Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you to the Leader of the House for facilitating the tabling of the petition earlier today. Violence against women in Australia is out of control. It has become a national emergency. The statistics should be shocking, but they are not. We have heard them over and over again. We have become immune to them. We have heard too many stories of women like Samantha Murphy, Melissa Hoskins and Min Cho, stories which are deeply tragic and genuinely shake us but have not led to the changes we need.

This is why the work Mel Arnost has done is so vitally important—work to galvanise the community against violence against women. I am very proud to have tabled her petition, which calls for sweeping national reforms to protect Australian women through better education, mental health support, treatment for substance abuse and reforms to our courts. Almost 25,000 people have signed this petition—25,000 people who support Mel's call for change and 25,000 people who expect action. I hope the government are listening. I will be pushing them to respond to Mel and her supporters, not with an acknowledgement of the petition but with a public commitment to back up words and policies with funding and determination.

Violence against women doesn't exist in a vacuum. It thrives in environments where boys are taught to feel entitled. It thrives in a society that tolerates gender based inequality. Ending violence against women and children will take time and energy, but it is absolutely essential for a fairer, safer and more inclusive society.