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

I acknowledge the powerful speech by the member for Newcastle. The National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children says we must 'bring sexual violence out of the shadows'. That's very true. Recent ANROWS data shows that sexual violence rates in Australia are high. Fifty-one per cent of women in their 20s and 34 per cent of women in their 40s have experienced it. First Nations women report three times as many incidents of sexual violence as non-Indigenous women. One in 25 men have experienced sexual assault. More than one in 10 girls experience sexual abuse before the age of 15. The statistics are horrifying, and the horror doesn't end after the attack. The common impacts of sexual violence include mental health issues like anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, a reduced capacity to work and study throughout life and social isolation.

Sexual violence comes with an enormous personal cost and a cost to society, so how can we bring it out of the shadows? The answer is that we have to support victims to come forward and to dismantle the power imbalances and gender stereotypes that stop them from doing so. Brittany Higgins was brave, but her experience has been a stark reminder of just how hostile it can be to anyone who pursues justice for an alleged sexual crime. How many times did you hear a woman say during her trial, 'Why would you put someone through it'? I say 'her trial' because often it is. Certainly from observing how these cases play out in the public arena most women would not. I again acknowledge the comments of the member for Newcastle in noting how few cases come to trial and the shameful statistics around that. Many victims-survivors describe the court process as 'horrific' and 'retraumatising'. The adversarial system is stacked against them, and then there is the media reporting that comes with it, some of it utterly shameful.

The purpose of the Crimes Amendment (Strengthening the Criminal Justice Response to Sexual Violence) Bill 2024 is to strengthen the protections for victims-survivors of child sexual abuse and vulnerable people in Commonwealth criminal proceedings. The amendments relate to Commonwealth crimes and do not apply to sexual violence offences in state and territory legislation. As the Law Council of Australia says, victims-survivors can face barriers within the criminal justice system and are at a particular disadvantage compared with other witnesses being called to give evidence about their experiences.

Among the provisions in this bill, evidence of sexual experience or reputation of a vulnerable adult complainant will not be allowed unless the court is satisfied that the evidence is substantially relevant to a fact in the proceeding, and recordings of evidence by a vulnerable person will be allowed to be used in any subsequent trial or retrial. Both of these provisions are important because they will minimise retraumatisation. This is particularly relevant to those who've been affected by child sexual abuse, which leaves people with lifelong trauma. The last thing we want to do is retraumatise them in the system.

I commend the government, particularly the Attorney-General and his team, for this bill. It fixes some of the existing gaps in Commonwealth criminal proceedings. But, today, I call on the government and, indeed, all of us to do more to address sexual violence. This is something that shouldn't just happen in this place. These are conversations that we need to be having everywhere in our communities. More funding is needed to address current service black spots and waiting times for sexual assault services. As it stands, survivors are being told to wait months for trauma counselling. In the eastern region of Victoria, which includes my electorate of Goldstein, the waiting list 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 assault. It can consistently respond to only 65 per cent of calls because it's so 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. What happens to the men, women and children in-between?

We need dedicated prevention funding for sexual assault services and resourcing for schools to ensure effective consent and respectful relationships education. More funding is needed to ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities have the resources to design and implement culturally safe and trauma-aware healing programs. Right now there are major gaps for women's safety that must be addressed. As Fair Agenda says:

Reporting a sexual assault, and trying to get justice, closure or healing should not cause someone further harm.

Too many rape survivors are hurt by the… "justice" system. … At the very least, legal avenues for reporting sexual violence should not be traumatic; they should hold the people responsible for sexual violence to account; and they should provide victim-survivors with agency and choice when seeking justice.

Multiple reviews have been conducted. Hundreds of recommendations have been made. Attorney-Generals around the country have acknowledged that reform is needed, and committed to some of the changes necessary—

But more needs to be done—

31,000 people reported sexual assault to police last year—most of them women and girls. We can't wait years to address the harm this broken system is doing to people who need it right now.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Ordered that this bill be reported to the House without amendment.

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