Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Warringah for bringing this motion to the House tonight. Everyone who is going to speak on it and the many who won't get a chance to speak on it yet are determined, as am I, to see the end of violence against women and children in our nation. There's not a woman I know who isn't frustrated, who isn't angry, who doesn't want to see an end to male violence in this country.

Many of us, and I'm not exceptional in this regard, have stood in this parliament each and every year for more than 10 years, calling out every woman that has been killed in this country. It's the toughest speech I ever give in this place. So there are no bones about the determination of this government, Australia's first-ever majority female government, to see an end to male violence in Australia and to see an end to violence against women and children within a generation. No government in Australia has ever had that ambition.

I know that we are joined by everybody in that ambition, and for that I think we should all be very grateful, because it will take the most determined effort of every single person in this parliament, every single person in our communities and every single person in our workplaces to turn what has been a shocking trajectory in this country. There is nobody here who would want to not shine a very big light on the seriousness of violence in this country. I think the ongoing consequences—the devastating, cumulative and long-lasting consequences—of this violence are something we all need to be very, very mindful of.

There is no short-term fix for this, and I think anybody who's worked in the sector knows that. There are very few women in this House who are not either a direct survivor of violence or, as we've heard in many stories, very closely connected to it, so we carry that scar. We wear that every day in this chamber, and it is a heavy burden. It is a heavy burden that all women in Australia have carried for far too long, in my view. I really do look forward to seeing many more men stand up and join us, because it's going to take the most enormous change in male culture in this country to turn this right around, and I welcome the leadership from this government in doing that.

I acknowledge that there are some terrific flags to suggest that we are in a position to really deliver on that ambition of ending violence against women and children in a generation, but it will take determined effort from each and every one of us. There are things that I have campaigned on for more than 10 years of my life that we are only just now dealing with in this parliament: paid domestic and family violence leave; and the fact that we have finally got rid of this outrageous presumption of equal shared parental responsibility in Australian law reform, which put many, many women and kids in danger unnecessarily for a long time. These are important hallmarks.

Making sure that there are adequately funded and supported services is absolutely an essential part of that. Also, the role of this parliament is going to have to be to do the really long, hard yards. No-one is going to be able just to pat themselves on the back at the end of this term and say, 'Job done,' that's for sure. So it is important that we have motions like this. I think it gives us all have an opportunity to recommit ourselves, to refocus and to say that we're not going to let Australian women down again. It is our job to do everything we can here. We should be hauling in every level of government and everybody in our communities to join us in this task, because that's what it will take to turn this around. I really hope that this debate today is an opportunity to see every single person in this parliament reaffirm their commitment to ending violence against women and children, and doing it now.

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