Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have received a letter from the honourable the Leader of the Opposition proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely:

The need to put family violence at the centre of the national political agenda in Australia.

I call upon those honourable members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the House for supporting this debate. It is a matter of public importance, but family violence is a matter of national urgency. It is without a doubt one of the greatest contradictions in our society that an act of hate can be done by people who claim to love the victim. It is not right in this country that Australian women are more likely to be badly injured, or worse, by partners who claim to love their spouse or their partner. For too long, family violence has been regarded as an uncomfortable outsider issue, best left to women's groups, the police or homeless services. The truth is that family violence is not a race, class or ethnic background issue; it is a gender issue. I believe all of us in this place have a responsibility to make it a national political priority.

I know that this issue is of great importance to all who have the privilege of serving in parliament. I know that we are all increasingly antagonistic to the notion that, whilst a neighbour might speak up if they thought a stranger was conducting an act of violence in the house next door, when it is between members of a family in the house next door, the convention is: it is not an issue which we should automatically involve ourselves in.

Today I have asked the Prime Minister to convene a national crisis summit on family violence as soon as possible. I acknowledge that he has agreed to meet with Labor to discuss this idea. In the event that a summit is not viewed by the government as the way to go—and we hope it is—we would convene one within the first hundred days of being elected.

The case for a summit is this. It is not just a government talkfest. It is not just state and territory leaders, as important as they are. There can be no solution to family violence without the voices of survivors being central in the discussions. We need an assembly of the front line—community, researchers, advocates, women's groups, and community legal services.

I am very proud that in the previous Labor government—led by Tania Plibersek and many of my colleagues—we had the first National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children. I acknowledge that the second plan has been adopted and advanced upon. But today I put before the House the proposition that we need to do more, and more urgently. Too often the first public warning sign that a woman is in danger is a report of her injury at the casualty ward, or indeed worse. Too little has changed too slowly.

We need a national summit to capture this momentum. Like every Australian I was proud that the 2015 Australian of the Year is Rosie Batty. Her story of struggle is unimaginable to all of us, frankly. I appreciate that—from the Victorian royal commission through to the Queensland government's report, Not now, not ever, released two days ago by Dame Quentin Bryce, the South Australian parliamentary inquiry, ANROWS, and work by the current government—work is being done.

Indeed this debate today stands on years and decades of effort by many people. This parliament has an opportunity to add our effort collectively to something which many people have worked on. I am proud, amongst many, to have Jenny Macklin serve alongside us in this parliament as she worked on the first Canberra women's refuge many years ago.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Forty years ago.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Some years ago! But it is important that we end what is called the postcode lottery. The quality of support that one receives should not depend on where you live. It should not depend on the role of the dice or if you find a magistrate who is particularly in tune with working through the needs of a survivor and making sure that the system works.

Every woman is entitled to feel safe in her home and secure in her community. If you cannot find safety in your home, then the system must support you. That family violence can happen to anyone means that the right help must be available to everyone.

We offer this idea of a national summit to the government and we also encourage them to look at our other proposals. On average, women affected by family violence will move three times—three upheavals: away from your support network, your family and friends, moving from your community and indeed your job. Sometimes women are still paying the mortgage on homes that they have had to flee while the abuser sits in the house.

As a starting point, Labor would invest $15 million in a safe at home grants program so that the abuser is not rewarded and the survivor can stay—better security systems, alarms, locks and CCTV would allow women to be safe in their homes and ensure that children can sleep in their own bedroom rather than having to move from their school and their friends, adding distress upon trauma.

We also recognise that when women seek legal protection from their abusers our court processes can be an emotional and financial gauntlet—intimidating, complex and slow. Our system should be built on one fundamental principle: when forced to court, seeking protection from family violence for you and your children, you should never walk through the system alone. Labor will invest $42 million in front-line community services; and, for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, who suffer the highest rates of family violence, we would invest another $4.5 million dollars in building capacity for family violence prevention legal services. There is further to go, and I recognise that work has been done on improving security for women in our courts and that training for our magistrates, judges, court official and police officers has improved.

But no act of family violence ever occurs in isolation. Each one can be marked on an escalating continuum of rage. Interrupt the pattern of dangerous behaviour, perpetrators who abuse drugs and alcohol, law enforcement, justice and child protection systems—as a first step, we would provide $8.4 million to develop research and divert perpetrators from the path which leads to escalating grief and harm.

Underneath all of this, the fundamental issue, which will assist, tackle and defeat family violence once and for all, has to be the pursuit of equal treatment for women in our society. We believe that it is possible to teach respect in our schools, sporting clubs, workplaces and the military. We also believe that, if leaders play their role in business, politics and sport, we can also do this in the media. Complaining about political correctness is easy. Dismissing offensive and outdated attitudes to women as harmless fun is easy. But sexism and misogyny carries consequences for women, for children. It is time for us to recognise that the problem is not women; the challenge is men and men's behaviour.

