Deborah O'Neill (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I speak tonight on a matter that I expect many others might touch on this week, and that is the issue of violence against women. It is an issue many of us reflect on as we mark White Ribbon Day, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

The statistics in themselves are stark and shocking. One in three Australian women will be assaulted or abused in her lifetime. More than one Australian woman every week is killed by her partner or ex-partner. I know in times when quaint language was used to try to mask the horror of this reality such crimes were called crimes of passion. But such words can never hide the horror of violence perpetrated in the intimate space of relationship.

The impact of violence against women is documented in some artworks on display in the parliament this week. They are works that were produced as art therapy by people who had been victims of violence, and amongst them is a display of drawings and artworks undertaken by a woman who was subjected to abuse as a child. She obviously had repressed those images but revisited them when the same crimes were perpetrated on her own children. The horror of that is very well conveyed by the drawings she has done, and one can only admire and respect her determination to tell her story, to stand up for her children and to fight back against the indignity that she suffered. She is a survivor and she tells her story. So many of the images on display talk about people healing the broken self with a new sense of hope. But why did these women have to suffer this in the first place? How could we let that be?

The statistics I mentioned earlier, the terrible reality that we must address and reduce, mean that domestic violence is an issue many of us are confronted with in our electorates. Since my election to the seat of Robertson, I have had the honour of visiting the Woy Woy Women and Children’s Service. It is a women’s refuge, and two weeks ago I was there to see the work that they do. There was a group of women seeking refuge with their children, but I was also struck by the outreach worker, who had to go to extraordinary lengths to find excuses to meet women—in McDonald’s outlets around the country, at coffee shops and at playgrounds—to help them find some way out of the violent situations in which they were entrenched. This masquerade, the ‘hiddenness’ of it, is a big problem that we need to overcome.

When you witness the sharp end of Australia’s domestic violence epidemic, it brings home to you—it brought home to me that day—the very great importance of White Ribbon Day. Cultures of violence need to be addressed where they exist. The reality is that while women can be aggressors in domestic violence it is far more common that men are the inflictors of violence upon women. We know that social change is hard to achieve, but social issues can be very well addressed through peer education, peer modelling, peer leadership and peer pressure of a positive kind. That is why those local, state and national football clubs, surf clubs and other sporting clubs who pledge to each other to prevent violence against women deserve our encouragement and accolades.

To those who are still silent or those who think that domestic violence is not an issue that they will be impacted by, I repeat the alarming statistic declared on the White Ribbon website. It is a fact that one in three Australian women will be assaulted or abused in their lifetime. One of those women is likely to be your sister, your friend, your work colleague, your team mate, your future partner or your boss. Entrenched attitudes and behaviours do not change when people remain silent. It is time for voices to rise in disgust at this statistic, for cultural and behavioural change.

The White Ribbon campaign asks men to swear an oath never to commit, excuse or remain silent about violence against women. The White Ribbon campaign in Australia is led by more than 1,000 White Ribbon ambassadors. Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke is a patron of the campaign. He is certainly a good campaigner and he is joined by other male politicians stepping up to deliver clear and exemplary values of respect for the rights of women to live their lives freely and without fear of assault by men.

I know the Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition are both ambassadors, as are many other men on both sides of the House. I know the Speaker of the House supports White Ribbon Day and that the member for Lindsay, at the table, is an ambassador. I call on all those who lead in other contexts to take the opportunity to lead on this issue on Thursday. (Time expired)

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! It being 10.30 pm, the debate is interrupted.