Canberra Liberals MLA Leanne Castley, Deputy Opposition Leader and Shadow Minister for Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, has called on the ACT Government to publicly release Ministerial Guidelines for the Domestic Violence Agencies (Information Sharing) Amendment Bill 2023.
The listening report the government published last year stated: “Respondents indicated that their support for the Bill was contingent on the content of the Ministerial Guidelines which would operationalise and clarify the Bill. They strongly supported the Ministerial Guidelines being delivered alongside the Bill. Respondents noted the Ministerial Guidelines will need to provide clear examples and concise guidance to agencies to support them when determining appropriate information sharing under the Bill and specifically identify factors to consider when assessing whether to share information.”
“It is staggering that the guidelines haven’t been published and made available, despite calls from stakeholders and despite the Bill being listed for debate in the Legislative Assembly this week,” Ms Castley said.
“Guidelines are critical in understanding how the information sharing regime is going to work in practice, and it is unrealistic to expect organisations to have to hire lawyers to understand what actions need to be taken.”
The listening report also stated: “The majority of respondents provided strong feedback on considerations government should take into account. This feedback primarily asked that government ensure reforms are workable and effective and achieve their aims of facilitating greater integration and collaboration across the service system.”
Ms Castley claims the government has failed stakeholders and Canberrans by failing to publish these guidelines and has not even listened to its own listening report.
“NSW, Victoria, and Queensland have all published guidelines for their information sharing regimes, and yet this Government has failed to do so,” Ms Castley said.
“The project timeline states that the information sharing regime was due to have legislation approved in late 2023 to early 2024. It is now May 2024, and we still haven’t progressed the final stages.
“The Canberra Liberals want to work with the government to reduce domestic violence in the ACT, but the ACT Government is dragging its feet in this space.
“I recently announced that the Canberra Liberals would introduce a private members bill for coercive control legislation because the community understandably got sick of waiting for this government to make it a priority, yet again we stand ready to do the work required if this government cannot.”
