Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is wonderful to see the bipartisan support for an issue which has to be one of the key concerns for a nation which calls itself developed, compassionate and caring. All women have a right to be safe and their children have a right to be safe, not abused, bullied and beaten. But one in five Australian women will experience criminal and cowardly abuse from her current or former intimate partner. We know that, when a woman has that abuse occurring, too often she has her own children who are witnesses to that abuse. We know that one of the characteristics of growing up in a violent situation like this, in a household where the woman is bullied and abused, verbally, psychologically or physically, is that the children learn from it. The little girls learn that this is what you take, this is what you have to put up with, as a woman in our society; and the little boys learn that this is what you do to keep a woman 'in line'. So there is an intergenerational transfer of that abuse—for the victims and for the abusers.

We have got to stop all of this. We have got to have zero tolerance. Australia is a wealthy nation with a lot of medical services and a lot of non-government organisations who commit to looking after the poor, the needy and the disabled. Despite all the infrastructure that we do have—which is more than many other nations—we still have this scourge in our community. It is not confined to low-socioeconomic status persons or neighbourhoods; it is found behind closed doors right throughout our society.

There are, however, some strong risk factors in terms of which women are likely to find themselves abused. With two women a week being murdered by partners in Australia, we know that the woman has probably suffered years of violent abuse leading up to that final struggle when she was hurt too badly to survive. We know that alcohol and drug use is one of the factors which will make it more likely for the male to attack his partner. We know that women with disabilities—whether psychiatric, intellectual or physical—are more likely to be attacked. That is because they are more dependent or are seen by the abuser to be more easily abused and less likely to report it.

We know that boys who have seen abuse in their families are more likely to become abusive themselves when they grow up. We know that if a woman is pregnant, or if the dissolution of the relationship is occurring, she is more likely to be physically and emotionally abused. And we know that more younger women tend to be abused. We also know that Indigenous women are more likely to be abused in Australia—and that probably goes along with the alcohol and drug abuse and the extreme stress experienced, particularly in remoter communities.

So we know there are risk factors that will be more likely to stimulate violence, but that is not enough to understand what the factors of risk are like. We have to understand why men do it. We have to make sure that we get into our schools to our boys and girls at a very young age. Northern European countries do this so very well. We have to make sure that our young people learn that we must have equality of status, empowerment in terms of job prospects and managerial positions, and economic independence between men and women. We have to see that women in the workplace are given the same respect and engender the same understanding and opportunities as men.

A man does not abuse a woman physically and emotionally, sometimes to the point of killing her, if he respects her and sees her as an equal. This is a situation in Australia that harks right back to us looking at the relationships between men and women. Men have to understand that women are equal and have a right to live a life that is safe and is not going to lead her to injury or death and her children to be emotionally scarred as victims or perpetrators of these crimes in the future.

Restraining orders have to work. The police have to have a zero-tolerance attitude. If we hear screaming or abuse or see someone obviously physically hurt we must go to their aid, not turn the other cheek and say that it is not our business. It is the business of every Australian.

See this speech in context