Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

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

The need to address family violence as a national priority.

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—

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

It is, of course, a very important week to talk about family violence—violence against women and their children. This Friday, 25 November, is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. It is also the commencement of 16 days of activism against gender related violence that concludes on 10 December, which is International Human Rights Day, as members would know.

Family violence is a national priority, and it should be treated that way in this country. On average, at least one woman is killed by a partner or former partner in Australia each week. One in three Australian women has experienced physical violence since the age of 15. One in five Australian women has experienced sexual violence. One in four Australian women has experienced physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner. One in four Australian women has experienced emotional abuse by a current or former partner. And women are at least three times more likely than men to experience violence from an intimate partner. These sets of statistics are repeated so often in this place—and they are repeated for a very good reason, because family violence is a national epidemic and, as I said earlier, it should be a national priority.

As a nation, we do need to do better when it comes to family violence. I am really proud that it was a Labor government that introduced and instigated a plan, under the great leadership of then Minister Tanya Plibersek, who instigated the National Plan for the Reduction of Violence against Women and their Children 2010-2022. This is an excellent document that is currently under its third action plan, which was announced in October this year. Much more needs to be done when it comes to fulfilling the aspirations of that plan: for a country that does not suffer from this epidemic of domestic and family violence that we have seen here for such a long period of time.

I wanted to make some observations about some policy challenges that arise in relation to family violence. For example, it has been almost three years since the coalition government announced its cuts to community legal centres, which directly provide front-line services to domestic violence victims. From 1 July 2017, community legal centres or CLCs are facing a 30 per cent funding cliff, with almost $35 million in cuts. And that is a terrible shame, Mr Deputy Speaker Coulton—welcome to the chair—because, obviously, access to legal services and the assistance that surrounds legal services is incredibly important for women who are seeking domestic violence orders, and for women who are in the family law courts, who need assistance to manage the experience of going through the family law courts. Legal assistance is incredibly important.

Another thing that is incredibly important for people who have left a violent relationship is housing. Domestic violence is a leading cause of homelessness in this country. It is incredibly important that the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness be renewed. I call on the government to confirm that it will renew the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness, which expires very soon, and therefore that it will give those services that provide housing for homeless people, including homeless women who have left violent situations, the certainty that they need to continue their programs and ensure that their workforce does not leave.

Speaking of the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness, it has actually now been more than two years since the coalition government's cuts to that partnership agreement's capital expenditure component. There were two annual cuts of $44 million—so an $88 million cut—to capital expenditure on homelessness in this country, at a time when people across the country are crying out for more housing options for women and children who have been forced to leave home because they have been facing family violence at home.

We have also been talking in this parliament today about family law, and I mentioned it earlier. There is a really important reform that needs to happen in relation to family law. It has been more than two years since the Productivity Commission recommended that the government reform family law processes so that perpetrators of family violence could not personally cross-examine their victims. It has also been a little bit more than 12 months since Women's Legal Services Australia wrote to the Minister for Women and to the Attorney-General to ask them to implement cross-examination reform in this country. In February this year in Senate estimates, the Attorney-General said that nothing would be done in that term of parliament to give effect to this recommendation, but we found out in April that a roundtable had been held in relation to this issue back in March. It is now November and there has been no news from the government about this crucial cross-examination reform in that intervening period.

We invited the government today in question time to get on board with our policy. Our policy would require judges at the first mention in a family law proceeding—by which time you will have seen on the papers the disclosure of any allegations of family violence—to consider whether vulnerable witnesses can be protected using existing measures, like video-conferencing, having witnesses behind screens or having a support person, but, then, if that were not enough, to require a judge to consider whether they should refuse to allow an alleged perpetrator to personally cross-examine the alleged victim. Of course, it is important that accusers be able to be cross-examined by the accused. We do not seek to prevent people from cross-examining, but we say that it should be able to be done through a lawyer—through someone who is a professional; through someone who is bound by a code of ethics; through someone who is bound by professional responsibility obligations and under the scrutiny of legal profession regulators. That is what we say the court should be able to do.

The court should be able to order that someone who has been accused of abusing, of assaulting, of committing crimes against the other party in the family law matter should not be allowed to revictimise and retraumatise that person through personally grilling them in a courtroom, through using family law proceedings to personally grill them.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Hear, hear!

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

I hear the member for Moreton agreeing with me. He has been such a strong advocate of this reform. He has been a key driver of this reform. Labor has a strong policy. We will, if elected, implement this change to cross-examination, but it should not have to wait that long. We know it and the government know it. It is time for the government to move to commit to making the legal change and to commit to providing the additional legal aid funding that would be needed so that both parties could have a lawyer if that power were required. This is a crucial reform. It is not just the Productivity Commission or Women's Legal Services Australia who say so; it is also Rosie Batty, the former Australian of the Year, who has been campaigning so hard on her campaign for safety first in family law. This is a crucial reform. We have already waited long enough. The government know that they need to do this, and it is about time that they moved on it.

