Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services, Housing, Youth and Women) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am speaking tonight on the very serious issue of domestic violence in response to a petition I received recently that had 1,055 signatories. The petition states:

The availability of safe and affordable accommodation for women and their children escaping domestic violence is in serious decline throughout Australia.

It goes on to say:

Unfortunately, many women and their children are being forced to stay in violently abusive relationships because they have nowhere else to go. Women’s shelters only offer a temporary respite of a few weeks. There appears to be no safe and affordable accommodation available for women and their children to access after this short respite. As a result, many women and their children are being forced to remain or reunite with their violent partners or become homeless.

This petition from over a thousand signatories comes from the Townsville area. The signatures are from many genuine people from Idalia, Aitkenvale, Mount Louisa, Atherton, Kirwan and many other areas who are concerned about this serious issue. The Australian Bureau of Statistics tells us that about one in three Australian women will experience physical violence and one in five will experience sexual violence over their lifetime. Indigenous women are 40 times more likely to be victims of family violence compared with other Australian women. About a quarter of children witness violence against their mother or stepmother and often children who witness violence are mistreated or neglected themselves. We know that women will often return to violent relationships rather than make their children homeless, so the shortage of emergency accommodation is extremely serious for this reason.

Funding for the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program—we are up to SAAP V at the moment—has gone backward year after year because it has not kept pace with increases in the cost of living. There has been a cumulative real loss of nearly $50 million over the term of this last agreement, which will expire in 2010. The difference between the current government’s policies and what a Rudd Labor government’s policies in this area would be are quite stark. It is our intention to establish a national plan to prevent violence against women and children which will be driven by a national council on violence against women which will include survivors of violence, domestic violence and sexual assault service representatives, law enforcement agencies, academics and others. We believe that the only way to end violence is to establish a clear goal, clear time lines and clear responsibilities to ensure that all levels of government and non-government agencies are working together to make progress.

We want schools to teach values that include respect for relationships between human beings. When schools are teaching sex education, they need to talk about more than just the mechanics of sexual relationships and speak also about issues of consent and respect. We need to promote successful local programs and make sure that they become successful national programs and, in taking a public health response to domestic violence, ensure that when we focus on prevention to stop abuse occurring we also maintain our focus on criminal sanctions where violence has already occurred.

We think it is vital that a federal government work with state governments and the community sector to improve access to crisis accommodation and to improve the transition from crisis accommodation to long-term secure and affordable accommodation. At the moment, sometimes women stay in crisis accommodation longer than they need to because they simply have nowhere to go. Making sure that there are exit points from crisis accommodation is just as important as making sure that there is enough crisis accommodation available. Crisis accommodation is obviously about more than just a roof over people’s heads. Women who have been through domestic violence are extremely traumatised and their children often need extra support as well. These crisis services that I am talking about are about safe and secure accommodation, but they are also about providing the sort of counselling, support and help in getting lives back on track that families that have experienced this sort of violence will need. I finish by congratulating the 1,055 signatories of this petition. I will be lodging it in the parliament in the usual formal way. (Time expired)