Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Boothby for bringing this motion to the House. It is a very important issue and one that is very topical at the moment. I come to this debate with considerable experience in this space—experience from my time as shadow minister for human services, 40 years community advocacy and personal experience.

The genesis of domestic violence does not discriminate. Intergenerational poverty, neglect and often historical violence add to this terrible mix. I think it is important, though, for me to put on record exactly what this $100 million commitment is really about. There are a lot of new and innovative ways for perpetrators to inflict harm on their targets, but the solutions are still mostly the same: better legal help for victims, helping victims navigate the complex legal system, reforming systems and having community based approaches. This motion does congratulate the government for the $100 million funding commitment, but let us be very clear: the domestic violence package does nothing to boost the frontline services available to women escaping violence. Of the $100 million offered, not a cent will go towards shelters or refuges.

While state Liberal governments, like the one in New South Wales, are slashing services and refuges are closing, this government is doing a very similar thing. Refuges are closing their doors, and women have increasingly fewer places to turn. Despite the promise of $10 million a year for legal assistance for women and children escaping violence, this government is still cutting funding to community legal centres by $35 million per year. If this government is really committed to helping victims of domestic violence, it will start funding frontline services rather than window-dressing. Announcing GPS trackers, safe phones and CCTV does not make up for 30 per cent cuts to community legal centres—not when the Productivity Commission tells us that every dollar spent on CLCs saves the community $18.

There is also the issue of the Minister for Women, who the member for Boothby mentioned. The Minister for Women does not support domestic violence leave in the Commonwealth Public Service agreements being negotiated, despite the fact that the ABC's new enterprise agreement will include domestic violence leave. I suggest that supporting domestic violence leave would be a very good place to start for the Minister for Women. Why do you have to trade-off annual leave to get some support if you are in a domestic violence situation? It really is quite unacceptable.

The member for Boothby rightly mentioned the issue for Aboriginal women, who are 35 times more likely to be hospitalised. We know those statistics very well. The response of this government to that particular issue is nothing short of despicable. Half a billion dollars worth of funding for Indigenous affairs has been cut, and much of that funding was designed to prevent cycles of violence in our communities. In New South Wales, programs like Hey Sis, which is working with communities, have not been able to secure any government money. That is a program that is community driven. The Commonwealth has also withdrawn all of its funding from the Tackling Violence program, which uses local Rugby League teams to achieve exactly the kind of cultural change that this motion is talking about.

It is important to put on record that we all collectively are very concerned about this issue. It does not mean that any side has the high moral ground, but it is important, from my perspective, that when there is a self-congratulatory motion like this in the House in relation to domestic violence funding we need to be honest about what that funding is actually for. As I said, it is not making one single additional bed available. For people who are in domestic violence situations, for women who are in domestic violence situations, there needs to be the security that they will be able to go to a safe place. You would think that a government's priority would be making those safe places available instead of reducing availability—particularly, as we have seen the Baird government do in New South Wales.

At the end of the day, domestic violence is the responsibility of all. There are no two ways about that. This is not a time to congratulate ourselves on this issue, because it is, in fact, getting worse. I support efforts to combat this issue at COAG. And I support, of course, additional funding for family violence services, but not at the cost of cuts such as the ones we have seen.

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