Kirsten Livermore (Capricornia, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I take a similar position to the member for Grayndler, who said that, while he appreciated the opportunity to speak on this very important topic, he would like to be in a society where the problem of violence against women was not as commonplace and as urgently requiring solutions as it is in Australia at the moment.

The member for McPherson is to be commended for bringing this motion to the House today, especially considering that Saturday, 25 November was White Ribbon Day, the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. I was very proud to stand with many of my colleagues earlier on today—men and women and members of all parties—as we put forward our commitment as parliamentarians to work in every way we can to eliminate violence against women and indeed violence wherever it occurs and against whomever it occurs in our community.

I am sure many people would be shocked by the statistics listed in the member for McPherson’s motion and those we have heard in the debate so far. One of those statistics, which we can see in the member’s motion, is that 23 per cent of women have experienced violence by a partner at some time in a relationship. This is a horrendous statistic, one which governments of all persuasions must act urgently to address.

There have been many reports and sources that tell us about the prevalence of violence in our society and particularly in our homes. The 2004 report from Access Economics titled The cost of domestic violence on the Australian economy contained statistics on the impact of domestic violence. The statistics showed that domestic violence costs this country more than $8 billion per annum. The report put the total number of domestic violence victims for the year 2002-03 at 408,100. I note that that is consistent with the Bureau of Statistics figures that the member for Grayndler cited not long ago. That report also stated that there were 268,800 children living with victims of domestic violence.

To go further in setting out the extent of this problem: domestic violence is the biggest health risk to Australian women, with one in four women experiencing sexual or physical violence at some point in their lives. It is clear from those statistics—and the reality and the horror lying behind those statistics—that violence in our community, particularly domestic violence, has to be a priority for all governments and for all of us in this House. While I acknowledge that the government has clearly recognised its role in addressing violence against women in this country through its ‘Violence Against Women: Australia Says No’ advertising campaign, there still are serious gaps in the government’s approach to addressing domestic violence and violence against women in our country. That advertising campaign is a $23 million investment in addressing the problem, but we do not believe the government has done a proper evaluation of the impact of that campaign.

In the meantime, around this country there are other services that provide help to victims of domestic violence and to women who have suffered violence and they are not getting the funding that they need to meet the demand, in particular women’s shelters or shelters for victims of domestic violence. One of the problems that face the Rockhampton women’s shelter in my area of Central Queensland is not so much about meeting the demand for shelter at the point of crisis—when women are fleeing domestic violence—but about where women and their families go afterwards. The rising cost of housing and the very tight rental market in Central Queensland make it very difficult for women and their families who are escaping domestic violence to find somewhere to go—an affordable, safe place to live—after they have left the women’s shelter in our community. If the government is serious about addressing domestic violence and helping the victims of domestic violence, it has to have a much broader strategy which takes into account all the dimensions of the problem. (Time expired)

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