Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In 2015 the Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs released a unanimous bipartisan report regarding the inquiry into the child support program. The report was called From conflict to cooperation. That report recommended establishing a dedicated family violence response unit within the Department of Human Services. In the government's response to the report it did not agree with this recommendation but advised that the department had a family and domestic violence risk identification and referral process. There had been a scoping study on that process, in the previous year or two, in the government's response to the report.

I would be appreciative if the minister could provide an update on the department's progress on that family and domestic violence risk identification and referral process. In doing so, I would like the minister to advise how many clients to date have been referred to support services via that risk identification and referral process; whether that process is being rolled out across Centrelink and through child support agency personnel; and how the minister's cuts to 1,200 jobs in DHS will affect DHS's capacity to identify risk and refer people who are victims and survivors of family violence who are in contact with child support, Centrelink or other agencies.

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