NSW domestic violence prevention scheme a 'game changer'

The NSW government says a scheme that targets repeat domestic violence offenders shows promising results in preventing further assaults.

NSW Premier Mike Baird, along with minister for Prevention of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Pru Goward, (left). Source: AAP

Launched at the start of 2016, the NSW government's $60 million domestic and family violence package included the roll out of so-called 'Suspect Target Management Plans', previously used for crimes such as robbery.

Pru Goward, Prevention of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault minister, calls the scheme a “game changer”, and says it gives police more specialised skills.

“In the first few months of this year they have targeted over 600 repeat domestic violence offenders and over half of them have been arrested. Of those half, almost all of them have been refused bail” she told SBS.

“We are putting offenders on notice: you will be targeted, you will be caught, and you will be treated as a criminal because this is a crime.”

It's part of an effort to cut the rate of re-offending within 12 months by 5 per cent over the next three years.

The initiative was rolled out across the state after a successful trial, the first time the plans have been used on this type of crime.

Ms Goward says it’s about time these techniques were harnessed to crackdown on such a serious issue.

“It’s standard procedure in most police forces now to target the worst ones, to keep them under surveillance, to tell them that they’re on a special watch list, to tell their victims that they’re on a special watch list, and to get them whenever they can.”

In an article published in the Daily Telegraph, Ms Goward writes that an offender’s history should be looked at closely, as “the evidence tells us domestic violence is rarely a one-off incident” but usually part of “a pattern of abusive and controlling behaviour”.

The article cites statistics from the NSW Coroner’s Domestic Violence Death Review Team, which reveals of 40 intimate partner homicides looked at between 2008 and 2012, “in all 40 cases the abuser used coercive and ­controlling behaviour.”

The state government is also currently running a trial of a Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme in four regions, allowing people to find out if their partner has ever been convicted of a violent offence.