The Canberra Liberals have called for forensic services to be more accessible to victims of sexual assault.
ACT opposition health spokeswoman Giulia Jones will move a motion in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday that will call on the government to ensure forensic sampling is "reasonably accessible".
She said this was in responses to concerns she had heard about accessibility of the service at Canberra's hospitals.
"The swabbing is technically available seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Problem is, if you don't involve the police, it can be quite hard to get to it," Mrs Jones said.
Mrs Jones will also call on the government to ensure information about what to do in the event of a sexual assault is made easily available.
As part of that, she will call on the government to make a number people can directly call to access a forensic service.
She said at the moment there were five or six numbers to call, which was confusing.
"Imagine if on the back of every toilet or in Parliament House, every federal government department, there was the one phone number you could call in the case of sexual assault or rape," Mrs Jones said.
Mrs Jones will also call for more funding for the Canberra Rape Crisis Service, which is only funded to have a support person available from 7am to 11pm daily.
- Canberra Rape Crisis Centre: (02) 6247 2525
- Lifeline: 13 11 14
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark canberratimes.com.au
- Download our app
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
