Andrew Nikolic (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As a White Ribbon ambassador from Tasmania I am pleased to speak on the member for Fowler's motion ahead of White Ribbon Day and I commend him for moving the motion. I hope that the bipartisan nature of the debate we have heard this morning translates into that broader cultural change in our society that is required to address this problem. As former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has observed:

Violence against women is perhaps the most shameful human rights violation. And, it is perhaps the most pervasive. It knows no boundaries of geography, culture or wealth. As long as it continues, we cannot claim to be making real progress towards equality, development and peace.

There are many labels, as we have heard this morning, attached to violence against women, but, irrespective of the label, it is simply unacceptable. We have heard the quite horrifying statistics this morning. We have seen in the aftermath of Jill Meagher's senseless death a community outcry to stop this and to reclaim the safety of our streets.

I know all members of this House would agree that even one act of violence against a woman is one too many. Yet domestic violence in Australia is, sadly, common and widespread. Many of these cases go unreported due to the private nature of the relationships within which the violence occurs. This makes it impossible to measure the true extent of the problem. But we do know, for example, that a woman is more likely to be killed in her home by her male partner than anywhere else or by anyone else. While most men do not commit violence against women and know that physical or sexual violence is wrong, it is a fact that when violence occurs, as the member for Scullin pointed out, it is mostly current or previous male partners that are the perpetrators. Sadly, this violence does not discriminate in terms of the age of the woman. The male dominated nature of the problem imposes, I believe, a special obligation on men to do more in response, and wearing the white ribbon is one of those things. It is a symbol of the wearer's pledge that they will not excuse violence against women and will share in a collective commitment to stop violence by men against women.

I am pleased to say that we are making inroads into raising awareness about this important issue. On 27 September I visited Launceston Church Grammar School at their Mowbray campus and spoke to a large group of senior students about the White Ribbon movement, about its particular importance for groups of young men. There was some fundraising associated with this event, and the boys chose to donate these funds to the Launceston women's shelter. I congratulate them on their thoughtfulness and initiative. I was impressed by the large number of students who chose to make a mass pledge, which, as we have heard this morning, has three important dimensions: never to commit violence against women; never to excuse violence against women; and never to remain silent about violence against women. I congratulate the headmaster, Stephen Norris, for addressing this issue with a group of young people who will help to lead further progress on this issue into the future. They will help to accentuate the role men should play in loving, fair, consensual and respectful relationships with women. They will affirm our readiness to speak out against violent acts that diminish equality and justice in our society. In doing so, they will help promote greater closeness and connection as well as ensuring that the girls and women they love will live safer, freer lives.

We often talk about responses to policy problems and we try to frame them into whether it should be a top-down or a bottom-up response. On this occasion it requires both. It requires that bottom level, grassroots cultural change and it also requires influences in our society to step up and to speak out and ahead of White Ribbon Day there is a lot we can do and I encourage people to visit the White Ribbon website at www.whiteribbon.org.au/ to generate some ideas. The resources on this site contains some wonderful and useful material for those who need help particularly contact numbers. It also contains advice and strategies for how we can help someone experiencing violence.

In the electorate of Bass there will also be community events. The fireman will be back in the Launceston Mall bringing the White Ribbon message to every male that walks past. We will have a White Ribbon display at my office in St John Street and I encourage other shopfronts to do the same. Again, I commend the member for Fowler and the other speakers for giving this issue some well-deserved attention and I encourage our communities around the country, particularly men, to add their voice to this important cause. (Time expired)

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