Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion from the member for Warringah. This budget was the moment for comprehensive and properly funded measures to prevent violence against women—for words to turn into meaningful action and for the scale of the investment to reflect the national emergency. But I'm afraid that, despite the horror of the last three months and despite the national protests that followed the spate of murders, this budget didn't deliver enough for women and their children. Where was the money for frontline family, domestic and sexual violence services? The sector is outraged and rightly so.

Women's legal services turn away an estimated 1,000 women a week, 52,000 every year, due to lack of capacity. Sexual violence trauma counselling services have dire waiting lists around the country, with many victims-survivors having to wait months. Critical men's-behaviour-change services that can break the cycle of violence desperately need funding to keep their doors open. Frontline services need sustainable, consistent and certain investment now, not in the future—now. Buck-passing between state and federal governments must stop. This is the moment for cohesive action. We can no longer say this is too hard.

Desperate women and children who need support to leave violent men are not getting the help that they need, and as a result they're trapped in abusive relationships. Think for a moment, if you haven't been in that situation, of how terrifying their daily lives must be. And, for those who do leave, it's dire. Each night more than 200 women and children are being sent to motels across Victoria because there aren't enough crisis accommodation places available. When victims-survivors are placed in motels there's no onsite security, monitoring or support, and motels carry significant risks for victims-survivors, including suicidality and easy access for perpetrators. Several women in this situation have taken their own lives this year in Melbourne. Women and children escaping violence need 24/7 wraparound support, not a lonely and life-threatening motel room.

The government talks a lot about gender-responsive budgeting. Well, right now we have a gender based violence national emergency. On average in Australia right now, a woman is killed by an intimate partner every four days, while one in three women has experienced physical violence since the age of 15. So far, in 2024, it's Hannah McGuire, Molly Ticehurst, Rebecca Young—and on and on and on it goes. The Australian Institute of Criminology report released a couple of weeks ago showed that the rate of women killed by an intimate partner in Australia is up 28 per cent. Coercive control, using technology as a weapon, trackers in teddy bears, hidden cameras in fridges, abuse via bank transfers—all are tactics used by perpetrators. Imagine, for a moment, going to the fridge to take out the milk and getting a message on the smart screen that says, 'I'm watching you.' Imagine, for a moment, logging into your bank account and seeing a series of 1c transactions with messages: 'I know where the kids are. This is happening.'

As Dr Angela Jackson, National Chair of the Women in Economics Network, told the National Press Club recently, the budget should have anticipated rising family and domestic violence—rising, worsening. Where was this anticipation in the budget? Where was the understanding of the link between women's economic insecurity and women's safety? Financial insecurity is a factor in perpetuating violence. Around one in five women return to violent partners because they have no financial support or nowhere to go. From the government, the $5,000 to leave is welcome, but in isolation it simply won't be enough.

More than 200 women leaders wrote to the Prime Minister in the lead-up to the budget, urging him to provide economic security for women leaving violence by raising the rate of JobSeeker. This did not happen, even with unemployment benefits in Australia half the OECD average. The government has increased Commonwealth rent assistance by 10 per cent, but this is only $11 a week for a single mother with one or two children. The government expanded eligibility for the single parenting payment in the last May budget, but this payment remains wholly inadequate to ensure single parents and their children do not live in poverty. Where was the recognition of how perpetrators are weaponising the system, how the justice system is used against women and how AVOs are failing? The Women's Economic Equality Taskforce and the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee report both recommended delinking child support from family payments. This is a tool of financial abuse.

I'm disappointed that the government hasn't yet invested in proper data collection for family homicides. To better identify risk, we need consolidated data to identify red flags that are being missed in the system. Data is critical in driving down men's violence against women.

There were some gains for women in this budget: $1 billion for crisis and transitional accommodation for women and children escaping violence. But frontline services are asking: when and where will these houses be available? The Treasurer spoke about unavoidable spending in his budget speech. Well, women's safety should have been unavoidable spending. The federal government has the levers to pull to change the lives of women and children affected by family and domestic violence.

I note the Prime Minister says this is personal. It is personal—for many women and children. For those watching today: I see you. Those I know, those I don't know: I see you. I hope and expect that the government and the opposition will support this motion and, in noting it, that they will now act with bipartisan urgency. The family home is the most dangerous place for an Australian woman, and surely that is a national emergency.

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