Kate Thwaites (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too thank the member for Warringah for bringing this very important motion, and I thank all the speakers that we've had here tonight, because it is clear that this is something that this parliament and of course this government does take very seriously. I do want to especially thank the member for Lingiari for bringing the perspective from her electorate and for bringing the perspective of First Nations women to this discussion because it is so clear that we must have First Nations women front and foremost in how we are addressing violence against women in First Nations communities. I pay absolute respect to the work I know you have done over so many years in such a difficult space. So thank you to you.

Violence against women is a national crisis. It is, in fact, our national shame. Like so many Australian women and, I know, women in this place, I am tired, I am angry, I am frustrated. But I am also heartened because I do think what we have at the moment is a government that is prepared to look at this deep and enduring issue at a systemic level, at the type of level where you start to make change, probably not as quickly as we'd like it—definitely not as quickly as we'd like it. We are definitely not shifting everything from 'terrible' to 'done' in five minutes. But this is a government that is prepared to do the work at all levels—prevention—a government that is investing in services, a government that is doing national work on law reform and safety and a government that is doing national work on providing housing and safe places for women and children who need to leave family and domestic violence.

This work hasn't just come out of nowhere. It has in fact been informed by the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children. This plan was informed by victims-survivors. It was informed by the people who have lived experience of this terrible national shame. It was informed by the people who do the frontline work with them. We can't lose hold of all of that good work, because those women, those people, deserve better from us in this place than for us to think that their voices, all that effort they put into that plan, should be swept aside. We've got to stay true to their intent, and we've got to meet the very ambitious goal that this government has set to end violence against women and children in a generation.

As I said, I wish this could happen more quickly than in a generation, but let's be honest: it is generations in the making. I am not the first woman who has stood in this chamber and made this speech. As the Deputy Speaker said earlier, there have been so many women over the years who have called this out, who have called for action. As I said, what I think is different at this stage is that we are getting action at a systemic level.

In many ways I'm one of those who thought this generational shift would have already happened. We saw younger people, particularly younger men, being brought up in a new world where violence against women wasn't being seen as an acceptable thing to do. We thought the gender norms and the disrespect shown to women, which we know contribute to the violence against women, would no longer be seen as acceptable, would no longer be seen as something that you talk about with your mates. I'm really disappointed that does not seem to be the case. From what we've seen we know that so much of that these days does seem to be driven by online behaviour. This is something that governments have to tackle, but it is also something our entire community has to tackle.

I do think there is a particular role for men in this space. There's a role for men to tell their sons that it's not cool to follow that influencer bro on social media, that he's not the guy you look to for information about how you should treat women. There's a role for men to show their sons how they should grow up to respect women and to see power dynamics in the relationships with the women in their lives. That is an area that I know we are tackling as a government, but it is also an area that needs to have particular work done on it right across our community.

I want to also touch on the fact that, for the first time ever, we had a National Cabinet dedicated to this issue. I know that can sound like it doesn't mean much in terms of action, but for the first time the leaders of every state and territory and our national leader got together to talk about this particular issue. It's a start. There's a lot more to do. This government will continue to drive it. I hope the entire parliament works with us.

See this speech in context