Ms BADGER question to MINISTER for WOMEN and the PREVENTION of FAMILY and SEXUAL VIOLENCE, Ms PALMER
On 20 August you announced that you were amending the Family Violence Act, saying, ‘Family violence is aberrant and our government is committed to doing everything we can to protect victim/survivors’. On the same day, Police minister Ellis tabled the government’s flawed firearms laws. Yesterday, the Tasmanian Family and Sexual Violence Alliance (TFSVA) CEO stood with community safety advocates calling for stronger firearms regulation, including caps. The alliance CEO said:
The current debate and tabled bill overlook a critical reality. The TFSVA is asking parliament to ensure family violence and coercive control are treated as core public safety considerations as the firearms amendment bill is debated.
Minister, you say you are doing everything you can to prevent family violence and make Tasmania safer. Why aren’t you and the Cabinet you are part of listening to those on the front line about firearms reform?
ANSWER
Honourable Speaker, won’t it be a wonderful day when we don’t have a portfolio in our state that we have to be so focused on when it comes to eliminating family and sexual violence? I think we all long for that day. Our government has continuously been investing at great rates across this space, for sure. We’ve seen amazing investment through our third family and sexual violence action plan, early intervention and prevention, frontline services, justice responses and the amazing work that we’re doing with our Arch centres across all our three regions.
In your question you refer to the discussion about firearms. What I can say is, of course, while firearms only record a small proportion of family violence incidences, their presence significantly increases the risk of harm or death. I can’t imagine being a vulnerable person and knowing that there is that threat of a firearm. As I say, it’s only recorded in a very small proportion of family violence incidents, but is a significant threat for people who are in that situation.
Tasmania Police certainly treats access to, or threatened use of, a firearm as a high‑risk indicator and takes immediate action to protect victim/survivors, attending officers and the broader community. Police have powers under relevant legislation to cease firearms, to suspend licences and investigate offences wherever a firearm is used or is, indeed, threatened to be used in the family violence context.
I think the most important thing, and the area where I have been advocating and working with our police minister, is that we have to keep firearms out of the hands of those who would do harm. That’s certainly where our focus has been. Every incident of family violence is one too many, and a person intent on harming another person does not require multiple firearms. The right number of firearms for a family violence offender is zero. That’s where my focus is.
Supplementary Question
Ms BADGER – The minister touched on it, particularly around the coercive control component, which was prevalent in the sector’s submissions on this bill. Simply talking about police powers isn’t enough. We know that there are so many people in family violence situations who can’t call for help. Minister, the question was pretty simple. The stakeholders outlined in their submissions on the bill, and have come out since, about their regard to firearms reform in this state. Why haven’t you heard what they are calling for?
Ms PALMER – Honourable Speaker, to be really clear, I have extraordinary admiration for the numerous stakeholders that we have in this space and the positions that they’ve taken. It’s been wonderful to see our police minister engage with those stakeholders, ensuring that he is also listening to their views. I reiterate that a person who is a serial family violence offender, a family violence offender, should have no firearms. That is where my focus is.
Dr Woodruff – Serial offender?
Ms PALMER – Whether they’re a serial family violence offender or whether they are, indeed, a family violence offender. Police have those powers, this is what they do on a day‑to‑day basis. There should be no firearm in the hands of anyone who is a family violence offender.