It has been about a year and half since this government's cuts to Family Violence Prevention Legal Services—which are Aboriginal family violence prevention legal services—were reversed, but the government has yet to provide any assurance to those services of any ongoing funding beyond 2018. Some funding was recently announced in October, but it was only a year's funding for a handful of services and no services have as yet been funded beyond 2018. These are incredibly important services that serve women who are most at risk of family violence. The Prime Minister himself has, I think, recited the statistics that, if you are an Aboriginal woman or an Islander woman, you are 34 times more likely to be a victim of family violence than a non-Aboriginal or Islander women. It is also the case that you are something like 60 times more likely to suffer a head injury.

These statistics are chilling for us, and they are a reason that certainty should be given to these frontline, key services that do incredible work on the smell of an oily rag. If you are out west, if you are in Roma, the Family Violence Prevention Legal Service covers hundreds of square kilometres with only a handful of staff. These are not expensive services but they are critical services for Aboriginal women and Islander women, and there should be a stronger commitment from this government to continue to funding them.

In question time today the Minister for Social Services had a go at me—believe it or not, on White Ribbon Day acknowledgment, of all days—for complaining about the fact that he has taken the $5 million that they had committed to 1800RESPECT and, instead of giving it to Rape and Domestic Violence Services Australia to hire more professional specialist trauma counsellors, has given it to MHS, the private firm that was linked to the data breach involving defence force personnel a couple of years ago, and has said to MHS, 'Take this money and create a triaging service to divert people away from the more professional specialised counsellors.' They advertised for counsellors—the people to take the phone calls—and the qualifications were lesser. The advertising required people to be able to commit to working from home. I would like to know whether the minister is proud of the fact that fewer people are actually making a call directly to a specialist qualified trauma counsellor in relation to family violence when they are traumatised. If I were him, I would not be proud of that fact. I would also like the minister to confirm and to commit that all of the people answering those telephone calls are women. So far I have seen very little from anyone to confirm that that is the case.

There is so much more to do. We need to work hard on this. I think that it would be wonderful if we had genuine bipartisanship on pursuing these reforms. (Time expired)

Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to rise in support of the member for Griffith's matter of public importance motion today, which is the need to address family violence as a national priority. I admire the member for Griffith's commitments to this area. The reason why I get up in support of her motion is because it is indeed already a national priority, and it was this government which put it on the national agenda predominantly when Prime Minister Turnbull came to office as Prime Minister. Indeed, the very first cabinet decision of the Turnbull government was the $100 million Women's Safety Package. I will go through that package in a few moments time, but, before doing so, can I say that as all of us across all sides of this chamber would agree, violence against women and children is completely unacceptable in any form.

As a husband, as a father of two daughters and as the son of a mother, it is almost unfathomable for me to think that there are men out there who would physically harm the girls and women in their lives. It is unfathomable for so many of us. But when you look at the data, unfortunately, it occurs way too frequently. The member for Griffith talked about some of that data for domestic violence. I will just reiterate some of those figures, which are truly staggering. This is from the Domestic Violence Prevention Centre website. They have some data which shows: just under half a million Australian women reported that they had experienced physical or sexual violence or sexual assault in the past 12 months; more than a million women had experienced physical or sexual assault by their male current or ex-partner since the age of 15; over a third of women who experienced physical assault in the 12 months before the survey said the perpetrator was a current or previous male partner; a third said the perpetrator was a male family member or friend; a third of women had experienced physical violence since the age of 15; and one in five women had experienced sexual violence since the age of 15.

And, of course, we know that so many physical assaults, sexual assaults and family violence episodes are not reported at all to the police but they are truly staggering figures. But behind every single one of those pieces of data is a person, is a child in many cases or is a family that may have been devastated because of the violence which had been committed against that woman or against that girl. It is truly a tragic situation when we still have statistics like that and, of course, in the Indigenous community the figures are just so much higher again. If time permits, I will reflect on that towards the end of my remarks.

Governments, and particularly the national government, should be leading in this area and should be leading to address some of the statistics and some of the domestic violence which is occurring at way too high a rate. This government has been the most proactive federal government that has ever been in this place in addressing domestic violence. I mentioned at the outset that the very first decision of the Turnbull cabinet was a $100 million Women's Safety Package.

