Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As we mark the start of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, we must reflect on what more we can do to end this scourge of violence that has brutally taken the lives of so many women and destroyed the lives of their loved ones. It affects people across every part of our society. No matter the town you live in or your age, family or cultural background, domestic violence could affect you or a loved one. Around one in four women have experienced domestic violence from a partner or family member since the age of 15. This number is far too high, and that's why our government has a commitment to end family and domestic violence in one generation. That's why we're taking strong and immediate action towards this aim.

The safety of women and children experiencing family, domestic and sexual violence is a national priority for the Albanese Labor government and it has been since the day that we formed government. In our first three budgets we invested record funding for women's safety. Our most recent announcement after a second dedicated National Cabinet meeting on gendered violence brought the figure to $4 billion. All state and territory governments have committed to working to end violence within a generation through the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children. The national plan was developed with victims-survivors, advocates and the family, domestic and sexual violence sector. Listening to people who have been doing this work for years is the best way to ensure our government is making the correct decisions and putting funding where it will have the biggest impact.

Through this, we have delivered much needed funding for frontline specialist support services and legal services. As part of the funding package, the Australian government will invest $3.9 billion in support for frontline legal assistance services to be delivered through a new National Access to Justice Partnership with the states and territories. Every part of the legal assistance sector will benefit from this funding. Importantly, this includes increased funding both for women's legal services and for family violence prevention legal services.

We have also invested $85 million to deliver innovative approaches to better identify and respond to high-risk perpetrators to prevent homicide and keep women safe. By sharing information across systems and state borders, police and frontline services can intervene earlier and get women to safety. We have also invested in supporting women's economic security so that women don't need to choose between safety and poverty. We have made the leaving violence payment permanent, providing $5,000 to people leaving intimate partner violence, 10 days of paid domestic and family violence leave for all employees, including casuals, and expanding the single-parent payment.

This year, as a co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Ending Violence against Women and Children with the member for Bass and Senator Waters, I've had the pleasure to meet with many groups that are responsible for prevention activities across the country and organising events to engage all members of parliament in these important discussions. From saturation models to working directly with perpetrators to stop reoffending, these groups are doing critical frontline work to protect Australian women and children.

Our government's investment into prevention is through respectful relationships education and consent campaigns. We are also supporting the work of Our Watch, the national primary prevention organisation and expressing exposure to online harms for children and young people. We know that ending family and domestic violence is everyone's responsibility not just the government's, but that government has a really important role to play. We all need to work together to make sure that we can end domestic violence in our country.

With the time I have remaining, I want to acknowledge the incredible work of local organisations in my electorate of Canberra and in the ACT more broadly. I find it really hard to find words that do justice to the incredible work that those organisations do to support women and their families in the darkest times and the most difficult times of their lives. I don't want to forget anyone, but I want to acknowledge the Domestic Violence Crisis Service, the Rape Crisis Centre, the Women's Legal Centre, the YWCA and there are many more. It was wonderful to announce a pilot program to help train GPs, who are often the first port of call, to identify and support victims. The amazing Dr Anita Hutchison, who has long been an advocate, has an important role in that and that's going to support GPs to support women in this space too.

Debate adjourned.

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