Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is really great that we are talking about this matter of public importance here this afternoon. When Tim Watts from the Labor Party first rang me and said, 'How about we work with Ken Wyatt, from the Liberal Party, and start the Parliamentarians Against Family Violence,' the purpose of it was to get this on the agenda to ensure that this is something we in this House are all talking about. I want to commend the work of Tim Watts and Ken Wyatt, and their strong leadership on this issue. It is pleasing that we now are finally able to have this as a matter of public importance that all people in this chamber are interested in and are looking for solutions to.

My interest in this really stems from a meeting that I had in my office. I had a lady come and see me, and she wanted to talk about child care. Of course, child care is a significant issue. I invited her into my office, and we sat down and briefly talked. Once there were no staff there and the conversation could flow more freely, she pointed out that this was not really just about child care. As members of parliament know, and as many in the gallery would not realise, in some regard the role of a member of parliament is in fact a pastoral role. As is often the way when you get talking to people and scratch a little bit deeper, there is always more to the community that you seek to represent and serve.

She said, 'How did I get in this situation?' She said, 'I am a young successful woman and university educated, and yet I find myself now living close to the poverty line, having had to flee, with three children, a case of serious domestic violence.' We talked about the issues, about supervised access and being able to exchange those children at a police station and about her feeling judged when she did so—not so much because the police were judging her but because she felt guilty. I thought that this is actually an epidemic in my electorate and it is an epidemic in Australian society. We spend so much time talking about the security of the Australian people, we dedicate a lot of time to issues to do with terrorism, we spend $28 billion in this country on defence, which is for the security of the Australian people, yet there is the loss of many, many family members in their own home. It is appropriate that we address the issue of the security of the Australian people within their homes.

The disturbing part for me is that I fear, perhaps, that we are not winning this debate. It came out on Monday night, when Rosie Batty and the people from Our Watch addressed members of parliament, that community attitudes in 17- to 19-year-olds have actually deteriorated in regard to their views of women. This is a major concern to me. This is the enlightened era, and this is the educated era. We are a First World country, and yet, statistically, attitudes have deteriorated. One of the reasons for this was access to online pornography, and one of the other reasons for this was the gaming culture and some of the things that young Australians are feeding their minds with within the gaming culture. It stands to reason that, just as you are what you eat, what you feed your mind on does translate to changing your attitudes. So, I think that it is fantastic that, today, we heard that the federal government is going to work with the state governments to put $30 million towards a campaign to try to change people's minds and to try to change people's attitudes. We can do this. Together we can do this.

We have done this with smoking. We have drastically reduce the amount of people that take up smoking, but it continues to be an ongoing challenge. We have done it with drink driving, where if you drink and drive you actually are a bloody idiot, and we can do this with family violence. We want a society where the family unit is safe, where a woman and a child can go home and feel safe, but it starts with us. It starts with the leaders in this place, and it starts with the Australian people. I hope that the Australian people are taking notice of the discussion that is taking place in the parliament here.

The great line is: the standard you walk past is the standard that you accept. We must change our attitudes. We must have good policing. We must have Australia-wide intervention orders, strong magistrates who enforce the law, safe houses for women that flee, good support services to tell those women that they have not done anything wrong and that they are valued by the Australian people, and affordable legal services. These are the challenges. I think that it is great that our parliament has finally taken a very strong stand. I commend members of parliament for their leadership on this issue.

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