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

Today here and in many cities across our country, women and men are gathering together in rallies both large and small to call for change and to act against violence directed towards women. It is good and right that so many are able to gather here in this way, whether in our capital or elsewhere, and to do so peacefully to express their concerns and their very genuine and real frustrations. This is a vibrant liberal democracy. Not far from here, such marches, even now, are being met with bullets—but not here in this country. It is a triumph of democracy when we see these things take place. Those who gather here today and around the country do so out of a sense of great frustration and great concern.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Members on my left!

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

That is deserved frustration and concern, concern that I share and I believe the members of this House share. One in four women have experienced intimate partner violence since the age of 15. One woman dies every nine days at the hand of a current or former partner. Indigenous women are 34 times more likely to be hospitalised than non-Indigenous women. Notwithstanding the many achievements of our nation over many, many years, including in relation to the advancement of women, we as a nation must continue to take up this cause. Here at home, our job is still not yet done. It is far from done on all of these matters.

Opposition members interjecting—

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

The Prime Minister will pause for a second. Members on my left will cease interjecting. When the Prime Minister has concluded his remarks on indulgence, I'll grant indulgence to the Leader of the Opposition. Similarly, I'd like him to be heard without interjection from anywhere in the House.

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

Thank you, Mr Speaker. This is not to suggest that good faith and genuine efforts are not being made whether by this government or the many governments that have preceded us. Those efforts are being made, but the outcomes still elude us. Those efforts are right, and they are being made right across the political spectrum with great support across this chamber and the other. An agenda for the advancement of women, in particular, taking into account action to prevent violence against women, is a common cause of this parliament, I believe.

It was the Gillard government that commenced the first national action plan of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children. That plan was supported by the coalition in opposition and has been taken up in government. Since 2013 we have committed more than $1 billion to reduce violence against women and their children in the action plans that have followed—boosting frontline services; providing safe places; having prevention strategies for implementation in communities, workplaces and homes; having targeted support for Indigenous communities; and having counselling services provided through 1800RESPECT. There are many more initiatives, and we are now working together on the fifth national action plan, with funding and effectiveness increasing as each plan moves through the agreement process. These plans not only draw together the unity that I would hope this parliament has had until now and I hope has into the future, but also draw together the unity of the state and territory governments themselves, working now through the national cabinet process and previously through COAG, to draw together the actions of the national action plan.

This is a common cause, and we must not let our frustration with the failure to achieve so many of the results we would hope for to undermine the unity needed to continue our shared progress. So I acknowledge the frustration and share the disappointment of what has yet not been achieved.

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Members on my left.

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

To those who gather outside this place today an invitation was offered for a meeting with me here today—a good-faith action. But I respect the right of organisers to choose not to meet. That is their right, and I respect their right. But, if we were to meet today, I would advise them of the following in relation to the matters that they have been raising by virtue of the petition as I understand it.

We agree that all cases of gendered violence should be referred to appropriate authorities in a timely manner. Police are the appropriate independent authority to investigate all matters of domestic and family violence. As terribly difficult as it must be, going to the police and making a statement is the only way to achieve justice and to ensure that the perpetrator can no longer harm anyone else. Further, the Australian government is committed to ensuring all Australian workplaces are safe and free from sexual harassment and assault. The government commissioned the Australian Human Rights Commission's Respect@Work. In the Women's Economic Security Statement in the budget, $2.1 million was provided to implement a number of the Respect@Work recommendations, and the remaining recommendations of the report in detail of this work are being led by the Assistant Minister to the Attorney-General, Senator Stoker.

One billion dollars has been allocated since 2013 to prevent and respond to violence against women and their children, with bipartisan support, and that includes a $340 million investment to support the fourth action plan. $20 million has been included for the 1800RESPECT line, and $18.8 million for the Stop it at the Start campaign, which is designed to engender greater respect right across our community. The government, in relation to the issues raised on gender equality, has already announced an independent review into the Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces, which will be led by the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Ms Kate Jenkins.

The Australian government took an active role in the development of the ILO convention on violence and harassment and its accompanying recommendation. The Australian government tabled the convention and recommendation in the parliament in December 2020. The government is now undertaking a law and practice assessment. All states and territories have now provided their input, which is under consideration with a view to completing the assessment in 2021.

In relation to the events that have led, I believe, to the actions that we've seen today and in the weeks leading up to this, the government, working together with the parliament, has already announced an independent review into the Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces, led by the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins, and I thank all of those across this chamber and the other chamber for working with us to put this inquiry into place. I wouldn't want to prejudge the outcomes of any recommendations of that inquiry. It's an important piece of work that we all share in.

We have already acted to establish an independent and confidential 24/7 telephone service to support current and former Commonwealth ministerial, parliamentary and electorate office staff and those who have experienced serious incidents in any Commonwealth parliamentary workplace. This support line, 1800APHSPT or 1800274778 will be staffed 24/7 by professionals. This is just a first step, and I look forward to the recommendations so that the government can take further action.

The government understands and shares the frustrations of women and men across this country who want to see women safe in their workplace. They want to see them safer in our community. They want to see them safer in this building and want them to see all of their aspirations achieved in this country, as they should. This is Australia's ambition. This is my government's ambition. And I look forward to achieving a unity of purpose across this chamber and the other, to those ends, working also with our state and territory governments.

