Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Hansard source

These men are committing crimes, and women have reasons why they can't flee. We know it's a crisis. Successive governments have started to tackle it. We're investing $925 million over five years. It builds on record measures of the current government to address violence against women: the 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave; the largest increase in rent assistance in 30 years; and investment in crisis accommodation and affordable housing for women.

As the Minister for Government Services, I can't solve the gendered violence crisis, but I'm going to break down the silos within and across government so women who confront questions about whether to stay or go can find their decision easier. I've asked my public servants to work towards the idea of joined-up services, so if a woman is fleeing a violent partner she can have on her card a curated and ready-to-use system, her phone can prove who she is and immediately connect her with a dedicated social worker, she can commence a crisis payment and find suitable accommodation and, if she chooses to apply for an AVO, she can be connected to law enforcement to commence the process. We need to break down the plague of fiefdoms in our Public Service, because if we can have a simple identification which gives a woman the freedom to exercise choice then perhaps we'll save more lives.

I really want to finish my contribution by saying that gendered violence is a man's issue. It is men who, by and large, are the problem. Men learn from the trauma of their own childhood, and some repeat it. It's interesting why men who had abuse in their own childhood turn out to be good fathers and husbands. I think that, if they don't repeat it, it's often because of the influence of strong mothers and other women in their lives.

Young boys tonight will learn about violence. Young girls will learn. But if the young boys who learn about it don't have the right role models—the good men to guide them—then that violence will be intergenerational. We shouldn't kid ourselves. There will be beautiful 12-year-old kids tonight wondering if they will win or lose in their dad's mood lottery. They know their dad's not always a bad fella. He might have undiagnosed depression. He might have had trauma in his childhood. He could just be frustrated that life has turned out the way it has. He could love the drink too much. But that doesn't excuse the violence.

There are kids tonight in Australia who will have too few good memories of their childhood. Perhaps there was one trip to the beach or one attempt to teach them how to ride a bike. Perhaps they'll have the embarrassment of their father falling asleep, drunk, at the school prize night. We know that alcohol is an accelerant of violence. Gambling can be. For goodness sake, sometimes some men even use the excuse of a losing football team. That is weak and pathetic.

Aussie children shouldn't have to develop coping and survival strategies. They shouldn't have to turn up their AirPods louder or put headphones on. They shouldn't have to hope that Dad falls asleep quickly at the table. They shouldn't have to hear their mother fighting to protect them from their father. Children should not have to learn to dissociate the world they live in outside the house and the times that their aggressive father comes home. I know tonight there will be many Australian mothers who will be shields for their children.

We have to educate our young boys to respect women, but we have to break the intergenerational trauma. We must encourage men to examine their own childhoods and deal with the trauma. We've got to also teach people that the toxic masculinity of the Tates, the Rogans and the Petersons of the online world is not the real world. It is alarming in the digital age that 25 per cent of teenage boys look up to social media personalities that perpetuate stupid, old-fashioned, violent attitudes. We're funding a three-year trial to see how we can change this. My colleague Amanda Rishworth has announced the healthy masculinities project trial.

At the end of the day, I'm asking men in Australia to step up. I can't change what happened in your childhood, but you can be the father to your kids that you always deserved but perhaps never had.

See this speech in context