Labor priorities are clear but we would seek a national summit not to validate our views or support our choices. We want immediate action. We want to be guided by the people who know. The principle of having a summit and bringing people together—not just the states and territories, and the national government—is sound. Let's bring together all of the voices in one place at one time. We have remarkable momentum built upon the shoulders of survivors and their supporters, advocates and research.

Fundamentally, we must also recognise that no discussion of family violence is free from the discussion of gender equality, economic empowerment, seeing women have financial control over their own lives, and women in leadership; work at the grassroots as well. It is not inevitable that family violence will always be with us. Labor does not accept that it is an inevitable course of society and life that women have to be the victims of family violence. There are some things in life that cannot change, but violence against women in the family is not one of them. We have the capacity to do this together. Diversity and support for changing attitudes means that there can come a time in the future when people will look back at the debates we have today and look at the efforts of champions, from Ken Lay through to Rosie Batty, and through to so many others, including, unfortunately, so many about whom we have not heard names or their stories. We can put an end to this.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for bringing this matter forward for this debate today. Domestic violence is an issue that transcends this place and its politics. We are a great country, but there is a dark corner and we speak about that dark corner today. Having this debate today—importantly, about the many things that are being done, have been done and must continue to be done—will shed light and expose this dark place of our great nation. It is my hope and the hope of the Abbott government that all Australians, collectively and individually, join together in our efforts to reduce and ultimately, as the Leader of the Opposition has just said, eliminate violence against women.

I acknowledge the contribution of all members of this place, past and present, and look forward to the contribution of those in the future who have worked so hard on this goal. I particularly acknowledge you, Madam Speaker, for your work in this area over a long period of time. You have had a very simple message: women must be respected. Throughout your career, you have lived that and you have brought great respect to women in this country. If we share that as a country, that goes a long way to addressing the issues. We live in a country, as we have reminded ourselves today, in which assault and violence are illegal, yet one in three women in Australia will experience domestic violence and one in five will experience sexual violence and one a week is murdered at the hands of a former or current partner. That is not the Australia I want my daughters to grow up in. That is not the country I see for them. That is something that brings us all together in this place: working towards avoiding that in their future. It saddens and sickens us that that has been the experience of so many Australian women—our sisters.

I see—as do ministers who have served in the portfolio I serve in today, and they sit across the chamber—both the causes and the consequences of this every day. You get a rare insight in this role, to see it at such a pervasive level across the community. That only stirs us up to address the matters that are before us. Violence against women is exactly that: it is violence and it is a crime and it is completely unacceptable. The government recognises that domestic violence needs to be a national priority. The Prime Minister has elevated it as an issue at every Commonwealth and state and territory level, through the Council of Australian Governments' agenda. The federal government will be seeking the agreement of all states and territories to the priorities through the implementation of the national domestic violence order scheme, so that a protection order issued in one state applies in all states. These are practical measures. The sentiment that has been expressed here today is important, but I think we all acknowledge that that sentiment must be translated into actual things that happen on the ground that provide the protections and deliver the changes that are necessary. The implementation of a national domestic violence order scheme is an important reform and an important change.

In addition, COAG will work to develop a set of national standards for how we intervene against perpetrators and hold them accountable and will consider the enactment of a national approach to deal with technology misuse and online safety so that we can protect women against newer forms of abuse. This even goes into the area of bullying. All of us who are parents of young daughters live in fear, frankly, of what they can be exposed to in the online space. It is not just young girls but women of all ages. This is something we must be across. The Prime Minister's announcement bolsters the work of the Australian government with state and territory governments and non-government organisations. The Leader of the Opposition has acknowledged their important role, as he should and as we should, through the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children 2010-2022. The Prime Minister has appointed an expert panel on preventing violence against women which rightly has as its foundation members our Australian of the Year, Rosie Batty, and of course Ken Lay, the former Commissioner of Victoria Police.

In July last year, the government launched the second national action plan for violence against women and it allocated more than $100 million over four years to support its delivery. I was there on that day and it was quite a sight to see the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women, Senator Cash, standing with every state and territory police commissioner in the country. The opposition leader was there, the deputy opposition leader was there and there were many members from the government. It was a statement of solidarity amongst our most senior law enforcement officers in the country, standing there resolutely and making it a priority for every one of the police forces. It was a great thing to see, but it was not surprising, because they see it every day. I am the son of a policeman and I know a bit about what police go through every day—the trials that they deal with and what they see every day in this dark corner of our country. It affects them deeply and terribly, so I was not surprised to see them standing shoulder to shoulder with the parliament, with the government, saying, 'We will get this done.'

