Zoe Daniel (Goldstein, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Treasurer, since the budget all I've heard from domestic violence services is outrage. Women can't access help, yet the government chose not to allocate new funding to services like Safe Steps that see more than 200 women put in motels across Victoria every night. A lack of frontline services has led to several suicides this year. Today I'm launching a petition seeking both government and opposition support to properly fund programs to end violence against women. Treasurer, how many signatures do I need for the government to fund these programs?

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Goldstein not just for her question but also for her genuine interest, passion and compassion for women who are experiencing or at risk of experiencing domestic and family violence. I think we all in this House understand that violence against women is a national shame and it requires national action and leadership, and we are prepared to provide that leadership. Including from the budget last night, we've invested almost $3½ billion in addressing violence against women since coming to office, and that includes the $925 million that the PM and some colleagues announced for the permanent Leaving Violence Program. I do want to say and I do want to acknowledge that, even with that substantial investment, we all have much more work to do. We all have much more work that we need to do together because women still aren't safe in our communities. We acknowledge that, and I think the Prime Minister and others have acknowledged that on multiple occasions as well.

It's also why we have directed a billion dollars of funding for the National Housing Infrastructure Facility towards crisis and transitional accommodation for women and children fleeing violence, and that will add to the $9.3 billion National Agreement on Social Housing and Homelessness. We've also got, in the Attorney General's portfolio, $44 million to keep the doors open at critical legal assistance centres, including women's legal centres, while we negotiate the next National Legal Assistance Partnership. In the Minister for Education's portfolio, there's almost $20 million to help eradicate gender based violence from our universities, as well as some other investments.

We know that we need to do more. We know that we need to work closely with the states and territories as well, and that's why the National Cabinet meeting on 1 May was important. There was broad agreement that we need to do things better and we need to strengthen our systemic responses, particularly with a focus on high-risk perpetrators and serial offenders and on preventing homicides. This will require work across all governments, portfolios and jurisdictions, and there is more work to be done as part of that process.

I do acknowledge that the member for Goldstein is asking about an element of really important work that our community service providers do in our local communities. I want to take the opportunity, as I'm sure the member for Goldstein would like to, to thank and acknowledge the people who do this work. It must be incredibly harrowing work. I see it in my own community, and no doubt the member sees it in her community as well. We are always prepared to consider what more can be responsibly done as we work together to tackle this national shame of gender based violence.