Zoe Daniel (Goldstein, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Gains for women in this country have been few and far between over the past decade. I agree with the mover of this motion, the member for Higgins, that the government's first budget has delivered some important progress towards a more gender equal future. But it has to be said that women in Australia are starting from a long way back—a very long way back.

Australia is ranked 43rd of 146 countries in the latest World Economic Forum global gender gap index. The official gender pay gap have hovered between 13 and 19 per cent over the past two decades, but in many industries it is more like 30 per cent. Women are more likely to live below the poverty line. Older women are the fastest-growing group to experience homelessness in Australia. On average, women retire with approximately half the level of retirement savings of men. And women spend twice as much time on unpaid work as men. The moral and economic case for investing in women is strong. Gender inequality is the root cause of the social, economic and health disadvantages that women face.

Today I want to focus on one area of gender inequality, because it's urgent: women's safety. According to Our Watch, on average, one woman a week is murdered by her current or former partner, one in three women has experienced physical violence since the age of 15, one in five has experienced sexual violence since the age of 15, and family and domestic violence is a leading driver of homelessness for women.

This budget was sold as a bread-and-butter budget. Women's safety is a bread-and-butter issue, or at least it should be. The new National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children is comprehensive and ambitious. But it needs more investment if we're to end violence against women and children in a generation, as the plan strives to do. A woman's ability to access services to be safe after domestic violence or rape is critical and needs proper funding. Right now there are major gaps for women's safety that must be addressed. Until this happens, there will be no broader equality in the workforce or elsewhere. Women who are trying to escape family and domestic violence are still unable to the safety and support that they need. More investment in specialist case management services is needed so women trying to build safer lives can access the support they need to be safe. More investment in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community controlled organisations is needed to support First Nations women affected by men's violence. More investment is needed in trauma responsible for rape and sexual assault survivors so they can access counselling support.

As it stands, survivors are being told to wait months for trauma counselling. In the eastern region of Victoria, the waitlist for counselling is six to eight months. The Sexual Assault Crisis Line is the central after-hours coordination point in Victoria for responding to sexual assaults. It can consistently respond to only 65 per cent of calls because it's understaffed and underfunded. Waiting list times for men's behaviour change programs are too long. Men using violence are also on months-long waiting lists. Experts in the sector have said a minimum of $1 billion of federal funding is needed annually to start addressing gender based violence in our communities. The commitment to a new National plan to end violence against women and children in the budget only gets us just over halfway to the funding that's needed over the next four years.

Fair Agenda, a movement of 43,000 Australians campaigning for a future where our gender doesn't determine our worth, say:

This budget still leaves so many women in danger …

They are calling on the government to deliver a 'major funding boost' during this term of government, starting with the next budget in May. I also encourage the government to increase its commitment to women's safety in the May budget. This government has rightly made gender equality a national priority. If the government is serious about wanting to re-establish Australia as a global leader on gender equality, it must address these glaring gaps in women's safety. I thank the member for Higgins for this motion.

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