Zaneta Mascarenhas (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We know that, from the age of 15, a staggering one in three women and girls in Australia have experienced violence. We also know that too many women are killed by intimate partners. The member for Newcastle explained earlier that, just two weeks ago when she drafted this motion, there had been 47 women killed this year from this form of violence. Today it stands at 53. I appreciate the opportunity to speak on this motion put by the member for Newcastle and I know that it's s the tireless and passionate advocates for victims of gender based violence that continue to advocate for the issue. We share an ambition to eliminate gender based violence in Australia in one generation. I acknowledge the enormity of this challenge, but I also make a personal commitment to this.

What has motivated me to speak on this today is the relationship that I have developed with different people within my electorate, including a wonderful woman called Shenane. When we talk about courage and survival, I think of Shenane, and she has given me permission to talk about her story. Before I share her story, I will say that this has a trigger warning and, if people might be confronted by this, I suggest that you may want to leave. Shenane is a local community leader whom I met in Belmont last year. She's outgoing, confident, positive and incredibly professional as well. It was a short time ago, though, that Shenane was unrecognisable. She was the victim of horrific domestic violence that left her in a hospital bed, fighting for her life. When you hear her story, you'll understand how truly lucky she is to be alive.

Over a period of five years, she suffered repeated abuse that put her in hospital many times, bleeding, bruised, broken, concussed. However, it was the final attack that was the most sustained and vicious. I will say that it was so horrific that I struggled to listen to it. It's not something that any woman, child or person should have to endure. She was placed in an induced coma for nine months to let her brain heal.

It took her 18 months to learn how to walk and talk again. She now lives with a permanent traumatic brain injury.

As I said, when I met her, she was a fun, energetic, positive person. How could something like this happen to her? How could something like this happen to any woman? She says that there were signs of the controlling relationship in the first 18 months of her relationship, and it started quite insidiously. It started with money going missing, the controlling of money and the use of her money for his purposes, which made her employment unsustainable, undermined her independence and undermined her finances. By the time she realised, it was almost too late.

About two years into the relationship is when the physical abuse started. When it did, we failed her. The community failed her. The system failed her. On one occasion, after she had received stitches to the skull, the emergency doctor's only take-home advice was to see the doctor in a few weeks to get her stitches removed. She didn't make it; her stitches were torn apart by another blow to the head before she had the chance. She wants to make sure that health workers are better informed about how to help victims, and this is why I want to get behind the efforts to raise awareness of the early signs of abuse and control.

During the 2022 election, my team knocked on 45,000 doors, and we spoke to countless people. One of the conversations that stuck in my mind was with an older man. His daughter and grandchild were living with him. He explained that her partner was controlling her money, and the control was so insidious that the partner would not actually allow her to buy sanitary products. It was a calculated denial of money to inflict harm and shame on a woman to control her. This type of abuse has a name. It's called economic abuse. Often, as Shenane's story exposed, it can be an early sign of impending violence.

Shenane speaks about herself as one of the lucky ones—a survivor. She has embraced life with renewed purpose. She now has a job advocating for those with traumatic brain injury. She is an amazing Torres Strait Islander woman, and it is my privilege to know her as my friend and know her story. But what I want to make sure of is that all women have the opportunity to have and lead their best lives and to be free from violent relationships.

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