Bridget Archer (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I stood in a sea of thousands of women and men today on the lawns outside Parliament House, the voices were loud and clear and frustrated. Systemic inequality is a problem in our society that we can no longer ignore or look to deal with next week or next month or next year. The message from women around the country today was loud and clear: we are sick of this and we want action now.

As a woman and as a sexual assault survivor myself, I absolutely stand with these women who marched today, and in recognition that this is a problem of entrenched inequality in our society. We have this incredible opportunity to harness this groundswell of women's voices and to listen to them and try to drive some change.

Though perhaps this issue found its footing while looking inward at Parliament House and the culture here, it has presented an opportunity for a wider conversation about our society as a whole, because the challenges we face here are representative of what is happening in every corner of the country, in people's workplaces and in their homes. It's no secret that I am a survivor of child sexual abuse, and I have spoken on this topic many times in this House. I am horrified by the number of women who reach out to me with their own disclosures after I speak up. When one in five women have experienced sexual assault in their lives, these messages are not surprising, but they are deeply distressing. This is a national crisis, and women must have their voices heard.

Like my colleagues on both sides of the House, I am in a position of privilege as a federal representative in the Parliament of Australia. It is in this place that I can represent the views of my constituents and what matters to them, and my constituents are telling me that they want to see change. They want to see some movement on the dial of structural inequality, and, for that to happen, we need to listen. It's important to point out that, while our government has taken many positive steps, investing funds to address a variety of issues that fall under this banner of inequality, what we are talking about now and what we are talking about with these marches today is not about funding or about support as much as it is about driving cultural change. We have to have those difficult conversations, and the time to have them is now. We need to lean in.

I'd like to quote Tasmania's own Grace Tame, who we all know was crowned Australian of the Year just a few months ago. At Tasmania's March 4 Justice in Hobart today, Grace spoke of the need for the voices of women across the country to be heard. She said:

Evil thrives in silence. Behaviour unspoken, behaviour ignored, is behaviour endorsed … the start of the solution is quite simple: making noise.

All members in this House have a responsibility to approach this discussion with intention. This is an issue that cuts across the political divide—and it should cut across the political divide. It ought to be above politics but has, sadly, already become highly politicised, and it is my fear that this is a barrier to change, because it is that kind of tribalism that we have to break down so that everybody can participate and can engage in this process without fear. This is a national conversation, a difficult one, a painful one, but one that is long overdue, and I will continue to use my voice and my privileged position in parliament to bring on change so that the girls of today and the women of tomorrow are no longer a statistic in the conversation about gender inequality and sexual violence.

I'd like to finish by adding that, while the media intensity surrounding these issues over the last six to eight weeks has been needed, it has also been very traumatic for survivors of sexual abuse. The spotlight can trigger a range of emotional responses for survivors, which is why I have raised with the Prime Minister the need for increased support services for survivors, and I am hopeful of some further investment in this area.

Lastly, from my speech on gender inequality a little over a year ago, the following bears repeating. To my own three daughters and to the women and girls of Australia, I say this: stand up, make your voice heard and keep fighting for change. And to everyone else I say: if you want to see change, let her speak and listen to her voice.