Eastern Victoria Region
Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (12:24): (788) My question is to the Minister for Prevention of Family Violence. Family violence and sexual assault continue to cast a dark shadow over far too many women in my Eastern Victoria electorate. Latrobe and Wellington LGAs are over-represented in sexual offences. Gippsland Centre Against Sexual Assault CEO Jane Barr highlights the desperate need for more specialist sexual assault services. Oversubscribed and underfunded, support services cannot keep pace, with children and adults on waiting lists. Progress has stalled on the sexual violence strategy, and peak body funding runs out in June, with no indication that it is going to be renewed. We also know that one in four children, including one in three girls, has experienced sexual abuse. On behalf of GCASA, I ask the minister to commit to the $9 million of funding in the upcoming budget to allow the specialist sexual assault sector to continue to deliver quicker, flexible support and responses for survivors of sexual violence.