Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to rise to speak on stopping gender based violence—or domestic violence, as we know it. The first thing I would like to say is that everyone in this place has the same intention, and that is to rid our society of domestic violence. And this should be bipartisan. The speeches that I've heard today are wonderful speeches with wonderful intentions. I will never criticise anybody across the floor or across parties on this, because we have all tried and we have all failed and we continue to fail, but our intent is there. We want to help. We just need to get the right measures in place. So it is very pleasing, what we did in government in the last few terms and what this government is doing—taking steps in the right direction towards reducing gender based violence, or domestic violence.

I am very privileged to be in this place, but I think I'm even more privileged to have the role of shadow assistant minister for the prevention of family violence. It is something that I am extremely passionate about. I've travelled around Australia, talking to victim advocates, survivor advocates, agencies and police. I have been to every state and territory, in the cities, the regions and the very remote areas, talking to those people who are on the front line or who provide those services. One thing I can say is that every single agency—every single person—is stretched beyond imagination. They are overwhelmed by the amount of domestic violence in their communities, but they're also overwhelmed by the lack of resources.

We see—and credit to the government—$3.4 billion in this budget going towards the national prevention plan, but, of that, 17 per cent is for prevention and intervention, which means that 83 per cent is for response and recovery. That has been described by all the agencies and all the people that I've spoken to as the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. We are not addressing the causal problem. Putting 17 per cent into prevention and intervention is not going to change anything. We are just going to keep going around and around, watching the same things happen over and over again. I am not suggesting for one moment that we should not be funding those crucial agencies and those crucial services. What I'm saying is that we should be matching, dollar for dollar, funding for prevention and intervention and funding for response and recovery, otherwise we'll be standing here in another decade saying that domestic violence is still a blight on our society.

The first step in changing this cycle is funding those agencies and putting the money there for the programs that are required to change society and to change the way we think. It was very pleasing to read the report that came out from the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner, Micaela Cronin. In the key findings on page 13, the commissioner talks about engaging men:

Men must be a part of every aspect of ending violence. Governments must support efforts to redefine masculinity and engage men effectively. More intervention options for men using or at risk of using violence are needed, which take a trauma-informed approach, improve information sharing and risk assessment and management.

It is really pleasing to hear the change in the conversation and the change in attitude. Men are the problem, but men are also the solution. We have now recognised that reality. As we know, eight out of 10 offences are committed by men. Yes, they may be coming from a place of trauma and, yes, they need to be punished, but there need to be those programs and those supports to change the thinking—not just changing the thinking of male offenders but having those programs out there for men's mental health and wellbeing.

I heard a figure yesterday. In the budget, women's health receives $187 million a year. Men's health? $7 million. Men's health gets $7 million a year, compared with $187 million for women's health. I'm absolutely committed to women's health, and, yes, it should receive the funding. But why is there that disparity for men's health? A healthy male is a healthy father and a healthy member of the community. That just doesn't come down to physical health, but it also comes down to mental health. We know that mental health contributes to this vile situation of domestic violence. We need to change that. We need to fund men's mental health.

I met with Movember last week—and congratulations, again, to the government for their partnership with Movember. It's a great step forward, because they work with men, and they create men's programs to make healthy males. We've heard about young men turning toward social media and toxic masculinity looking for answers. Well, flip the coin, and Movember is there to help our young men, and to help our men be good members of the community. But we also need to put in place a generational curriculum in our education system. It's not just outside. It's not just 'Let's deal with men'. Let's change the way we look at things.

I was privileged to speak with the education minister for Indonesia, Nadiem Makarim. Minister Makarim was a tech billionaire by the time he was 30. He was tapped on the shoulder by the president, who said to him, 'I want you to be my education minister.' What the minister did was put into the national curriculum, alongside maths, English, reading, writing, 'respect and respectful relationships'. It is a holistic program. It's about not just how to treat women, but how to treat each other—how to be a better member of society, and what is expected. Within two short years, not only had incidents of chauvinism and assault decreased significantly, but academic excellence had gone through the roof.

That's what we need to do here. We need to have a national curriculum and education system which incorporates this; not just one day a year. Those programs like Love Bites are fantastic programs, but it has to be like maths and English where you have it a couple of times a week and you get tested on it, just like they do in Indonesia. It also needs to go on a journey from kindergarten through to year 12 with that child. It's irrelevant whether that child is male or female. That's exactly what we need to do. Until we implement those things, change the funding modelling, change the conversation in society, change the education system and bring men into the room, we will continue to go on this roundabout. We will continue with same old, same old since time immemorial.

Again, this is something we should be on the same page on. I am always happy to talk to my counterpart across the floor to work with the government to improve the systems, and, hopefully, in a generation's time we won't be having this conversation.

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