Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, and I commend you on your elevation to high office.

White Ribbon Day is 25 November 2013, and as a White Ribbon Ambassador I believe that first and foremost I must be a man who embodies the values, ethics and morals expressed in this campaign in my everyday life at home, at work and in my community.

I am a husband, and a father of two daughters. It is my fervent wish that my daughters live in a world without domestic violence. But when the current statistics show that one in three Australian women over the age of 15 will experience physical violence and one in five will experience sexual violence at some stage in their life, I know my wish is far from being realised.

Violence affects women in every group in our society and for those in disadvantaged circumstances it is even more prevalent. In the last parliament I was Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs and we heard disturbing evidence that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are 35 times more likely to be hospitalised by partner abuse than non-Indigenous women. I commend the work and the strong campaign commenced in Central Australia by Indigenous men who wish to address this problem.

I commend the work locally in my electorate of the Ipswich Women's Centre Against Domestic Violence, led ably by Gabrielle Borggaard. I know how committed these women are to addressing the scourge of domestic violence from a feminist perspective. They do marvellous work in Ipswich and the Somerset region. One of the programs they run is the Love Bites program, run by Philippa Cook. The Love Bites program, funded by the former federal Labor government, operates in high schools in Ipswich and the Somerset and Lockyer Valley regions. It is designed to raise awareness of how people can fall into potential domestic violence situations. The program is very successful because it is targeted to young men and young women and designed to prevent them from forming damaging relationships as adults.

Every year the Ipswich Women's Centre Against Domestic Violence runs a march through the Ipswich CBD. During that time, 'Ipswich says no to violence' T-shirts are many. Last year I marched with about 250 people, along with Ipswich city councillors Andrew Antoniolli and Charlie Pisasale and members of the Ipswich community, including members of the Ipswich Jets rugby league team. Last week I held my 20th mobile office since the last federal election and my second at the Ipswich Handmade Expo. The goods on display and for sale at the expo are created by women for women. I commend the organisers for providing a stall for me in my capacity as a White Ribbon ambassador to help raise awareness of this issue.

Domestic violence can take many courses. The former federal Labor government understood this and in our 2013-14 budget we reaffirmed our commitment to equality, with a focus on increasing women's workforce participation and their economic security and addressing violence against women and their children. We provided $5.2 million over five years to fund the Foundation to Prevent Violence against Women and their Children. The National Centre of Excellence to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children was designed to serve as a research hub to support the development of policy, professional practice and programs to reduce violence. We also created the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children. The $86 million plan included the 1800RESPECT hotline, the website for domestic violence victims and the award-winning The Line social media campaign concerning respectful relationships. We also introduced AVERT Family Violence, a multidisciplinary training package for professionals working in the Family Law Act area. We introduced changes to incorporate for the first time the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and we made contemporary the Family Law Act and contemporised the definition of 'family violence'.

What many people do not understand is that violence takes many forms: financial domination, stalking, friendship denial, spiritual abuse, damage to property, reproductive control, and familial isolation. Many of these things happen and people do not recognise they are violence. But, more than anything, violence in the home is a blokes' issue. We have to make sure that blokes do not turn a blind eye. It is a blokes' issue because men have the power to make changes, as leaders and decision makers in their homes and in their workplaces. As men, we need to speak out on this issue and send a message. We need to lead our lives in such a way that we make it clear that violence against women is unacceptable, and that message needs to go to young boys as well. I commend the member for Fowler for his motion. I am proud to stand with him to do everything I can, both locally and nationally, on this issue to protect women and children in our community.

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