Ms Burney interjecting—

When you look at some of the issues that funding package went towards, it went towards very practical measures which are now being implemented, for example: $12 million to trial with states the use of innovative technology to keep women safe; $5 million for safer technology, including working with telecommunications companies to distribute safe phones to women and with the eSafety Commissioner to develop a resource package about online safety for women; $17 million to keep women safe in their homes by expanding successful initiatives like the Safer in the Home program to install CCTV cameras and other safety equipment; $5 million to expand the 1800RESPECT number, which the Minister for Social Services referred to in question time; and a $2 million increase in funding for MensLine for tools and resources to support perpetrators not to reoffend.

I could go on, but all the details of the $100 million package that was announced are now public.

As the Prime Minister himself said a few weeks ago, that package is now having real, tangible results on the ground. He referred to a couple of things in his remarks when he was with the Queensland Premier at the COAG summit. He referred, for example, to the fact that there are now 12 new specialist domestic violence units and five health justice partnerships which are now operational as a result of that funding. Those services are being delivered by community legal centres and legal aid commissions at locations across Australia. Since January of this year, 1,400 services have been provided to 535 women experiencing family violence—82 per cent of whom have one or more children—and it provides a very integrated case-management approach. The 1800RESPECT line has also had a significant take-up since the announcement. Since the additional funding has been introduced, over 80 per cent of calls are answered within 20 seconds, which is a very significant improvement. That has been a very good initiative which came out of that package.

That package was informed very much by Rosie Batty and Ken Lay and the work they did to support that package being developed. I am a bit disappointed about some of the snide remarks coming across from the other side. Of all the issues that we deal with, surely this is one which should be above politics.

Honourable members interjecting—

Just in recent times, we announced a further $100 million package, which is the Third Action Plan 2016-19, and that has a number of initiatives as well including: $20 million allocated to prevention and early-intervention programs to break the cycle of domestic and family violence; and $15 million to improve and expand national, domestic and family-violence services, which includes the 1800RESPECT number and other initiatives. There has been a record amount of funding being put into domestic violence services from this government. It has also had the imprimatur of the Prime Minister—firstly of Tony Abbott and now of Malcolm Turnbull, who has made this a national issue.

Honourable members interjecting—

I want to just briefly address perhaps the most important issue—

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The minister just might resume his seat. I have had a request that, due to the serious nature of this MPI, we have some respect in the House, and I think that goes for both sides. I will have no more interjections or I will be evicting people.

Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Above and beyond the services that we are funding, though, perhaps the most important part in really addressing domestic violence is changing attitudes, particularly changing attitudes amongst men. This is a task which all men should be facing up to and reconsidering, but it is also a task on which the government can, in part, inform and lead. One of the things that we have done is allocate $30 million to a national campaign called 'Let's stop it at the start'. We are six months into this three-year campaign, and it is already having some quite considerable results, which we are very pleased to see. For example, between April and June this year, the ad, which was put on YouTube, was the most watched advertisement on YouTube, with more than 36 million views. It has already influenced 67 per cent of all those who have seen these campaigns, and almost two-thirds of people have said they have taken action as a result of these campaigns.

We can take action there, but we also need to take action in the local football clubs and in local communities, where all men can step up and say no in relation to disrespecting women because, ultimately, as the Prime Minister frequently says, violence often starts from disrespecting women in the first place. This campaign is about respecting women. All of us can make a difference, particularly the men in our society. We have a serious package, we are doing serious things in relation to this, but we need further work. I commend this motion.

Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Community leaders especially speak as advocates about domestic violence, but they rarely speak as victims. I would like to do something a little different today. In my first speech in this place, I said 29 out of my 36 years of life had been affected by domestic violence. I am a survivor of family violence, and it has taken me a long time to overcome the trauma of that and be where I am today. I know there are a lot of women out there, many of whom suffer in silence, and today I stand in solidarity with survivors and with those women who are afraid to speak. I will use my story, told in this place, to advocate for the change we need. I will use the prelude to White Ribbon Day, which is on this Friday, as an opportunity to shine a light into the darkest corner of my own life.

The first 13 years of my life were marred by physical domestic violence committed towards my mother at the hands of my always-drunk-when-abusive father. My dad was the son of a World War II German soldier who committed many acts of violence against his own wife and against his seven children. My father had been raised in a home where violence was the accepted norm at a time when society said these things were private matters. Whilst the blows that landed on my mother during my childhood did not land on me physically, they might as well have. The trauma inflicted was the same. I recall it vividly—and in great detail. Each episode of this violence over my first 13 years was different, but the aftermath was always the same: dad would apologise and promise to be different, and that would work for just a short time.

