Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this motion brought by the member for Warringah, and I thank the member for bringing this motion which concerns gendered violence. The motion has been brought particularly in light of some of the more heinous events that we've seen recently throughout our country and in my home state of New South Wales, where women who have taken out numerous AVOs, who have done everything we have asked them to do, have still been violently murdered at the hands of an ex-partner. The motion notes that one woman every four days in Australia is murdered by her current or former partner—one woman every four days. It's horrific. The statistics are absolutely horrific. These are, of course, the ones that we know about.

I've had the privilege of being in this place now for two years, and in just those two years we've dealt with many issues of national significance—defence, health, appropriations, how Australians are taxed, the environment, energy, housing, immigration. These are big issues, but I think that domestic violence and how to tackle it is probably the most overwhelming of our national problems. It is a crisis. When I've spoken to colleagues, both male and female, about this, the most commonly uttered word is 'overwhelming'. That's how I feel. I feel overwhelmed by this as well. But if we can't speak in this place about this very important issue then there is no way that we can ever find solutions for it.

In this place we have debates. We have disagreements. We've come here from a range of different backgrounds and a range of different experiences. In having heard many of the speakers on this motion—and I thank all of them for having spoken on it—we've heard about lived experience of domestic violence. We've heard about members whose direct family members have been impacted. Many have been impacted themselves. They may have worked in the community sector. They may, as with the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Cowper, worked as police officers early in their lives, assisting women and children, dealing with the perpetrators and enforcing AVO's. If we have not been directly impacted ourselves, I and I'm sure most of the members in this place have heard horrific stories from our electorates from women desperate for a safe home, desperate for a court to prevent her ex-partner finding her, desperate to ensure the safety of her children, desperate for the violence and the abuse to stop.

We also hear from frontline workers on the ground, running organisations, trying to help pick up the pieces—underresourced, overstretched and overworked. I have many of these excellent community service organisations in my electorate. I'm lucky; I'm in a metropolitan area, and I know that many of these organisations are simply not available in our regional areas.

When I was first elected I met with the two superintendents of the local area commands in my electorate—Sutherland and Liverpool. When asked what the major challenge that they face in their LAC was, they both unhesitatingly said domestic violence. When we say 'domestic violence', we're covering a lot of things. We're covering physical violence, sexual violence, emotional abuse, financial abuse and technology enabled abuse, and they all have different manifestations and different impacts on victims. We talk a lot about victims.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 10:40 to 10:55

This motion talks about providing significantly more money for victims, for example, in a whole range of areas. It also talks about providing more money for education. It talks about better resourcing of frontline workers. All of those measures are supported.

What has been particularly important with this motion is the number of male MPs who have spoken on this. This is not a woman's issue. This is a community issue. It's a whole-of-society issue. It's a problem for all of us in this place. We—men and women—need to work together to come up with solutions. I think it's also very important to remember that these crimes are committed by a small minority of men. Most Australian men do not hit women. They do not abuse women. They find it abhorrent. For years now, since we broke the taboo of silence and the taboo on victims speaking out about domestic violence, we have sought improvements in many spaces.

As I've said before, we've introduced AVOs. We've put significant resources into policing and training police officers in the domestic violence arena. We've done this through the courts. We've done it through welfare agencies and through our education system. But many of the most recent alleged perpetrators, for example, were under the age of 35, so they had in fact already been through an education system that has embedded respectful relationships within its curriculum from preschool.

Many of the victims go and apply for an AVO. An AVO, though, provides no shield against a gun. An AVO provides no shield against a knife. An AVO provides no shield against a perpetrator following his victim, online or otherwise, without her knowledge. An AVO provides no shield against a perpetrator convinced that a woman is his possession, that she has no right to leave him and that she or her children must be punished by violence or even death.

While I do support this motion that speaks about providing more assistance to victims, I think we now also need to have a conversation and look at measures that have worked, both here and overseas, in prevention, early intervention and rehabilitation. We need to consider that the perpetrators in these cases have mental health issues, because it is not normal for people to be violent. It is not normal for men to hit women. We need to look at diversionary programs that address underlying anger-management issues, for example. That is the only way that we are going to break this cycle. We can continue to provide more and more money for victims, and that is important. But until we stop violent men hitting women, this cycle will continue. We will continue to see more women dying, and we'll continue to see more women trying to find safe haven in refuges.

The member for Cowper spoke quite compellingly about the success that he had seen in some areas of his electorate when he was a young police officer in diversionary programs, in male education programs and rehabilitation—to the extent that he actually saw that some of these offenders recognised that their behaviour had been completely unacceptable and had ended up leading classes in diversionary and male re-education programs. We need to take on board comments such as that. We need to take on board the lessons over in California, for example. The criminal justice system set up a domestic violence diversion program similarly aimed at intervention, rehabilitation and education. It has similarly seen some success.

Gender violence is multifaceted. It is a very complex issue. As I said, it feels overwhelming in its scope. I feel confident though that, at least in this place, we are all trying to work together to find solutions for this problem. Einstein famously said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing the same way it has always been done and expecting a different outcome. Now is the time we need to throw everything at this problem. We need to put everything on the table and we need to look at how we can change the behaviour of perpetrators as well as providing adequate support for victims.

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