The One in Three Campaign has lodged its submission to the NSW Legislative Council’s Domestic violence trends and issues in NSW (Inquiry).

To summarise the main points in the submission:

• The existence of male victims and female perpetrators needs to be acknowledged by government legislation, policy and programs.

• The provision of perpetrator programs needs to be statewide. Community health counselling services are the logical provider.

• The psychosocial counselling needs of perpetrators must be met. This is rarely the case in groups based on the Duluth model.

• We would recommend the use of GPS bracelets only in such (rare) cases where the evidentiary basis for an ADVO is sufficient.

• Domestic and family violence policy needs to recognise all victims and perpetrators, including children, carers and extended family members.

• Gender-profiling of offenders and victims in legislation must be removed.

• The assistance and accountability of police services needs to be improved.

• The NSW Health domestic violence screening tool should be expanded to include men as well as women.

You can read the full submission here (PDF).

The Campaign also appeared before the Inquiry on 20th February 2012. You can read the transcript here (please refer to pages 16-24), and our Questions Taken on Notice, Supplementary Questions and Additional Information here.

The Inquiry held a private 'Round Table' with invited stakeholders on 18th June (transcript here). The One in Three Campaign was not informed of this event, nor was it invited to participate. As such, we have lodged a supplementary submission to the Inquiry (here) that is critical of the secretive process undertaken by this Inquiry.