is a community issue.