Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It feels like with growing frequency we hear a new story about a woman who has been killed as a result of gender based violence. We hear about her dreams and her ambitions and how her life was tragically cut short by a man, often a man that was known to her. To date this year, 31 women have been killed by men.

Gendered violence has been pervasive for too long and has reached alarming levels this year. Unfortunately, we see that deaths are the very worst manifestation of gender based violence in our communities. Too many women in Australia are dying, too many women and Australia are living in fear, and too many men are killing women. Enough is enough. We need investment, research and strong action to really change this. We need to be unflinching in our actions to end male violence against women. We need men to step up to call out gendered violence amongst their mates before it escalates. Gendered violence exists on a spectrum. It's not just in those final very tragic moments where people die that it manifests. It manifests in language that is used to describe women. It manifests in the undermining gender stereotypes that we see. It is the responsibility of all of us to address and confront this and do better, frankly, to combat the toxic views of women that lead to violence.

We need to amplify the voices of victims-survivors, and I'm really pleased that the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children in a generation places the voices of victims-survivors at the heart of our strategy. I really urge people to read the introduction to that plan, which was written by victims-survivors and is an incredibly powerful piece of writing. We need to listen to victims-survivors about what they want, about what they need and about how we can drive structural and systemic change. We cannot look away anymore.

Since we were elected, our government has put gendered violence at the front and centre of our agenda. We have a National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children in a generation, which is ambitious but is necessary, and that is supported by $2.3 billion in funding commitments. We've taken action to improve consent and support respectful relationships education, and we're incorporating all of our community in that work, which is really important. We've improved criminal justice responses to sexual violence. We've reduced trauma for victims-survivors in the criminal justice system by supporting an inquiry into justice responses to sexual violence, informed by a national roundtable and a lived-experience expert advisory group of victims-survivors and their advocates.

We have an action plan addressing gender based violence in higher education, to address the safety of women on campus, and we're establishing a National Student Ombudsman to address sexual violence on campus too. We've invested $104.4 million in Our Watch, Australia's leader in the primary prevention of gender based violence. We've reformed the family law system so it is simpler, safer and more accessible for separating families and their children.

We've acted to prevent and respond to sexual harassment in the workplace by implementing all recommendations in the Respect@Work national inquiry report. As part of that, we've implemented a new positive duty on employers to prevent workplace sexual harassment and sex discrimination in the workplace.

We've invested in access to housing for women and children experiencing family violence and are continuing the Safe Places Emergency Accommodation Program, increasing crisis and emergency accommodation places for First Nations women and children, for women and children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and for women and children with a disability. We've helped ensure women don't have to choose between their work and their safety, by introducing 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave. What is really significant about this leave is that it is available for all workers, whether they are in casual work or in permanent work. We've supported migrant and refugee women who've experienced violence by supporting visa holders further to get the support that they need, and we're investing in frontline services for women experiencing family and domestic violence.

Early intervention efforts are being supported through engagement with men and boys to stop violence escalating. We're improving data reporting on domestic, family and sexual violence by establishing a new statistical dashboard to provide more timely reporting on intimate partner homicide; it will be introduced this year. We're investing in many actions to prevent and respond to technology facilitated abuse, but, clearly, there is so much work that needs to be done. We look back through decades, and see that gendered violence has been with us for a very long time. Unfortunately, it sometimes feels like things are not changing or improving in a positive way.

So we need to consider gender equality in all of our policies as government, because, as I've said before, it's not just those very extreme stories of women being murdered that are a manifestation of gender based violence; there are many instances that we experience in our day-to-day lives, and these are tied to gender inequality. So addressing gender inequality is really important in making sure that we eradicate gender based violence from our communities. That's why we've put gender equality at the heart of economic policy and decision-making by introducing gender-responsive budgeting and gender impact assessments as part of the Commonwealth budget process. We want women to earn more money, to be empowered and to be equal. There are many measures that we've taken in regard to that, including provisions for pay increases for workers in feminised industries. We know there's a lot more to do, and there always will be. This is a start, though.

What we're confronting here is intergenerational violence. Unfortunately, violence against women—gender based violence—is not new, but we see that women keep being murdered by men year after year. I want to end here by sharing some of the stories of women over decades in my electorate of Chisholm who've unfortunately been murdered due to gendered violence, because their names and their stories matter.

In 1975, Ailsa Mary Frederick was abducted and murdered by a business associate of her husband. She was abducted from her place of work at the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind in Burwood, where she was a teacher. She was a mother to three children and was 58 years old.

In 1992, students Anne Smerdon and Kerryn Henstridge and Anne's brother-in-law Peter Dempsey were murdered at Anne and Kerryn's home in Burwood. They were interviewing for a new flatmate when they were murdered.

In 1993, Phyllis Fielding Hocking was murdered at her home in Box Hill. She was murdered by her grandson at the urging of her son. Before she retired, Phyllis was a science teacher. She was 79 years old.

In 2004, Aneta Pochopien was murdered by an ex-boyfriend. She was murdered in her car outside her home in Chadstone. She'd just finished a night shift in the factory where she worked and was shot through her car window. She was 32 years old.

In 2012 Preetika Sharma and her two children, five-year-old Divesh and three-year-old Divya, were murdered by her husband and the father of her children. She and her children were smothered in their beds in Glen Waverley. Preetika was 35 years old.

In 2013 Sahara Rahimzadegan, known as Mandy, was murdered by her husband in her lounge room in Ashwood. She was strangled and then buried in her backyard, and her husband built a deck on top of the grave. Her family had come from Iran to be with Mandy just five days before she was murdered. She was a mother of two and she volunteered to help asylum seekers.

In 2017 Georgia Karatzas was murdered by her husband in her Mount Waverley home. She was doing laundry when her husband strangled her with an extension cord. She was 68 years old.

In 2019 Qin Wang was murdered by her brother at his Clayton home. Her body was moved to another family home in Burwood East where she was found by police. She was from China and was visiting family in Australia. She was 57 years old.

We need to do better for Ailsa, Anne, Kerryn, Phyllis, Aneta, Preetika, Mandy, Georgia, Qin and for every single woman in our country. I want to acknowledge the work of Sherele Moody and the RED HEART Campaign in telling the stories of these women, murdered across the country, including in my community in Chisholm. Their work to create the Australian femicide and child death map is important in remembering Australian women and children who have lost our lives to violence at the hands of men.

We need to do better and I know that the entire parliament is committed to the really hard work to eliminate gendered violence in a generation.

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