Under the second action plan, the Australian government is providing over $100 million, as I said. It includes initiatives such as $3.3 million for CrimTrac to develop and test a prototype for a national domestic violence order scheme. There is $1.7 million to take the next steps in developing a national data collection and reporting framework that includes $300,000 for the Australian Bureau of Statistics to augment data sets on victims and offenders. This is important data for planning and aligning your resources to ensure that you can tackle this problem and deploy people and schemes where you need to. There is $1 million is for the 1800RESPECT line—Australia's first national professional telephone and online counselling service. We have allocated $3.5 million for projects under the Australian Research Council—20 separate projects, I understand, for women's safety under the 2014-16 research program and have made a $1 million investment to establish a sports grants bank, from which national sporting codes can fund violence prevention activities.

The government has also delivered on its commitment of $1 million to White Ribbon Australia to expand their campaign to culturally and linguistically diverse and Indigenous communities. As a former minister for immigration, and as others opposite will know, I know ensuring that you take the message from the mainstream into these quite discrete communities to ensure that they can address the very specific challenges they face. This is critical for recently-arrived migrants who come from quite different cultural settings to what is found in this country—helping women to understand their rights and the country in which they now live, and helping the men understand the country in which they now live. It is important that we roll this program out across the very many different linguistically and culturally diverse communities we have in Australia.

White Ribbon Australia is working to develop a culture of gender equality, which the Leader of the Opposition has also mentioned, and a culture of respect, where attitudes and behaviours that support the use of violence are no longer tolerated. The White Ribbon campaign aims to end violence against women by encouraging men and boys to take positive action to create change. We as a government have also provided $6 million towards the Northern Territory's $18 million domestic and family violence reduction strategy from 2014 to 2017, which is known as Safety is Everyone's Right. In addition, today Minister Cash, the minister assisting the Prime Minister for women, announced that the federal government will work with state and territory governments to deliver a $30 million jointly-funded, national, awareness-raising campaign. I pay tribute to Minister Cash for her work in this area. While the federal government's commitment to ending domestic violence is resolute, the issues of inconsistent and inadequate sentencing and justice administration responses for domestic violence perpetrators must be addressed. The matters, which have been raised today in this debate and will continue with the other speakers, will enjoy much agreement in this chamber. It is important that we have occasions like this to try and stir on the action that I said has been there, is there now and must continue. It must continue, but we also need to take account and stock of the gains that are being made. Your contributions, and those of many others in this place, need to be acknowledged and need to be built on. We must also do the same things that motivated the people who came before us in this place and who acted on issues as well as they could in their times.

The government has this as a national priority; we are demonstrating that through the activities that we are already engaged in. The Leader of the Opposition has put forward proposals today, and the Prime Minister has agreed to discuss those with the Leader of the Opposition. This is a very worthy initiative and I commend this debate to the house.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This morning we woke to another front-page story in The Canberra Times about the brutal murder of Tara Costigan. Tara had sought, and gained, an interim domestic violence order against the man who is now charged with murdering her. She had received that order just one day before her death. Her sister and another man were injured in the same attack. Tara had two sons and a little girl, not much more than a week old. Her family wants us to remember that she died defending her children. Tara hoped that the company of her family, the provisions of the law and the resources of her government would protect her. They did not.

Tam Costigan is far from the only Australian woman whom our legal system, our governments, our society have failed. Rinabel Tiglao Blackmore died from injuries sustained when, in fear of her life, she jumped from a moving car. Leila Alavi was stabbed to death. Nikita Chawla was found dead in a unit in Brunswick West. Ainur Ismagul was found dead at her home. Kerry Michael was found beaten to death on Mount Roland. Adelle Collins was stabbed to death at her home. Fabiana Palhares died of injuries from being attacked with an axe in her home. Renee Carter was stabbed to death.

These are just the cases where police have laid charges and identified those charged as partners or ex-partners of the victims. They are just the cases this year. Our usual formulation is to say that nearly one in five, or 17 per cent, of Australian women aged 18 and over have experienced violence from a partner or a former partner since the age of 15. That is nearly one and half million women. More than 130,000 Australian women have been victims of violence by a current or a previous partner in the last 12 months. We have to ask ourselves: how many thousands of women—right now, this afternoon, tonight—will fear for their own lives, their own safety and those of their children in their own homes? How many have fled everything known and everything that is familiar, changed jobs, taken their children in the middle of the night, moved house, moved state, left behind the support of family and friends and—perhaps not for the first time—have moved again and again in a desperate attempt to escape? How many have had to leave their work because the perpetrator of the violence knows where they work? How many have become poor because they are no longer able to work because the perpetrator turns up to their workplace and harasses them. How many are afraid to leave a violent relationship because they know that one of the most dangerous times is when they leave the relationship, that leaving will lead to their murder, or they are terrified that if they leave and take the children, the children will be pursued, or if they leave without the children, the children will be hurt, or worse, in revenge? How many are in fear that the mechanisms of the courts and the resources of the law will not ultimately deter or prevent their abuser from killing them? How many have stayed because they have nowhere else to go?

