The Listen. Take action to prevent, believe and heal report by the ACT Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Steering Committee for the ACT Government features the following recommendations, to be implemented in phases across multiple sectors over an extended period of time.
R 1 The ACT Government establish and appropriately resource an ongoing structured consultation program with victim survivors to continue to drive and inform change in the prevention of and response to sexual violence in the ACT.
R 2 The ACT Government fund training to relevant government and community settings on the dynamics of sexual violence, responding to sexual violence disclosures, and sexual violence active bystander training. Training to be provided to:
● frontline workers in health, education, child protection, and housing ● primary health care and allied health professionals in collaboration with professional bodies ● culturally and linguistically diverse community and cultural leaders, drawing on culturally and linguistically diverse expertise ● targeted community organisations ● tertiary education settings ● other workplaces including staff in the relevant service sector.
R 3 Integration, collaboration and case coordination between the response services must be immediately improved along with assistance to victim survivors to navigate the system.
a The response services should, at a minimum, be resourced to take immediate action to improve case coordination and collaboration when providing services to victim survivors. This should include reinstating the wraparound model with regular face-to-face meetings to coordinate addressing the needs of victim survivors, including children and young people, and to ensure provision of coordinated support whether or not the matter is, or is likely to be, proceeding through the criminal justice system.
b The ACT Government should immediately scope and pilot new mechanisms to further improve system coordination from the point of disclosure onwards while also increasing the ease of system navigation for victim survivors. This should include the establishment of a Multi-Disciplinary Centre (MDC) where specialist sexual violence response services, including police, would be co-located and able to collaborate immediately and as intensively as required when addressing sexual violence cases (especially children’s cases, high risk and complex cases). It should also include the engagement of one or more Independent Sexual Violence Advisers who would support and assist victim survivors to navigate the system. There should be a specific service for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women established to seek advice and support either separately or co-located with the MDC. Finally, a Centre for Healing should be established within the MDC to provide dedicated therapeutic pathways for victim survivors to recover and heal.
R 4 The ACT Government undertake a specialist services review of all agencies and statutory bodies, funded either wholly or partly by ACT Government, that provide services related to sexual violence with a view to identifying current system strengths requiring further investment to address survivors’ needs, as well as changes needed in services’ operating practices, performance measures and standards, training, cultural capacities, structures, coordination systems and current funding arrangements, with a view to informing future investments in necessary system improvements to enable victim survivors to receive highly effective, timely support in an integrated way.
R 5 The ACT Government, ACT Policing and non-government service providers take action to improve the cultural competency of workers and the cultural responsiveness of specialist services in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
R 6 The ACT Government establish a service to provide mentoring and training to the current and next generation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers currently employed or hoping to be employed in the specialist response service sector.
R 7 The ACT Government:
a resource ACT Policing Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Team (SACAT), Child at Risk Health Unit (CAHRU) and Child and Youth Protective Services (CYPS) to initially conduct a feasibility study of how joint investigations of child sexual abuse could be carried out in the ACT and thereafter implement a (minimum) 12-month pilot of joint investigations of child sexual abuse based on learnings from the NSW Joint Child Protection Response Program (‘JCPRP’, previously referred to as JIRT).
b review of the role and mandate of the Liaison Officers from other directorates, such a Police and Canberra Health Services that are located within CYPS.
R 8 The ACT Government fund specialist children’s services to provide additional training on effectively responding to children who have experienced sexual abuse and to increase collaboration and integrated responses across the system responding to child sexual abuse.
R 9 The ACT Government consult with ACT Courts for the purposes of undertaking a review and investigation of the NSW specialist court program to hear the matters of adults, children and young people who have experienced sexual violence.
R 10 The ACT Government commission a Sexual Violence Data Collection Framework and embed a requirement for compliance with this framework in service funding agreements.
R 11 The ACT Government research and consider measures to improve victim survivors’ experiences of the criminal justice process and ensure they are acknowledged and recognised throughout the process.
R 12 Justice agencies (Department of Public Prosecution, Police, Corrections and Courts) review their internal procedures with a view to ensuring that they comply with their obligations to victim survivors pursuant to the Victims of Crime Act 1994 (ACT).
R 13 The ACT Government research and pilot additional mechanisms to hold perpetrators to account including by: a expanding restorative justice processes for victim survivors b alternative civi ljustice regimes.
