Laughter, and crying needs

The expression "laughs like a drain" could have been invented for the woman sitting in front of me telling me of the cycle of violence and leaving the family home, only to have to go back after a couple of days to, again, be beaten up by her spouse, on whom she depends economically.

I say this because her laugh - when she glanced at a newspaper cutting on my desk - was impressive. Oozing with sarcasm, her snigger sounded like the last of the bath water as it whirls into the plug-hole. "Domestic abuse laws lacking" ran the title. How's that for understatement? she asked with the cynicism of a woman who has given up on many things, but most of all on the political class.

Her laughter was compounded when I told her that this headline was referring to remarks made at a seminar at which the minister for women had designated the parliamentary secretary for the elderly to speak on domestic violence. The latter was reported to have said that new laws to tackle the problem of domestic violence were in the pipeline.

It seems that the minister, before allocating the parliamentary secretary with the task, forgot to tell him that this work got stuck in the pipeline for a couple of years. And that it has been "in preparation" since Labour issued a White Paper on legislation to offer protection to victims of domestic violence four years ago!

In the meantime victims are still constrained to move out of the family home while the perpetrator remains. The White Paper emphasises the immediate removal of the aggressor from the family ambiance in order to contain the damage. It also addresses the need for the elimination of a written complaint by the victim and for the police to take action on their own initiative as in other cases of violence.

In March 2000, the minister for social policy went on record saying that by June 2000 the Domestic Violence Act would have been discussed by cabinet and in parliament. In his speech at the aforementioned seminar, the parliamentary secretary for the elderly said that "much spade work has been carried out to finalise this law so that it could be brought for approval before the cabinet". This was said a few days ago, two years after the minister declared to all that by mid-2000 the law would have become law!

And as far as contradictions go, this government gets full-marks: as far as I know, spade work is the work carried out at the very first stages of a project, and not in the final stages. The spade work was done by the committee working on the White Paper prior to its issue four summers ago.

The recent court sentence, handed down by Magistrate Jacqueline Padovani Grima, where for the first time, a person was sent to prison for physically and emotionally abusing a spouse, sends the message that domestic violence will not be tolerated. This message may also act as a deterrent to potential abusers.

But this was only one of a few cases which reach that stage in court. There are many, many more - we have an average of 500 reported cases a year - which never get to that stage because of deficiencies in our laws, such as putting the onus of action on the victim rather than on the authorities. The call, from the victims, to move on with the sorely-needed legislation, should be seriously heeded and given priority.

The same reluctance to budge is also evident in the area of child care legislation. I recently attended a lecture given by Margaret Lucas (an expert on childminding) organised by the Cooperatives Board as part of a seminar they held on child care. Ms Lucas spoke, among other things, on the need for legal regulations and quality standards.

The Childcare task force have already worked on a report which was presented to the minister for social policy earlier on this year and which stressed the need for regulating the childminding sector.

And even here, the necessary work has been done to proceed in this direction. Labour had drafted a bill on the regulation of childminding. People interested in the sector have been telling the government to carry on with the work which was shelved when there was a change in government nearly four years ago.

While seminars and workshops are very important for people who work in these areas, and victims and service users benefit from the experience gained by those who attend, concrete action has to be taken by the political class in the form of, among other things, legislation so that those concerned can get some protection and well-regulated services.

If we can't even get around to seeing to these crying needs, we shouldn't be surprised that people laugh at the present state of affairs.