These women are not statistics. Each and every one of them is a daughter, a sister and sometimes a mother or an aunt, and each one of them is a part of our community, and to each and every one of them we owe an unyielding determination that this will stop. Aside from being relatives, mothers, daughters, sisters and aunts, every one of these women is a human being, and every one of them is a citizen of our country and is owed this. Since the beginning of this year, more than one family every week have been left to mourn a loss that should never have happened. More than one family a week have been left with a hole in their hearts that will never be filled. To them too we owe it to say, 'This must stop.' We call on the government to stand with us today, with all Australians and all of us here, and say, 'This will stop.'

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is my first speech from the dispatch box, and I would not think that there is a more important subject to speak on.

Before politics, I was a crown prosecutor and I prosecuted a very large number of matters at trial and sentenced a very large number of matters that involved sexual offences and offences of extreme violence against women that would fall into what is known generally as a broad category of domestic violence offences. There are a small number of matters that I remember distinctly and that still, from time to time, invade my thoughts. One in particular involved a young Indigenous woman in Derby, in the north of WA. There is nothing particularly to be gained by relaying the facts of the matter, other than to say that it was a very serious matter. Because of the remoteness of Derby, my efforts to proof that key witness and the victim had proved completely fruitless. I arrived the day before the trial, and I sat in a very hot room in the courthouse in Derby, and I simply could not convince this young woman to take her allegations to trial. The allegations thereby were never tested or proved, and it could not have been said at law that an offence was committed. I felt certain that the trial should have proceeded. As a citizen, I felt that the young woman should go to court, speak the truth and put the alleged assailant to the test before the jury, but, as an officer of the court, my efforts to persuade her had to require a level of dispassion that I felt—and now in retrospect feel—completely mismatched the moral reality of the circumstances.

This young lady had no mother there, no sister and no friend—no-one who would give her any comfort or support and give her the massive courage that she needed to get into that box. The outcome is one that I feel in my deep conscience was completely and utterly unjust, although it was procedurally and in every legal sense fair. In recollection, I think nothing could have been done at that particular point, because at the point that I entered that causal chain of misery that had led that young woman through that courtroom door it was far too late.

After trials, I always had a sort of pervasive and sombre mood, but I remember during the long drive back to Broome from Derby just being gripped by sheer despondency. I must say in retrospect that I had a not very constructive loathing of the alleged perpetrator, and that slipped very easily into this complete sense of despair that the scene I had left was nothing but a wilderness beyond the effect of human improvement. It was completely wrong to feel that way. Things can definitely be done and human lives can be improved, and there can be retreat from the violence against women that we see all around us, on our doorsteps as well as courtroom doorsteps. Even if that retreat from violence is incremental and improvements are hard-fought for, and even if some of them can be overturned at times and reversed, that effort is always worthwhile.

I would say to the Leader of the Opposition, my friends in the opposition and to my own side of this parliament: the key is to enter that causal chain as early as you possibly can in terms of public policy and to do so in a way that is eminently practical and measurable. I tried to do that as a state Attorney-General in a way that I thought was most immediate and most important. Whether there is a summit or whether this conversation continues at COAG, I would put to all of you present that if this is a crisis and if we want to do one thing immediately to make things better then we must ensure that violence restraining orders are worth the paper they are written on. As a state Attorney-General I changed the law, and I was persuaded out of allowing for mandatory imprisonment of those who breached restraining orders, and I now regret it.

In Western Australia—and this plays out in every state and territory in the Commonwealth—at the time that I was Attorney-General you could have breached a violence restraining order against your partner four or more times and have only a 25 per cent chance of imprisonment. My government changed the law in Western Australia to be just short of mandatory imprisonment, with the strongest possible legal presumption for imprisonment if you were a three-strike breacher of a violence restraining order against your partner, and that figure of 25 per cent increased to 30 per cent. That is, on any assessment, a colossal failure of response.

I do not entirely blame the judiciary, as it is a very difficult thing to show mercy on an individual basis and then have to face the statistical fact that that mercy causes misery at large. But I would say that in a country where an Aboriginal woman is three to four times more likely to be a victim of sexual assault, where an Aboriginal woman is 40 times more likely to be hospitalised after an assault and where 50 to 60 per cent of Aboriginal spousal assaults involve a weapon, we must do something. It is a crisis, and if I could point to one thing for all of the members of this House to think about it would be making violence restraining orders work.

