Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to voice my support for the City of Greater Dandenong's Walk Against Family Violence. I have had the great privilege of being a part of this community for many years. I have lived and worked there, I served there as a councillor and as mayor, and today I am very lucky to represent a good part of this city as the member for Hotham. Greater Dandenong is one of the most vibrant, interesting places in Australia—it is a truly incredible place to live. It is a testament to the success of Australian multiculturalism, to the extraordinary contribution made to our nation by migrants and refugees, and to the willingness and ability of Australians to embrace incredible amounts of change, both social and economic. It is a lucky community in many ways.

It is also a community with some very specific challenges, and family violence is one of those. Like many parts of Australia, the reported incidence of family violence is growing very fast in the City of Greater Dandenong. Over the last 15 years or so we have seen about a 160 per cent increase in reported incidents of family violence, and experts tell us that that is due to both an overall increase in family violence and an increase in reporting. In a community like Greater Dandenong, women can face additional challenges getting the help and the support that they need—60 per cent of the people who live in the city were born overseas, and many more are from migrant backgrounds. We know that family violence occurs in all communities around Australia, but women from culturally and linguistically diverse communities can face special barriers in seeking assistance.

With this in mind, the City of Greater Dandenong has taken on the challenge of trying to tackle this problem by building community capacity to manage it. They have applied for a Building Safe Communities for Women grant program through the federal government, and I want to make my support for that application known. The rising rates of domestic violence right across Australia, but particularly in Greater Dandenong, are simply intolerable, and I want to commend the council, Victoria Police as well as the Victorian government for their efforts in tackling this problem.

I want to pay special tribute to the people of the City of Greater Dandenong themselves. On 24 November the community will come together and make a statement by walking against violence. The walk is going to start at Dandenong market at 10.30 am and will continue through to Harmony Square. Parliament will be sitting on that day, so I am very sorry to say that I am not going to attend the walk, but I want to send my absolute strongest support to this community. They are dealing with this problem in a way that I have seen them deal with so many others in the time that I have been a part of this community, and that is by standing together—160 nationalities, many languages, many cultures, but one strong community.

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