On the evening of another round of abuse, Dad launched the family dinner of that night at the wall. The stain remained on that wall for a very long time, but the stain in my heart would linger much longer. Mum then bundled my sister and me into the family car and we fled. We would go to the refuges in our community until, after so many years and so many incidents, my father knew the locations and we were not safe there anymore. We then shifted to staying in hotels, which were located above pubs, where the people below were loud, and sometimes their noise would spill into the streets, waking me and reminding me that I was not in my own bed or in my own home. I was in a foreign place because I was not safe in my home.

One night, when Mum was hurrying to get my sister and me out, dad had removed and smashed the distributor cap from the car, rendering it useless and leaving us trapped. The police fetched us that time. I still remember sitting in the Penrith police station well into the early hours of the morning and the police officers giving us pink milk while we waited. The police did their best. Again, after this event, my mum returned home.

We know many, many women return time and time again, even when their lives are massively disrupted, along with those of their children, and I hope that the blame that was launched at my Mum during the nineties for not leaving is no longer part of the 'solution' around domestic violence and that the question of 'why doesn't she just leave' quits being asked. Eventually, though, the courage rises up, services step up and women stand up, finally leaving—but not before one last terrible incident. There were 13 police cars the last time physical violence affected my childhood. But this was the end of the physical violence once and for all. Whilst the physical part ceased, other abuse around finance and control ramped right up. Sadly, the wheel of domestic violence continues to affect my life as a grown woman with children of my own. The last 16 years of my life have been and continue to be affected by domestic and family violence.

In the limited time I have left, I would like to take this opportunity to thank opposition leader Bill Shorten for his continued support of my personal situation, his understanding and the support he provides to me. I would like to thank my caucus colleagues and our staff who know my story yet do not judge me and continue to provide support. I would like to acknowledge the Penrith Women's Health Centre, who have been providing services to my community for 30 years, including to my mum then and to my own family now.

In my experience I have found that victims mostly do not talk about domestic violence because other people do not talk about domestic violence. For many years I was embarrassed and I was ashamed. I know that I should not have been but I was. I hope that today I have lent my voice, my story and my passion for advocating for change to the choir of the white ribbon movement to stand up, to speak out and to act. Thank you.

Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I go on, I would like to acknowledge the very difficult speech just given by the member for Lindsay. It is certainly a display of how domestic violence affects the people who are involved in it, and those around them.

This is a very serious matter and, yes, there is a need to address family violence as a national priority, absolutely. We need to have a coordinated approach to addressing it, we need the appropriate responses to acts of domestic violence and we need the appropriate education to prevent domestic violence. We need to have, as a society, a better understanding of domestic violence. If we are going to tackle this issue at a community and social level, we all need to understand what domestic violence is. With domestic violence, what first comes to mind is a very violent attack by a man on his partner in the family. That is a tragedy, and it is what we need to identify as the most significant and important area of domestic violence that we need to address. But we also need to understand that domestic violence has a number of different levels and, as the Prime Minister said earlier, that domestic violence always starts with disrespect.

Domestic violence also shows its ugly head in control, when the abuser starts to control the victim through any number of different methods—whether it is controlling their social environment, who they are allowed to see or the clothes they are allowed to wear. It really is a terrible, terrible situation to be in, and it spans all cultures and sociodemographic areas—unfortunately, it is particularly prevalent in Indigenous communities. The problem focuses on women, and it should be, because women are predominantly the victims. But an area that I probably recognise, in some ways, more than most is that women can also be offenders when it comes to family violence, and men can be victims.

When I first became a police officer, there was a change to the law that added same-sex couples to the area of family violence. I think we always need to recognise that the family has changed over many years, and that a victim of family violence in a same-sex couple suffers in the same way as a victim in a conventional relationship. We need to respond, and we always need to recognise that. It is something that I have seen over and over again, and it is an area of the community that is often forgotten.

When it comes to education, as parents we need to let our sons know that only cowards beat women. Only cowards commit those acts that destroy families. And, as a father, I want my daughter to know that she does not have to put up with it. As the member for Lindsay said before, quite often women go back, and it is such a complex area. It is so devastating when people look at women who continue to return to violent relationships and they just do not understand the control that their abuser has over them. We need to educate our daughters that they should never put up with being the victim of abuse.

The coalition is acting with regard to family violence. We have implemented quite a number of plans, including the action plan that sets out 36 practical actions under six priority areas. We are doing the work on family violence. Family violence is something that, as a society, we should never put up with. It is one of the motivating factors that sees me here as a member of parliament, and I am proud to be part of a government that is addressing this issue.

Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I stand to speak about family violence and White Ribbon Day, which is marked this Friday, as is the International Day for Elimination of Violence against Women. I want to acknowledge my friend, the member for Lindsay, and all of the speakers. I was proud to attend the White Ribbon breakfast here in Parliament House this morning. I want to acknowledge all of those whose lives have been affected by the scourge of family violence and I want to acknowledge all of those who are working to make things better.

I will touch on the Northern Territory's situation and, hopefully, will give some good examples. I am proud to be a member of a party that is proposing concrete practical steps to address family violence in our communities. While I am not taking anything away from what the Prime Minister had to say this morning, I am proud of the initiatives that our leader has highlighted, including the issue of family violence leave, the initiatives around revenge porn and also how we can change how our courts run so that victims of family violence are not then taken through another process of unnecessary trauma.

One of the reasons that I welcome our leader's approach is because of the impact of family violence on the people of Darwin and Palmerston—my electorate. The overall effect of family violence in the Northern Territory is substantial.

For example, we have by far the highest rate of homicide offences related to family violence in the country. In the last three years, there have been 75,000 incidents of family violence in the Northern Territory—out of a population of 244,000. At least one child is subjected to family violence in the NT every day; 44 per cent of family violence orders were breached, and 44 per cent of family violence offenders were repeat offenders. Rates of assaults related to family violence were more than four times higher in the NT than in any other Australian state or territory. These are obviously not stats to be proud of, and we are certainly not proud of them in the Northern Territory. But we look at them in the cold light of day and commit ourselves to making things better. There is a long way to go.

One thing that we are very proud of is that there are volunteers working both in the protection space and in the legal space—with the refuges. But there are also people, strong men, working with other men in men's groups to encourage them to be the agents for change in their communities. One such organisation is the 'No More' campaign, which is headed by local Aboriginal leader, Charlie King. He is an inspirational man. He is widely known for his role as an ABC sports broadcaster, but he has also tirelessly dedicated himself to this No More campaign.

The campaign started in 2006. It followed a large meeting of Indigenous men from right across the Northern Territory. I stress that, obviously, family violence is not just an issue to do with Indigenous men—but Charlie King has seen the need and called together people from 37 different locations throughout the Northern Territory. They came together and made a commitment that they were going to work to make sure that there was no more family violence. They have been working on that for some time, and I am very proud to say that Charlie King will be coming here to Canberra next week and will be bringing some countrymen with him, and they will be talking about the initiatives that they have committed to.

When we address family violence on a national scale, it is important that we support groups that are tackling family violence on the local level. We need to make sure that organisations that are working with people caught up in family violence are properly funded. I want to acknowledge all of those people who work in the refuges and the legal services of the Northern Territory. Keep doing your work. It is absolutely essential. And I want to say well done to Charlie King and I look forward to seeing him here next week.

Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for raising the issue of domestic violence. I agree with the sentiments that family violence should be a national priority—and indeed it is. As I have said before, there are few places in Queensland that witness higher rates of domestic violence than my electorate of Capricornia. The Capricornia police district reports the highest rate of domestic violence in Queensland. While the statistics are marginally improving, according to Rockhampton police the rate of domestic violence attacks here is 141 per cent higher than the state average.

Last year, to assist families in trauma caught up in the cycle of domestic violence and other Family Court matters, the Turnbull-Joyce government took a bold and positive step to appoint a permanent Federal Court Circuit judge to be based in Rockhampton. Judge Anne Demack held her first sitting on 7 March, presided over by the Chief Judge of the Federal Circuit Court, his Honour Judge John Pascoe.

I lobbied hard for the Commonwealth Attorney-General to make this appointment, in a city where family violence is out of control. This appointment was both supported and hailed by the Central Queensland Law Association as the most significant decision for the legal industry in Capricornia in over 40 years. It directly helps some of the most disadvantaged families that are caught up in the cycle of domestic violence, and subsequent custody and family law disputes.

The new permanent Federal Court Circuit judge services all of Central Queensland, including Rockhampton, Mackay, Gladstone and Emerald. But, to my surprise, this was criticised by the state Labor government. Queensland's state Labor Attorney-General, Yvette D'Ath, and the federal opposition's shadow Attorney-General, the member for Isaacs, both denigrated the appointment of a new federal judge in Rockhampton. They were more concerned about bricks and mortar than the safety and survival of victims and the improved and more timely access to a Family Court judge in a regional area with the worst record for family violence.

An article dated 17 February this year in the Queensland Times reports:

Queensland Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath has accused her federal counterpart, Senator George Brandis, of incorrectly referring to a Rockhampton courtroom as vacant and refusing to contact her about courthouse arrangements for the judge, Anne Demack.