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Payments) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Later today I will be able to launch this very important book, which is the story of the Beryl women's refuge here in Canberra. It was the second women's refuge to be opened in Australia, around 40 years ago. I was a young woman when I joined the night shift at the Beryl women's refuge, and it was a time in Australia when young women like me felt that we could do and be anything that we dreamt possible. What I wanted to do was make that so for women escaping violence. To my mind, violence is the way that so many women have their dreams and, sometimes, their lives destroyed. It is this violence against women that takes away their capacity to control their own lives. The women who have made the book I will be launching this afternoon have really understood that. All of the people who have worked at the women's refuge in Canberra and at women's refuges all around Australia understand just how important it is to make sure women have a place to go to escape violence. I want to thank all of the volunteers and staff who work in women's refuges now and who have worked in them over the last 40 years in our country.

The women and children who have sought refuge understand just how critical it is that these services exist. Forty years ago, there were no government supports provided. Now, of course, governments at all levels provide funding, and yet, sadly, it is the case that, every single night, there are women who are looking for a bed for themselves and their children but cannot find one. It is something all of us need to face up to.

For me personally, the nights I worked on the roster at the refuge remain with me. Some of it was just plain fun, as I played with the children. But a lot of it, of course, involved talking with women late at night and it was very difficult. I gained a very real understanding of how violence can destroy so much of a woman. At worst it can mean her life, or the lives of her children, or her health and confidence.

When I was interviewed for the book I am about to launch I was asked how this time at the refuge had impacted on my life as a member of parliament and as a minister. I do want to say today how much I have carried that experience with me over all the time that I have been here in the House of Representatives. It has enabled me to really understand the impact on women of the use and misuse of power and control through violence. It has also driven my commitment to make sure that refuges, homelessness services and the legal support that women so desperately need are properly funded. That is why I am so pleased to see the policies that have been announced today.

This does have to be a priority. It does cost money to make sure that refuges are there every night that women and children need them, that legal support is there for people and that family support services are there for people. We acknowledge how important it is to do everything we can to say to girls who are growing up today that they can expect to take their place wherever they dream they can. But we also want to make sure that, when they grow up, as women they are treated equally at work and at home. Governments have a responsibility—all of us—to make sure that that can be delivered. We can make a difference, and we must.

Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is wonderful to see the bipartisan support for an issue which has to be one of the key concerns for a nation which calls itself developed, compassionate and caring. All women have a right to be safe and their children have a right to be safe, not abused, bullied and beaten. But one in five Australian women will experience criminal and cowardly abuse from her current or former intimate partner. We know that, when a woman has that abuse occurring, too often she has her own children who are witnesses to that abuse. We know that one of the characteristics of growing up in a violent situation like this, in a household where the woman is bullied and abused, verbally, psychologically or physically, is that the children learn from it. The little girls learn that this is what you take, this is what you have to put up with, as a woman in our society; and the little boys learn that this is what you do to keep a woman 'in line'. So there is an intergenerational transfer of that abuse—for the victims and for the abusers.

We have got to stop all of this. We have got to have zero tolerance. Australia is a wealthy nation with a lot of medical services and a lot of non-government organisations who commit to looking after the poor, the needy and the disabled. Despite all the infrastructure that we do have—which is more than many other nations—we still have this scourge in our community. It is not confined to low-socioeconomic status persons or neighbourhoods; it is found behind closed doors right throughout our society.

There are, however, some strong risk factors in terms of which women are likely to find themselves abused. With two women a week being murdered by partners in Australia, we know that the woman has probably suffered years of violent abuse leading up to that final struggle when she was hurt too badly to survive. We know that alcohol and drug use is one of the factors which will make it more likely for the male to attack his partner. We know that women with disabilities—whether psychiatric, intellectual or physical—are more likely to be attacked. That is because they are more dependent or are seen by the abuser to be more easily abused and less likely to report it.

We know that boys who have seen abuse in their families are more likely to become abusive themselves when they grow up. We know that if a woman is pregnant, or if the dissolution of the relationship is occurring, she is more likely to be physically and emotionally abused. And we know that more younger women tend to be abused. We also know that Indigenous women are more likely to be abused in Australia—and that probably goes along with the alcohol and drug abuse and the extreme stress experienced, particularly in remoter communities.

So we know there are risk factors that will be more likely to stimulate violence, but that is not enough to understand what the factors of risk are like. We have to understand why men do it. We have to make sure that we get into our schools to our boys and girls at a very young age. Northern European countries do this so very well. We have to make sure that our young people learn that we must have equality of status, empowerment in terms of job prospects and managerial positions, and economic independence between men and women. We have to see that women in the workplace are given the same respect and engender the same understanding and opportunities as men.

A man does not abuse a woman physically and emotionally, sometimes to the point of killing her, if he respects her and sees her as an equal. This is a situation in Australia that harks right back to us looking at the relationships between men and women. Men have to understand that women are equal and have a right to live a life that is safe and is not going to lead her to injury or death and her children to be emotionally scarred as victims or perpetrators of these crimes in the future.