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

The Leader of the Opposition, on indulgence.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Not so much a tin ear as a wall of concrete. We had, today, women gather around Australia with a few very clear and unambiguous messages. Hear us roar: the Prime Minister needs to listen—to listen to what women are saying about what is happening in this building and outside. They said, 'Enough is enough.' What I saw outside was passionate women who are angry. They are angry about what's happened to them. They are angry about what has happened to their mothers, their grandmothers, their sisters, their daughters and their granddaughters. They are crying out that this is a moment that requires leadership. It requires leadership from this Prime Minister, and we are not getting it, Prime Minister.

We need an independent inquiry into the allegations that are being made against the Attorney-General. We know from former Solicitor-General Justin Gleeson that that would be an entirely appropriate thing to do. Frankly, for a government that had an inquiry into a kitchen renovation of a former Prime Minister long before she was in parliament, I find quite frankly incredible some of the arguments that are being used by this government to reject that proposition.

The fact is that day after day more information comes out, such as, over recent days, James Hooke's remembrances about what he said with the woman at the centre of the allegations and conversations he says he had way back in the early 1990s with the current Attorney-General. These are all issues that require examination because the idea, as the Prime Minister has said, that we can just move on, that what has been happening over recent days and weeks can be unseen and unheard, is just not fair dinkum. It can't be. That is why people are angry and frustrated. That is why we need to do better. All of us need to do better—all political parties, all businesses, all workplaces, our entire society—because sexual assault and these issues are about the power imbalance in society. That's what it is about. That's why women are demanding change, and they're entitled to get it.

Outside of this chamber we heard a magnificent speech by Brittany Higgins. I say to the Prime Minister: listen to it. Listen to what Brittany Higgins had to say. Because he wasn't there, I will help him out. She said this:

I watched as the Prime Minister of Australia publicly apologised to me through the media, while privately his media team actively undermined and discredited my loved ones.

She went on to say:

I have read the news updates every day at 5 am because I was waking up to new information about my own sexual assault through the media. Details that were never disclosed to me by my employers, information that would have helped me answer questions that have haunted me for years.

A reported sexual assault happened just metres from the Prime Minister's office. We know that multiple ministers were informed. We know that, for example, the Special Minister of State would have been informed at the time that something had happened in that office. We know that one member of the PM's staff knew two years ago. A second member of his staff said it would be raised with his chief of staff two years ago. A third member of his staff knew the alleged perpetrator was dismissed two years ago. A fourth member of his staff checked in with Ms Higgins after Four Corners last year. We know that a former Prime Minister and a former Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party have said very clearly that it's not credible that this information wouldn't have flown up the chain. We know that the Prime Minister, when I have raised questions in this House about these issues, appointed his former chief of staff to do an inquiry about what his staff knew. All he has to do is ask them, but we had an inquiry by the same person into the sports rorts fiasco that took a couple of weeks. It's now been more than a month and we still have not had any information here.

The Prime Minister correctly pointed out that the respect for and treatment of women has been an issue for a long period of time. He's right at that. He raised the issue of the Australian Human Rights Commission. They produced a report, Respect@Work, more than a year ago, and the government hasn't even bothered to respond to the recommendations. You wonder why people are frustrated and come all the way to Canberra to demonstrate that anger.

What happened during that week was that, on the Thursday, the government gagged debate to get rid of the Family Court of Australia. What priorities were there that said, at a time when gender violence was an issue and when family violence was an issue, that you'd get rid of the court designated to deal with those issues? How has it been helped by that? But that was this government's priority. Its priority throughout all of this, as with everything, is political management. 'I don't hold a hose,' has become, 'I don't have an inquiry,' never taking responsibility for the high office that the Prime Minister holds. Women are asking that he fulfil that responsibility, and this parliament deserves it. Women need to feel as though they can come forward with complaints that they have.

The fact is, though, that the Prime Minister has made statements like, 'At this stage there are no matters that require my immediate attention.' Really, Prime Minister? 'Nothing to see here—just move on'? As Brittany Higgins said, also outside—and I'll conclude with this:

I had these suspicions confirmed when the media exposed a long list of people who knew what had happened to me. A list that seemed to grow by the day as truths about internal reviews, Senate committee submissions, office cleans and witness accounts were all unearthed.

I've seen two powerful women speak in recent times. Those speeches and those women give me great hope for Australia's future. One is Brittany Higgins with her extraordinary speech today, which reinforced to me the courage it took in order to come forward. The second, of course, is Grace Tame. The two are connected. It was seeing Grace Tame at the Australian of the Year commemorations and hearing her powerful speech, on the theme 'Let Her Speak', that encouraged Brittany Higgins to come forward.

Those women do all of us, as Australians, proud, but we need to do more than just listen. But that's a first step: just listen to what they're saying. Forget about the political management; just listen to what they're saying and then act, because we are in a position to act, but not by abolishing the Family Court and not by moving backwards but by moving forwards: to give proper funding to organisations that deal with family violence, to make sure women can be protected at work and to have industrial relations policies that defend the rights of women at work. Women should be safe in this House, but they should be safe wherever they are—wherever they are—whether it's at work, during a recreational activity or, of course, in the home.

One thing that these tragic circumstances should do is to ensure that every member of this House does their best to act in order to make a difference. We're a great country, but the stain of violence against women and children is one that is on all of us. But we are in a position of power. We can use it to make lives better, and we should do just that.