… … …

"There is no vacant courtroom," she told Queensland Parliament …

That was a load of rubbish. In the same article, it was reported:

Federal Circuit Court of Australia chief Richard Foster told the committee he wrote to the Queensland Justice Department's Deputy Director-General and to Ms D'Ath.

"I received a response on 7 January saying, 'services are limited but basically we do have some capacity; …

"Now that (Sen Brandis) has made the announcement … we can accommodate it."

So there was room at the inn after all—albeit be it with renovations, which the Commonwealth was happy to pay for.

In February, the Brisbane Timesreported Queensland's Attorney-General as saying Judge Demack's appointment was 'an empty gesture to serve a cynical political purpose'.

Well, today, on the topic that domestic violence needs to be a national priority, can the member of Isaacs please explain what on earth his state counterpart means and why he too objected to the appointment? The Liberal-National coalition is standing up for the most vulnerable in our community, an area hit by the highest domestic violence rates in the state, while the Labor Party say appointing a permanent judge to Rockhampton is cynical. That is just rubbish. Do they want these families to travel to Brisbane and wait years for a chance to front a judge to arbitrate family disputes and violence? In the so-called Labor heartland that is Rockhampton city, the Labor Party has failed the most vulnerable families at a time when they most need faster access to the Federal Court.

The positive steps the government are taking include the recent announcement at the COAG summit that we would commit $100 million to Commonwealth initiatives under the Third Action Plan, including $20 million for preventative strategies and cultural change; $15 million for front-line services like housing and financial support; $10 million to prevent forms of sexual violence, including nonconsensual sharing of intimate images; $25 million to address family violence in Indigenous communities; and $30 million for front-line family violence legal services.

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to rise to support the motion moved by the member for Griffith. For most of my career I have had mainly positive interaction with families. However, there has always been some exposure to family violence. Having worked on call at my local hospital with a busy paediatric and maternity unit, I have seen some bad things that have been etched in my memory.

I remember two twins—one of whom died; the other survived with severe cerebral palsy—who at eight weeks of age had their skulls smashed so severely that when I resuscitated them it felt like their heads were the smashed shell of a boiled egg. I remember the child shaken and bashed so severely at the age of three that she never saw, walked or talked again. I remember the two-year-old boy who was so severely punched that his liver was described as looking like red jelly at autopsy. I remember the six-year-old girl who was starved to death in her own home. I remember the mother made hemiplegic and unable to care for her children following an attack by her partner. So these are real things, and they have been real things to me in my career.

We know that there is a strong correlation with violence against children and violence against women. Some of the women I have seen with their children have been murdered by their partners. I know that there is more that we could do. Firstly, let me say that I abhor the phrase 'domestic violence'. It implies a somewhat benign event. This is not a benign event. Nothing could be further from the truth, as I have seen. Secondly, I do know that all of us in this parliament abhor violence in families, and we are at one in wanting to deal with it.

I think it is a great thing that men are taking responsibility for crimes that are predominantly perpetrated by men. We must also educate our young people, especially those exposed to family violence, about its causes and about prevention strategies. Most of all, we need to fund legal support and access to housing for those women and children fleeing violent households. Domestic violence is pernicious and it is evil. We have done a little better of late with recognising the evil, even though for many that recognition has come too late.

Violence in the home is seen, properly, as a national problem, but it needs to be dealt with at all levels of government. We do now have a national plan and a national approach which, in the broad, has widespread support not just amongst law-makers but also in the community. We should also have a national registry of perpetrators of family violence. For example, when the ACT government recently imposed—and in an election year—a flat rate of $30 per household for a Safer Families Levy to address the consequences of family violence there was barely a ripple of disapproval. And that is a good thing.

But it is the pernicious side to violence and its pervasive effect on families and on children that make it so hard to contemplate, to explain and to address. Good intentions are not enough. The job of governing extends beyond just passing laws and saying the right things at the right time, or even appropriating the necessary funding. It involves ensuring that what we do actually works. Governments especially need to ensure that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing. And we need to be more open about our approach to family violence. Stripping community legal services of over a third of their funding makes no sense if you are genuine about addressing family violence and providing support and protection to those who most need it.

One of the few free services that provide comprehensive assistance for women and families escaping family violence are Community Legal Centres. The Macarthur Legal Centre in my electorate includes a Women's Domestic Violence Court Advocacy Service. That centre and those like it provide information, referrals, advocacy and support for women and children when they most need it. They help with the housing department, Centrelink and police referrals. That is as you would expect. Let's give the people doing the job, and who have been doing it for many, many years, the appropriate resources and the help that they deserve and need. I have seen many good people try their best to make life better for those traumatised and trapped by the fear and the physical reality of violence in the home.