Restraining orders have to work. The police have to have a zero-tolerance attitude. If we hear screaming or abuse or see someone obviously physically hurt we must go to their aid, not turn the other cheek and say that it is not our business. It is the business of every Australian.

Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last year I heard a constituent speak about being brutally beaten and left for dead, when she was six months pregnant. She is now a well-known advocate for taking more action against domestic and family violence. Last year I visited the Women's Legal Service in Annerley, which I understand is fortunate to have the member for Moreton's wife as a volunteer. They told me that they are really stretched. They said they had helped 3,200 women in the previous year, but there were 16,000 more who had tried to get help but could not.

RISE Queensland visited me in Canberra to call for more action on family violence. Women's House told me they were worried about the state of Queensland's domestic violence laws. And just last week Dame Quentin Bryce released a special task force report on domestic and family violence in my home state. She said:

… there are about 180 reports to police of domestic violence incidents in Queensland every day.

The report includes testimony from people who assisted the task force, like the contributor who said:

The violence would consist of him punching me, spitting on me, choking me, depriving me of sleep and threatening others would kill or rape me. I was often left bruised with multiple contusions, black eyes, pain, on occasion concussion and living in great fear for my life …

Also, this week the bipartisan Parliamentarians Against Family Violence heard from Rosie Batty, whose story everyone here knows. Everyone here knows that stopping domestic and family violence should be squarely at the centre of our national agenda.

As the Queensland special task force report says, 'domestic and family violence is gendered'. As Bill Shorten has said:

There is no clearer symbol of continuing gender inequality in our society than the epidemic of violence against women. The biggest risk factor for being a victim of family violence is being a woman.

…   …   …

17 per cent of Australian women have experienced physical or sexual violence by a current or previous partner …

As the Deputy Leader of the Opposition said, that is nearly one in five.

Eliminating domestic and family violence will take more than talk. But talk is still crucial. Domestic and family violence needs to be at the centre of the national debate if it is to be eliminated. There must be talk and, of course, there must be action. Without continued discussion of this issue it will be allowed to fall off the agenda, as it has periodically in the past. We cannot let that happen.

Today, Labor has called on the Prime Minister to hold a national crisis summit on family violence. We know that women need to be able to get legal support and to find somewhere safe to go. We want to make sure they have both of those things. To make that happen we want the Commonwealth state and territory governments to conduct a national crisis summit on violence against women, separate from COAG. Governments must agree to implement urgently coordinated judicial and social services reform. A national crisis summit on violence against women would bring together community legal services, researchers, experts and advocates. It is the best way for stakeholders to lay down the key policy challenges and the changes needed for addressing family violence, in an open and transparent way.

Labor's interim package that we have announced would deliver more than $70 million in targeted funding to ensure those suffering from family violence can access critical services. We would commit $50 million to frontline legal services, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services, to make sure that women suffering from family violence have appropriate legal support. The aim of this is to ensure that, at least, the women facing court have access to appropriate legal services during what is a very difficult time. We will also make an initial investment of $15 million in Safe at Home grants to help people affected by family violence stay safe in their own home. In addition, Labor will invest $8 million in perpetrator mapping, which looks at interactions across family violence, law enforcement, justice, child protection and related systems, to help identify opportunities to prevent violence through information sharing.

Labor's plan is for a national crisis summit on violence against women, and for interim measures. We developed that plan in consultation with experts, academics and advocates like Rosie Batty. Like my colleagues I urge the Prime Minister to work with Labor as a matter of urgency to convene the summit. If not, we will do it within the first 100 days of a Shorten Labor government. This must stop, and we all have an obligation to do our part.

Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is really great that we are talking about this matter of public importance here this afternoon. When Tim Watts from the Labor Party first rang me and said, 'How about we work with Ken Wyatt, from the Liberal Party, and start the Parliamentarians Against Family Violence,' the purpose of it was to get this on the agenda to ensure that this is something we in this House are all talking about. I want to commend the work of Tim Watts and Ken Wyatt, and their strong leadership on this issue. It is pleasing that we now are finally able to have this as a matter of public importance that all people in this chamber are interested in and are looking for solutions to.

My interest in this really stems from a meeting that I had in my office. I had a lady come and see me, and she wanted to talk about child care. Of course, child care is a significant issue. I invited her into my office, and we sat down and briefly talked. Once there were no staff there and the conversation could flow more freely, she pointed out that this was not really just about child care. As members of parliament know, and as many in the gallery would not realise, in some regard the role of a member of parliament is in fact a pastoral role. As is often the way when you get talking to people and scratch a little bit deeper, there is always more to the community that you seek to represent and serve.

