Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party, Minister for Revenue and Financial Services) Share this | Hansard source

I'm here in my capacity as Minister for Women. I'd first like to respond to the words and the questions of the member for Corangamite. I might just take the opportunity to commend her for her very strong advocacy for the women in her community, and her particularly strong commitment to making sure that women can be safe in their homes, in their workplaces and in their communities. She would probably be very aware of the fact that we as a government have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to violence against women. We have maintained a very strong commitment. The government has provided around $300 million to support women's safety initiatives.

I want to draw the attention of the member for Corangamite to particular initiatives announced in this budget. We have $54.4 million committed to serving women who are affected by violence, and for online safety initiatives, including $11.5 million for the national sexual assault domestic and family violence counselling service, 1800RESPECT; $6.7 million to maintain funding for domestic violence alert, DV-alert, to continue its domestic violence response training for community front line workers, and we know how effective and important that program is; and $14.2 million over four years for the Office of the eSafety Commissioner to help make cyberspace much safer for women. She is doing incredible work and certainly the work that she is engaged in is world-leading.

I'd like to respond to a couple of the questions from the member for Griffith. The member for Griffith asked about gender equity in the Public Service. I'm incredibly pleased to be able to notify the member for Griffith of the fact that the fifty-fifty target for secretaries, for those people who lead our departments, is now gender equal. We have got 50 per cent men and 50 per cent women who lead our departments in the Australian Public Service. We have been able to achieve that fantastic target under a Liberal coalition government, under the Turnbull government. It demonstrates our incredibly strong commitment to seeing women equally represented in all aspects of public life. We see that in the Australian Public Service as well. And we have a deep commitment—

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