Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Over Easter, we usually look out for the road toll. Sadly, this Easter we looked out for the death toll through domestic violence. Tragically, there were six tragic deaths over the Easter period, all of them related to domestic violence, all at the hands of a family member or a friend. This is a blight on our society, a blight we should be doing something about, but tragically this budget has actually cut the funding towards assisting people in this insidious situation of domestic violence.

In my electorate alone, the Eastern Community Legal Centre, which has been doing phenomenal work in this area, is going to lose $200,000 per year over the next several years. Much of this money was going towards programs to alleviate and assist in the domestic violence issue. Over one in five women make their first disclosure of domestic violence to their GP. These are the same vulnerable women who will probably put off a GP visit because of the extra $7 they are going to have to pay. This will not assist people in this cycle of violence. We will see more deaths. We have seen too many already. Surely Senator Brandis's first priority—he is our first law officer—should be protecting women and children predominantly. Men have also died as a result of domestic violence. Money should be put towards assisting in this area, but no: we have seen cut, cut, cut—cuts particularly to the Legal Aid Commission and cuts to our legal community service. This is a blight on our society.

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