We have finally realised that this is not an isolated or localised problem; it is more akin to a national emergency. There is impetus for meaningful change right across our country and across our parliament. (Time expired)

Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also welcome this opportunity to speak on this matter of public importance moved by the member for Griffith. If there ever was a matter of public importance, this surely would be it. Domestic and family violence is about more the what is spoken about in this place and in these corridors; it is also about shifting the culture across our nation. I want to commend all speakers in this very important debate, particularly the member for Lindsay. I thank the member for Lindsay for her courage in speaking out. I certainly hope that that will encourage more people to also speak out and, in doing so, help us shift the culture across the nation.

As the Prime Minister said in his address to this morning's White Ribbon breakfast, what we are talking about today is a matter of respect.

Disrespecting women does not always result in violence against women. But all violence against women begins with disrespecting women.

This is backed up by the national statistics, which are shocking. One in three women have been a victim of physical or sexual violence since the age of 15 by someone known to them. One in four women have been emotionally abused by a partner, and one woman dies almost every week at the hand of a current or former partner.

When I spoke earlier today with Brisbane Water Local Area Command Superintendent Danny Sullivan it became clear that these statistics are just as true in my electorate of Robertson, where, on average, every two hours a police vehicle will respond to a domestic violence call on the Central Coast—not every two weeks, not every two days, but every two hours. That is why I helped to facilitate a local domestic violence committee in my electorate with local community leaders and local experts meeting together to discuss grassroots solutions and to also help start a conversation with more families, teachers, young people and schools, in particular. Slowly, I believe that we can see a change in the conversation on the Central Coast and across our nation.

We can see this in one simple but breathtaking local visual statement, where Brisbane Water Local Area Command has overseen an extraordinary community push to plant white poppies on the grass at The Skillion at Terrigal this year. Similar to a sea of red poppies earlier this year as we commemorated Anzac Day, these white poppies honour the thousands of victims of domestic and family violence. I am told that volunteers worked for hundreds of hours to hand-make 55,000 poppies that were placed there on Monday in the shape of a ribbon. Terrigal provides a stunning backdrop to the display, a display which was three years in the making. Our local police partnered with women's empowerment and advocacy group Zonta to help make the display a reality, and I am advised that the Central Coast Council also contributed $6,000 for the materials. We even had local businesses lending a helping hand, with Burson Auto Parts at Gosford donating screwdrivers at short notice after volunteers arrived to discover that the ground was too hard for the wooden poppy stems. School students walking past have been dropping in to help out and the local newspaper, the Express Advocate, has done an excellent job in promoting this initiative. I commend Superintendent Sullivan and his team, including Gillian Mitchell, Tim Jeffrey, Jessica Bradbury, Nick Carroll and Peter Watson. These are our local men and women on the front line, who do an outstanding job. I look forward to meeting them on Sunday and encourage our community to join us as we walk up the Terrigal Skillion to make a statement in condemning the actions of those who commit domestic violence.

I also take this opportunity to commend the Turnbull government on its announcement today of the new eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant. The commissioner will have a strong focus on online safety and the issue of non-consensual sharing of intimate images, often described as revenge porn. She has a big task ahead, but I am pleased to see that the Turnbull government will conduct a public consultation process on proposed civil penalties in this area, targeted at both the perpetrators and those sites which host intimate images and videos shared without consent.

There is much more that this government is doing too, including a $30 million national campaign called Stop it at the Start to change young people's attitudes to women and violence, in partnership, of course, with our states and territories. We have also launched the third action plan, with an additional $100 million investment. This complements the existing work of states and territories around Australia, including in New South Wales, where video is now collected by police when attending a domestic violence incident which is then able to be submitted to court as evidence. I understand from Superintendent Danny Sullivan that our local police command is leading the state in taking advantage of this initiative. Finally, we have the $100 million Women's Safety Package, which includes expanding the 1800RESPECT frontline services, drastically reducing wait times. I commend the government on its strong leadership and approach to this most important of issues and encourage all of us here to continue to promote the need for leadership in standing up against domestic and family violence.

Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this matter of public importance, acknowledging that this Friday we observe White Ribbon Day and the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Moreover, I acknowledge the courage of the member for Lindsay, who by telling her story today in this place vividly illustrates why we must eliminate all violence against women and children. The deepest scars from family violence are often invisible and stay with victims for life. It creates a deep and long-term harm, not only to them but to those around them, that can engulf whole families, especially the children. To feel that you are trapped, with no recourse, no way to act and nowhere to go, is suffocating and further isolating in itself. The statistics are stark and confronting too. While one instance of family violence is one too many, to hear that one in four women has experienced physical or sexual violence at the hands of an intimate partner is appalling, and yet it is known that many more incidents of domestic violence go unreported.