She said, 'How did I get in this situation?' She said, 'I am a young successful woman and university educated, and yet I find myself now living close to the poverty line, having had to flee, with three children, a case of serious domestic violence.' We talked about the issues, about supervised access and being able to exchange those children at a police station and about her feeling judged when she did so—not so much because the police were judging her but because she felt guilty. I thought that this is actually an epidemic in my electorate and it is an epidemic in Australian society. We spend so much time talking about the security of the Australian people, we dedicate a lot of time to issues to do with terrorism, we spend $28 billion in this country on defence, which is for the security of the Australian people, yet there is the loss of many, many family members in their own home. It is appropriate that we address the issue of the security of the Australian people within their homes.

The disturbing part for me is that I fear, perhaps, that we are not winning this debate. It came out on Monday night, when Rosie Batty and the people from Our Watch addressed members of parliament, that community attitudes in 17- to 19-year-olds have actually deteriorated in regard to their views of women. This is a major concern to me. This is the enlightened era, and this is the educated era. We are a First World country, and yet, statistically, attitudes have deteriorated. One of the reasons for this was access to online pornography, and one of the other reasons for this was the gaming culture and some of the things that young Australians are feeding their minds with within the gaming culture. It stands to reason that, just as you are what you eat, what you feed your mind on does translate to changing your attitudes. So, I think that it is fantastic that, today, we heard that the federal government is going to work with the state governments to put $30 million towards a campaign to try to change people's minds and to try to change people's attitudes. We can do this. Together we can do this.

We have done this with smoking. We have drastically reduce the amount of people that take up smoking, but it continues to be an ongoing challenge. We have done it with drink driving, where if you drink and drive you actually are a bloody idiot, and we can do this with family violence. We want a society where the family unit is safe, where a woman and a child can go home and feel safe, but it starts with us. It starts with the leaders in this place, and it starts with the Australian people. I hope that the Australian people are taking notice of the discussion that is taking place in the parliament here.

The great line is: the standard you walk past is the standard that you accept. We must change our attitudes. We must have good policing. We must have Australia-wide intervention orders, strong magistrates who enforce the law, safe houses for women that flee, good support services to tell those women that they have not done anything wrong and that they are valued by the Australian people, and affordable legal services. These are the challenges. I think that it is great that our parliament has finally taken a very strong stand. I commend members of parliament for their leadership on this issue.

Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I begin my remarks on this matter of public importance, I would like to say that this debate today has been parliament at its best. I thank all members for supporting this motion today, and I particularly thank the members who have contributed. I have worked with the member for Mallee and the member for Hasluck over some time on this issue, and I know how seriously they and all members of this parliament take this issue.

Last April, a woman was murdered in my electorate in the most horrific and public circumstances. It was a wake-up call for me. It forced me to confront the reality of family violence in all of our communities. I am ashamed to say that before this murder I was unaware of the prevalence of this issue in our community. I did not know that one in five of the women around me, the women in our society, have experienced violence from a current or former partner. I did not know that 17,000 family violence intervention orders were issued in Victoria, alone, last year. I did not know that last year around one woman a week was killed by their current or former partner in Australia—a figure that has tragically grown to two a week this year.

Thanks to decades of hard work from advocates and service providers, more and more people in our community and more and more MPs are becoming aware of this issue and demanding action. More people are learning about this issue in the way that I have over the past 12 months. Indeed, in January, we made family violence campaigner Rosie Batty Australian of the Year, not for what her ex-partner did, but for what she has done over the past 12 months as a powerful, articulate advocate in our community. On Monday, Rosie Batty and the foundation Our Watch addressed members of Parliamentarians against Family Violence Friendship Group in Parliament House. Around 50 MPs from all sides of politics—many of whom, I know, are in the room at the moment—came to hear her speak and stayed for an hour. She left us with a message. She asked us, 'What will we do in response to this issue?' I know how much shared goodwill there is on this issue on all sides of this House. We all know that the status quo is unacceptable, and we all know broadly what needs to be done. So, I say to members: let's do it, let's do it together, now.

Today, Labor invited the Prime Minister to convene a national crisis summit on this issue and get to work on ending family violence across Australia. It is a genuine offer, and I hope the Prime Minister takes it up. I welcomed his comments during question time, today, on this. We have said that, if the PM does not take up this offer, we will act on this summit within 100 days of the election of a Labor government. We have said that we will work with state and territory leaders to end the uneven response to family violence across the country—uneven even within states let alone between states.

We have said that we will invite service providers and survivors of family violence to work with the leaders at the summit and to hold them to account. And we have said that we will support a $70 million interim package to ensure that those suffering from family violence can access critical services, to ensure that no woman is forced to confront our legal system alone to ask for protection for herself and her children. That is, tragically, something that happens all across our country every day of the year. Lawyers are often a maligned group, often for good reason, but in this respect they truly do God's work.