R 14 The ACT Government consider development of a Ministerial Direction to ACT Policing to focus specifically on the priority of effectively responding to sexual violence against children and adults as a strategic crime type, and that this be reflected in the Australian Federal Police (AFP) Corporate Plan. Whether or not the proposed direction is made, ACT Policing should:
a review its communications strategy to ensure all relevant information to victim survivors is provided in a more accessible, responsive and streamlined way.
b support SACAT to conduct a review of the current training framework for both specialist SACAT investigators and all other community-facing ACT Policing capabilities as they apply to sexual assault and child abuse investigations.
c review its policies for recruitment of SACAT officers, to address the lack of diversity and particularly to allow a victim survivor’s right to elect the gender of the interviewing officer, by: i increasing the number of women employed in SACAT including women in senior positions ii employing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander officers to work in SACAT.
d fund the design and delivery of externally provided specialist training to SACAT officers on an annual basis in relation to the conduct of effective Evidence in Chief (EIC) Interviews with vulnerable witnesses including children, young people, people with disabilities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and ensure that new officers to SACAT do not undertake EIC Interviews with vulnerable witnesses until they have undertaken the specialist training.
e in conjunction with ACT Government, consider a 12-month pilot engaging forensic psychologists to advise on the preparation for and conduct of EIC Interviews with witnesses reporting sexual assault, adopting a suitable forensic investigative model compliant with ACT law and suitably tailored for the presenting witness.
f immediately implement clear procedures to be followed when a decision is made not to charge. These procedures are to address:
i the requirement that a senior designated officer with oversight of the case must review and approve the decision not to charge
ii written reasons to be recorded on the file setting out the basis of the decision and the victim survivor is notified of the decision not to charge and the reasons
iii decisions not to charge are reviewable by a representative of the DPP upon the request of a victim survivor or their representative
g collaborate with the DPP to provide training to all officers on an annual basis, addressing the legislative test to decide whether or not to charge
h direct and support priority being given to examining forensic samples in sexual assault cases within a specific timeframe.
R 15 The ACT Government establish and fund an independent cross-agency taskforce to undertake a review of all sexual assault cases reported to ACT Policing that were not progressed to charge, including those deemed unfounded, uncleared or withdrawn. The initial phase of the review to focus on reports made from 1 July 2020 to present. Subject to the outcomes of this initial phase, the review is to be extended to all reports made since 1 January 2015 that have not progressed to charge. Further any victim survivor whose matter has not progressed to charge outside of this stated review period may also request a review of their matter.
R 16 That there be ongoing education of all stakeholders working in the criminal justice system, including the judiciary, lawyers, law enforcement personnel, and persons who work with victim survivors to understand and appreciate the nature and extent of sexual violence in society; misconceptions and myths about sexual violence including in relation to child related offences; the social context of sexual violence including modern sexual practices and communication methods surrounding sexual interactions among young people; grooming behaviours; and the ongoing effects of sexual violence on victim survivors, particularly regarding how this impacts their capacity to engage with criminal justice processes.
R 17 The ACT Government, ACT Policing and non-government service providers undertake training that improves cultural competency and the ability of staff to deliver inclusive and respectful practices to diverse groups. This training should be designed and delivered in collaboration with representatives of the culturally and linguistically diverse community, the LGBTIQ+ community, the disability community and other relevant stakeholders.
R 18 The ACT Courts should develop a Sexual Assault Bench Book.
R 19 The ACT Government design, implement and fund a long-term 10-year strategy for the prevention of sexual violence. The strategy should aim to change the attitudes and behaviours that perpetuate sexual violence and implement tailored actions to reduce the risk and occurrence of sexual violence in all settings where ACT residents live, work and play.
R 20 The ACT Government fund and make accessible evidence-based lifelong comprehensive relationships and sexuality education (RSE) to all members of the community. For RSE in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community it is recommended that RSE be co-designed and delivered in collaboration with the representatives of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community to ensure it is culturally-appropriate, respectful and safe within the community.
R 21 The following workplace reforms are recommended:
a The ACT Government review enterprise bargaining agreements (EBAs) in the ACT Public Service (ACTPS) in consultation with affected trade unions to: i ensure workplaces can respond effectively to allegations of sexual harassment and assault, and ii to develop appropriate EBA clauses to give effect to the Respect@Work recommendations of the Australian Human Rights Commission, to the extent possible in the ACT context.
b The ACT Government use legislative, policy and funding mechanisms to place a positive duty on organisations to prevent sexual harassment and sexual violence, including to add provisions to the Secure Local Jobs Code (SLJC) to require employers to institute policies which prevent sexual harassment and assault in the workplace.
c WorkSafe ACT to adequately regulate the prevention of and responses to sexual harassment and sexual assault in ACT workplaces.
R 22 The ACT Government should amend the law in relation to consent by establishing an affirmative communicative model of consent. This reform to the law should be accompanied by community education measures.
R 23 The ACT Government review and reform the laws and procedures set out in detail in Appendix 6 of this report.
R 24 The ACT Government:
a make an annual ministerial statement to the Legislative Assembly to report on these reforms.
b create (or combine) a single role in the ACT Government for the coordination of reforms at the level of Coordinator-General to ensure a sufficient level of responsibility and power to hold all directorates to account for reforms
c establish a Community Reference Group with a focus on policy advice to government and monitoring the performance of government and the community sector in the implementation of the recommendations.
The Steering Committee notes that ACT Government should establish mechanisms within government to coordinate reform and work with the community and justice agencies to ensure oversight of implementation and ongoing expert input into policy and service design. During this process, additional or revised recommendations may be made.
This report is only the start of an evolving process. The phased implementation of the recommendations in this report includes identifying where the immediate priorities lie—the first step.
