Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about White Ribbon Day, the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, which is held annually on 25 November. I have been involved with the White Ribbon campaign for a number of years as a White Ribbon ambassador because I find absolutely abhorrent the number of women who are subjected to violence in their lifetime. Nationally, the disturbing statistics are that one in three women will experience physical violence and one in five will experience sexual violence in their lifetime. What really brings this home to me is that of the women in my life—my mother, my wife, Bernadette; my daughter, Elizabeth; and my two granddaughters, Charlie and Kiarni—this statistic means that one is likely to experience violence in her lifetime. As a son, a husband, a father and a grandfather, I find that completely abhorrent and reprehensible. If everyone can personalise domestic violence in these terms and think about their families and their loved ones, people may have a better appreciation of the horrific and heartbreaking situations and the consequences and impacts that domestic violence has in our community.

Another disturbing statistic is from Amnesty International. It shows that in Australia domestic violence puts more women aged between 15 and 44 at risk of serious health issues and premature death than any other risk factor within our community. Clearly, we need to do something to change these worrying statistics; action must be taken. The White Ribbon campaign calls on all Australian men to challenge the attitudes and behaviours that allow violence to continue. It encourages men to act as role models and take the lead in order to raise awareness that violence against women is never, ever acceptable.

Sadly, in my electorate, 723 people in the Liverpool LGA reported violence, with another 690 women from the Fairfield LGA experiencing violence in 2009. It is important to bear in mind that those local statistics are from people who had the courage to report their experience of violence to the police. It is a sad fact that many incidents of violence against women go unreported. As a society, we should be doing everything we can to encourage victims of violence to come forward and to say, ‘Enough is enough.’ It is important to remember that violence against women is not simply physical or sexual; it can be emotional or financial violence. By ‘financial violence’, I refer to a situation when a partner or a husband has such a level of control over finances that women are forbidden to spend money on their necessities and those of their families. All of these types of violence against women are unacceptable.

I recently had the privilege of attending a session of the Aboriginal violence against women program in my electorate. The program is run by the Joan Harrison Support and Outreach Services for Women out of the Liverpool Women’s Resource Centre. My visit gave me a new and valuable insight into the work that is being done to break down the cycle of violence in my community. Through the partnership with TAFE New South Wales, the Liverpool Women’s Health Centre, WILMA Women’s Health Centre, Bonnyrigg Public School and the Aboriginal mental health workers, this program gets the message out there that violence within the family is never okay.

Five groups of women have now completed the program, allowing about 70 Aboriginal women to become mentors and advocates against violence in their own communities. The members of the group are given a simple message: if someone is hurting you or abusing you, tell someone about it and get some help and support. Those words are filtering down through the wider community as women who have completed the program become mentors and pass on what can be a lifesaving message.

My thanks go to Tracy Phillips, the manager of the Joan Harrison Support Services for Women, the Aboriginal project worker Mary Eatts, and Shirley Kent from the Liverpool Women’s Resource Centre, for opening my eyes to this amazing project. I was so impressed with the progress being made by the Aboriginal Women Against Violence Program that I suggested it be used as a pilot program for the White Ribbon Foundation of Australia. After all, the foundation and this program share a common philosophy: that mentoring and community leadership are key instruments in breaking down the cycle of violence.

The Liverpool Women’s Resource Centre also supports the Aboriginal Women’s Support Group, which has started producing a newsletter called Sister to Sister. I would like to share with this place a poem that was included in the latest edition of Sister to Sister and was written by a woman named Timika. Timika’s poem is entitled Place to Start, and it says:

Sometimes you feel like you are being pushed into a corner

Being made to feel like a pawn in a game of chess

Being told how to feel and when to feel it

Everyone deals with things in their own time

Who has the right to tell you different?

When you have walked in these shoes,

When you have felt the pain,

Then this is the time you will be heard.

When you sit back and help someone instead of hurting them,

When you can listen instead of being heard,

Everyone has a story

Everyone can help if we all would work together

Just talk and listen

That would be a great place to start.

As Timika so rightly points out, it is up to each and every one of us to talk about violence against women as something that is shameful and intolerable.

We also need to listen to the victims of violence against women and take their advice on what we should be doing to redress this terrible situation. As research shows us, of the children who witness domestic violence in the home, 50 per cent of young women will grow up to take abusers as partners and, most chillingly, 60 per cent of the boys will grow up to become abusers themselves. This cycle has to end.

We also need to ensure that White Ribbon Day is not just another day on the calendar but a day that people make a change in attitude, a change for the better. As I have said before in this place on many occasions, violence against women is the most widespread human rights abuse in the world. In Australia the cost of violence against women and children in the Australian economy was estimated to be $13.6 billion in 2009. If that is not addressed, by 2021 I understand that the cost is likely to rise to a staggering $15.6 billion. We must recognise that while living free from violence is everybody’s right, reducing violence is everybody’s responsibility.

In conclusion, on this White Ribbon Day I will humbly join many Australian men and take the White Ribbon Oath:

I swear never to commit, excuse or remain silent about violence against women.

It is a very simple thing that all of us men in this place can do and I would encourage people to take that pledge. We all have the responsibility of leadership in our communities and I think we should be taking leadership on this principal issue of human rights abuse. Disturbingly, violence against women and children is probably the most prolific issue within our justice system at the moment.

I would also encourage the men of this place to show their commitment by wearing the white ribbon on White Ribbon Day and by being prepared to stand up when it comes to showing leadership in their communities. Whether we are fathers, brothers, uncles, community members or just workmates, we can all make a difference and we can make it very clear that we will not condone violence against women and children.

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