Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Warringah for bringing forward this motion and I thank everyone who has had the opportunity to speak on this already today. Domestic violence affects every single one of us. It affects every single person who is in this chamber right now. It affects people in the gallery. It affects everyone who is outside this place. Whether it has affected you personally, a family member, a friend or an acquaintance, you will know someone who has been a victim of domestic violence. That is a very sad fact, but it is a true fact that domestic violence is something that none of us can escape. We can no longer continue to be silent. Many of us aren't, but we can't, as a whole, continue to be silent. We actually have to stand up and talk about domestic violence, and then we have to turn those words into actions to prevent this insidious crime from continuing right across our nation.

I've spoken to many victims of domestic violence, but, perhaps more importantly, I've listened to them and listened to their stories. It's heartbreaking to listen to what they have experienced and, in many cases, continue to experience. It's hard for a woman to leave a violent situation. Where does she go? It's hard to find somewhere to live. It's hard to be able to afford somewhere to live, if you can, in fact, find something in the first place. It's hard to financially support yourself and your child or children while you try and protect them. It's hard being constantly scared that he will find you, that he will find your children and that he will never ever let up. It's hard to get an AVO. It's even harder to get an AVO and to have it enforced. So, wherever you go, you are constantly looking over your shoulder. You are constantly aware of the situation around you. You're alert. You are constantly conscious of what you wear so that you do not stand out so it's not easy for him to find you. These are the stories of many women who are facing extreme challenges, and I believe very strongly that it's our responsibility to do all that we can to end this violence against women.

If I can very briefly speak about the issue of coercive control, we've heard some of the stories here of the messages that get sent, the deposits that get made to the bank account—'I know where you are. I know where the kids are.' I hear stories of men who are addressing mail to themselves at their partner or their former partner's new place of residence, who are signing them up online so that they get information about expensive houses being sent to them, who go online on Facebook and other social media and talk about how good their life is, how philanthropic their endeavours actually are, while they're not paying child support or they have huge bills for child support back payments that they are not making. The things that they do to these women are, quite frankly, beyond belief, but you have to believe it when you hear it so often.

There are so many things that have been mentioned today that we could and should be doing. We've heard about the need to make sure that there are changes to male behaviours, because, quite frankly, we all understand that this is an issue that is affecting generation after generation. Young boys are seeing their fathers or grandfathers or uncles or a significant male in their life abusing their mother, and that behaviour, over time, becomes normal to that young boy. He thinks that that is normal behaviour. Because of that, he continues to perpetuate the violence against his partners when he is old enough to do so, and that is happening at an increasingly younger age. So much needs to be done, but I would strongly recommend and hope that what we do is look at changing the male behaviours, to stop this action before it even gets started and to do all we can to make sure that no woman in Australia or across the world ever has to stay in a violent relationship.

Question agreed to.

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