Why do we need a national crisis summit? Because two women a week are being killed. This is a national crisis. It is an issue that should be bigger than just another agenda item that we consider regularly at COAG. We need a national crisis summit to ensure that decision makers around the country are held accountable for their actions and their commitment in this space, and to ensure that they honour the work of front-line providers. We need a national crisis summit to ensure that our response to family violence is joined up and tackles the causes of this violence, not only the consequences.

Labor believes in an Australia where every woman can be safe in her own home and where police, courts and governments protect this right. Women and children should only be forced to leave their homes in the most extreme circumstances. Our starting point needs to be an agreement on a national Safe at Home program, something that would be instrumental in assisting women and children to remain safely in their homes. A national Safe at Home program would ensure that there are effective policing, justice and support services to keep women safe where they currently live. At the same time, we need to build the capacity of our judicial system to deal with family violence, strengthen the operation of our legal system and improve police responses.

Finally, and most importantly, we need to change the attitudes and behaviours that enable violence against women. We need to reflect on our own behaviour and ask ourselves hard questions about what we are doing to break down gender inequality in our society. Make no mistake: the heart of this issue is gender inequality.

We do not need to wait for a change of government to take action on any of these issues. I know the goodwill of those opposite is strong. We know what needs to be done. Let's get on and do it.

Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What an indictment of our society that, in this day and age, with more than 2000 years of so-called civilisation, this issue of family violence is so rife. Two deaths a week, not in some violent country on the other side of the world but here in Australia. It is definitely time to do something. Domestic violence betrays trust, destroys families and leaves long-lasting emotional and physical scars for not only the victim but those around them. Domestic violence in any form is unacceptable and it is incumbent upon all of us to work effectively to eradicate it.

This coalition government has placed domestic violence prominently on the national agenda, in cooperation with state and territory governments. In this regard I would like to place on record my strong support for the Prime Minister's recent announcement that domestic violence will be listed as a priority for the Coalition of Australian Governments, in 2015. The governments will focus on implementing a National Domestic Violence Order Scheme, developing national outcome standards for perpetrator interventions and improving online safety for women. These measures are crucial in keeping families safe from these wicked and violent acts.

I would also note the work of the former Queensland government in commissioning a task force into domestic violence and the receipt of the task force report titled Not now, not ever: putting an end to domestic and family violence in Queensland, which was commissioned by then Premier Campbell Newman.

The report found that, on average, there are 180 instances of domestic violence every day in Queensland and that, between 2011-12 and 2013-14, reports of domestic violence increased from 58,000 to 66,000. The report makes 140 recommendations and I trust that the new Queensland government will study these carefully with a view to continuing the good work initiated by the former government. I place on record my appreciation to the task force chair, former Governor-General Quentin Bryce.

Domestic violence in all its forms is a blight on our country. It is unacceptable. We must take time to consider that domestic violence comes in all shapes and sizes. And the shapes and sizes are not always what we expect. We must be wary of falling into the path of only believing those who we typically expect to be victims. We must train our emergency service staff, social workers, doctors, teachers and others to look out for unlikely victims, the ones who keep quiet and suffer in silence. Perpetrators of violence all start somewhere. Schoolyard bullies are not always the big kids; it is often the reverse. Not all victims of domestic violence are poor or uneducated. Not all perpetrators are the physically strong attacking the physically weak. Not all domestic violence involves a black eye or visible signs of abuse. Mental torture can be as damaging and sometimes has long-lasting impacts but never heals. Not all domestic violence is perpetrated by strong men on vulnerable women.

The only way to eradicate all forms of domestic violence from our culture is to put aside our preconceived ideas and to look at every victim as an individual, not as a stereotype. We must give victims of violence the courage to speak out, without the fear of ridicule or disbelief. Most importantly, we must say to the victims, 'I believe you.'

The mover of this motion, the Leader of the Opposition, also mentioned our near neighbours in Papua New Guinea where you are more likely to have gender-based violence than elsewhere. I would like to recognise the work of Dellilah Gore, a current PNG minister, whom I know you met on recent trips, Mr Deputy Speaker Ewen Jones, and Governor Julie Soso Akeke, up in Goroka, who are working so hard on trying to resolve the issues in that country; and people such as Leniata Legacy and Sister Lorraine, in Bougainville. The issues up there are even more stark than the ones we have here.

This is an issue that cannot be resolved by governments, by talking and by coming up with protocols. It is an issue that we must all take responsibility for. Person by person, house by house, street by street, we must all take responsibility and stand up and be heard.

I commend Air Vice Marshal Mark Binskin, who my colleague the member for Mallee quoted, who said: 'The standard you walk past is the standard you accept.' We must give victims the confidence to come forward and speak up and, when they do, we must believe them.

Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The time for the discussion has concluded.