Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

The Albanese Labor government is committed to investing in and supporting those most vulnerable within our community. We have a whole range of measures in this budget that provide some really important supports for some of the most vulnerable people right throughout the nation, particularly for women and children fleeing domestic violence, for our older Australians and for people with a disability.

This government is committed to ending violence against women and children, and in this budget we saw an investment of $1.7 billion over six years which focuses on prevention and early intervention activities. It includes a continuation of funding to support a range of responses and initiatives to support the new National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children. This, very importantly, includes just over $169 million over four years to fund 500 new frontline workers to support women and children experiencing family, domestic and sexual violence right across the country.

Through some of those initiatives, I'd particularly like to talk about the national plan. In October, the federal government along with our state and territory colleagues officially launched the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children. It outlined our shared vision to end gender based violence within one generation. The national plan is our government's strong commitment to 10 years of sustained action, effort and partnership across governments and the sector to work towards eliminating all forms of gender based violence within the country. Of course, the national plan is underpinned by prevention, early intervention, response, and recovery and healing. This plan is so vitally important.

We also have the recently established Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission, which will provide a formal mechanism for consultation with victims-survivors and work to create a supportive and structured approach to engagement at a national level. These voices will help to inform the priorities for policy, research and data collection. At the heart of this are victims survivors. They must be at the heart of the solutions. We know we can only find effective solutions—they can only be developed with people who have been most impacted by such violence. The new commissioner, Micaela Cronin, has recently been appointed. The commissioner will promote coordination across all state and territory jurisdictions in the sector to provide support and enable a system that works together and provides a much more holistic approach. The commissioner will also be able to monitor and look at the progress of the very important national plan. I note the multipartisan support for this government's actions when it comes to eliminating violence against women and children in one generation. I know that everyone in this parliament is absolutely committed to working together to that aim.

The commissioner's role is a very important one. Micaela Cronin brings a wealth of experience, particularly in the community services sector. Very importantly, Ms Cronin started her career as a crisis counsellor at a women's refuge. She also wants the voices of victims-survivors at the centre of her work and at the centre of what the commission does moving forward. It's very important to have this new national commission and commissioner. It's so important that we all send the strong message that this is on the national agenda and is very important to all of us.

On providing support for vulnerable people, our government is committed to providing support for older Australians, for our seniors, the people who built this nation. We have brought in a range of measures in relation to them, particularly to provide support to ease cost-of-living pressures. These include incentivising pensioners into the workforce, increasing the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card income test and incentives for pensioners looking to downsize their homes. The budget included measures to provide that assistance, particularly the 50,000 additional self-funded retirees having access to the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card. That will make a huge difference to many older Australians.

We have many measures, including giving older Australians the choice and the flexibility to work, through the passage of legislation, which is really important, which means that people of age-pension age will benefit from an increase to the maximum work bonus. It is so vitally important for them. This government is committed to providing so much more support for all of our vulnerable Australians.

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