Farrer MP Sussan Ley has flagged some meaningful action will be revealed in the upcoming federal budget to support victims of sexual assault.
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She has become the acting women's minister from this week due to the portfolio holder Marise Payne taking leave and will be in the role when the federal budget is handed down next week.
"I'm particularly focused on the treatment of victims of sexual assault, through the reporting and justice process," she said.
"When I became aware less than one and a half per cent of all court cases resulted in convictions I felt this wasn't good enough.
"I know it's much worse in regional and rural Australia and the Prime Minister (Scott Morrison) asked me to look at women's issues more broadly.
"Research has been done on how the system works now, where it lets victims down and how it can be improved.
"What we need to see is the specialist capability within our existing court system.
"Clearly that is working with the states because they are not our courts."
IN OTHER NEWS
In the wake of the alleged rape case involving former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins, the government agreed to also hold a national women's safety summit mid-year.
On budget night it will reveal for the first time key spending measures supporting women's economic security and safety.
Meanwhile, Ms Ley said there should be no expectation funding for a new Albury-Wodonga hospital in the budget with master-planning work still ongoing.
"I don't want the master plan to be a day later than probably early October to come out," she said.
"It then gives us time to work out what we can do at a Commonwealth level to support that master plan.
"We won't support something that does't follow the master plan and obviously the states won't be doing that either.
"It will resolve whether it is a greenfield site, is it on the existing site, what does it look like and more broadly what will it cost."
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