When something as harmful and damaging as this continues to be so common, it is incumbent on us in this place to act. I am proud to be part of a party that champions women and the contribution that they make to our communities, our workplaces and our homes. I am also proud of the commitments that were announced by the member for Maribyrnong this morning, commitments that go beyond simply acknowledging that the status quo is not good enough and instead propose strong practical actions that seek to improve the protection for victims and witnesses of family violence. The reforms that Labor has proposed would compel a judge to consider whether a vulnerable witness should be protected in cases where domestic violence is alleged. This would mean that, where a judge believes the mechanisms available to him or her under the Family Law Act are insufficient to protect such vulnerable witnesses, the judge will be empowered to direct that all unrepresented litigants in the matter be represented by legal aid. This means that vulnerable children and women will not have to suffer cross-examination by their perpetrators. Not only is this a practical reform advocated by many non-government organisations and the Productivity Commission's Access to justice report; it is most importantly a reform that will mean that victims are not further harmed.

The cuts to frontline community legal services continue to be of great concern in my electorate. Reducing the funding of these services by 30 per cent means that fewer women can access the legal support services they need when they are in crisis. On top of that, the uncertainty of the funding beyond 2017 for the national partnership agreement means that there will be fewer opportunities for those fleeing domestic violence to find somewhere to stay. In fact, the New South Wales Liberal government's reduction in funding for those refuges has meant that there have been refuges closed which were operating for 30 years and doing a fine job.

We owe it to every family affected. We need to do more, we can do more to address this and we should just do it.

John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to thank the member for Griffith for raising this matter today. This is one of the most pressing issues facing Australia and I am proud of this government's and, equally, Labor's records on the issue of domestic violence. This Friday is White Ribbon Day. We have already discussed this in the Federation Chamber earlier this week. I had the honour to speak on the topic and I would again like to thank the member for Gellibrand for raising it, but it is so important that I have no issue repeating myself in this chamber.

White Ribbon Day is a day to honour and recognise the suffering of victims of domestic violence and reaffirm our commitment to ending domestic violence in Australia. I am very proud to be a White Ribbon ambassador. On Monday I restated my oath: 'I pledge never to commit, condone or remain silent about violence against women.' These simple words are a prescription for a safer life and a better society. This oath should stop violence in its tracks but, sadly, as we know, words and intentions are not enough. That is why I am proud of the government's record on domestic violence.

Domestic violence has been at the forefront of the coalition's agenda since we came to office in 2013, and we have built momentum around the issue. The first act of the Turnbull government was to announce a $100 million Women's Safety Package, which focused on practical, immediate action to keep women and children safe as well as improving training for frontline workers. One massive success that is saving lives includes expansion of the 1800RESPECT frontline service. Our new model for telephone counselling has reduced the average call wait time for victims of domestic violence from 10 minutes to just 35 seconds—and I agree with the member for Griffith: women should be manning these phones.

We also launched the evocative Stop it at the Start campaign, which dominated water cooler conversations earlier this year. The ad has been viewed 36 million times, and 67 per cent of all influences—parents, family members, teachers, coaches and employers—have seen the campaign and, of those, 68 per cent have taken action. Essentially, almost half of all influences have seen the campaign, absorbed its message and done something in response to it, including reconsidering the way they behave towards others and talking with a young person about respect in relationships.

Just last month, the government co-hosted the COAG National Summit on Reducing Violence against Women and their Children. The summit brought together first ministers, women's safety ministers as well as academics and experts in domestic and family violence, and leaders in business and the not-for-profit sector to review progress and highlight best practices in efforts to reduce violence. At the summit, COAG launched the Third Action Plan of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010 to 2022. This includes a $100 million commitment for preventative strategies and cultural change, for frontline services like housing and financial support, to prevent forms of sexual violence, to address family violence in Indigenous communities and $30 million for frontline family violence legal services. These funds and initiatives represent a big commitment from the government to ending the scourge of domestic violence. I, with everyone involved in their implementation, wish success, and I hope that together we can make a difference. As the Prime Minister said earlier this morning, 'There is still so much more to do. We can't be satisfied while even one person is in danger.'

Violence against a partner is never excusable. No matter how tense relationships may get, violence is never the answer, and victims of abuse must know that it is never their fault. I say to all men: the most masculine and the most manly thing you can do is always respect your partner. Today marks the day to make these statements, but that respect must be respected every day of the year.

I congratulate, respect and admire the member for Lindsay's contribution. Her contribution reminds us of the words said previously in this place, 'Courage and heroism do not always wear a uniform and carry a rifle.'

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This discussion has concluded.