The next Royal Commission Public Hearings will be held next week, with the key topics of “Children and Young People” and “Intervention Orders” to be examined.

Day 5 of Public Hearings (Tuesday 25 February) will call on witnesses with expertise in understanding and addressing the impact of domestic, family and sexual violence on children, and in particular recognising children and young people as victim-survivors in their own right.

Day 6 (Wednesday 26 February) will explore the intervention order systems in South Australia and what is needed to ensure these systems are effective.

Both sessions will be live streamed via the Royal Commission website. Full witness details are available here.

Four more Public Hearing days will be held next month, as the Commission continues to explore emerging themes and issues relevant to our Terms of Reference.

While the Public Hearings resume for 2025, our listening sessions and regional visit program also continue. These are very important opportunities for us to hear directly from those with interactions in the domestic, family and sexual violence system. I want to thank everyone again who has taken the time to share their experiences with me, and in particular those people with lived experiences through our recent visits to Catherine House and with the Sex Industry Network.

I was also grateful for the opportunities in February to meet with the leadership team from Women’s Safety Services SA, Women’s Legal Service SA, KWY and AMES Australia, and was fortunate to have a very productive session with the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner Micaela Cronin while she was visiting Adelaide.

We also met with Safe Steps in Melbourne, to hear how their Victorian model operates. Safe Steps offers the only statewide, 24/7, inclusive and confidential family and domestic violence crisis support service.

Our next regional visits are coming up next month, as we travel to the APY Lands and Ceduna, and meet with community leaders and key agencies. Each of these visits help provide a deeper understanding of critical issues facing rural and remote communities, and I also want to thank everyone for taking the time to meet with us.

I look forward to providing another update shortly.

Natasha Stott Despoja AO