I rise to, first of all, thank the Assembly for the progress that it has made over the past number of years on legislation to deal with and counter domestic and sexual violence. I have amended many of those pieces of legislation myself. I am grateful to the House for its support in that, but there are still many aspects of domestic and sexual violence and stalking that we have to deal with and combat.

One that I want to highlight today is the fact that, when a victim has to flee their home, they leave behind, sometimes within a matter of minutes, all their possessions — all their belongings. When the time comes that they can pick up the pieces of their lives and the trauma that they have gone through, they find that, when they get a new home, they cannot get those possessions. Usually that is due to the fear of going back to the home. Sometimes it is due to there being a non-molestation order in place — as simple as that. Those victims flee the home and leave all their furniture, storage space and clothes behind. It is very difficult for victims of domestic violence to start anew and afresh when they have nothing but the clothes on their back.

The House and the Department of Justice need to consider further legislation to protect victims of domestic violence so that there are no barriers for victims who flee the actions that they live with every day.