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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Congratulations on your words at White Ribbon this morning. All of us agree that family violence is a national crisis. Rosie Batty, the Productivity Commission and the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence have all recommended that family violence survivors should not be cross-examined in court by their abusers. Will the Prime Minister join with Labor to amend the Family Law Act to ensure that vulnerable witnesses are protected during court proceedings?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question, and thank him, his colleagues and all members for their support for White Ribbon. Addressing domestic violence is a priority for all of us. We have to stop it. Violence against women and children is utterly unacceptable. The truth is that not all disrespect of women ends up with violence against women, but that is where all violence against women begins. We have to lead with legislation, investments and government actions. But one of the most important things we have to do, as parents or grandparents, is say that it is our responsibility to make sure our sons and our grandsons grow up to respect the women in their lives, beginning with their mothers and their sisters—those most close to them. That is critically important. It is a point my wife, Lucy, has often made—it is a powerful one. That role of leadership is driving cultural change. The advertising campaign that I know all of us have admired, Stop it at the Start, that Senator Cash oversaw, has been particularly effective.

Let me address the issue of cross examination. We all understand that the cross-examination of a victim by the alleged perpetrator is a very traumatic experience. We are working very closely with the stakeholders in this area, in particular the judges and magistrates of the family courts, to progress measures to support vulnerable witnesses. We are establishing integrated duty lawyer and domestic violence support services in the family law courts to improve the support available to victims, and that includes assisting them to draft notices of risk and access alternative ways to give evidence. We have also commissioned a bench book which provides guidance for all judicial officers dealing with domestic and family violence, including guidelines for courtroom management to minimise secondary abuse through court processes of those that have experienced family violence. Judges and judicial officers always have a discretion, of course, in this area, and we are encouraging them to use this very actively to ensure that these distressing circumstances do not occur.

I noted what the honourable member opposite proposed this morning and the funding that he recommended, which, at first examination, would not appear to us to be adequate for the task that he has proposed. But I can assure honourable members opposite we are very well aware of the trauma that victims suffer if they are cross-examined by a perpetrator, and we have put in place the measures to ensure that that does not occur where it would create that type of trauma.