Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In 1987, 25-year-old Vicki Cleary was attacked and murdered by her ex-boyfriend in Coburg. Vicki's killer used the defence of provocation, receiving a meagre jail sentence of three years and 11 months. This was a death sentence for Vicki, a life sentence for her family, who will forever mourn her loss, and less than four years for her killer. After Vicki's death, her brother, Phil Cleary, a champion footballer for the Coburg Football Club and coach and also a former member for Wills in this place campaigned for the provocation law to be removed. He was instrumental in its abolition in 2005.

Since 2017, Phil has held an annual footy match at Coburg Football Club named Vicki Cleary Day, where we gather to honour the women lost to men's violence. I recently attended this year's day with Minister Clare O'Neil and Ministers Vicki Ward and Tim Richardson from the state government. On Vicki Cleary Day we think of Vicki and the life she should have been able to live, but we also think of all the women whose lives have been cut tragically short by violence—Jill Meagher, Aiia Maasarwe and Eurydice Dixon, just to name a few in Melbourne's north. We think of the 59 women this year who have been lost to violence in Australia. Simply put, it's a national shame. The advocacy of people like Phil Cleary means we remember women who have been lost, while actively trying to work for a better future. As the current member for Wills, I'm very committed to implementing the government's strategy for ending violence against women and children in a generation. That's the best way we can honour the women who have been lost.

In response to advocates and the work they've done, the Prime Minister, the premiers, the chief ministers and National Cabinet agreed on a comprehensive $4.7 billion package that harnesses important opportunities to work together to prevent violence and support legal services. That package will deliver support for frontline specialists and legal services responding to gender based violence, deliver innovative approaches to better identify and respond to high-risk perpetrators to stop violence escalating, and address the role that systems and harmful industries play in exacerbating violence.

I know the importance of legal services to women in my own community, especially women of ethnic background and colour, women from non-English speaking backgrounds and other migrant backgrounds. There are 160 community legal centres, or CLCs, in Australia. They provide free and localised services to more than 400,000 Australians annually and are often the first port of call for women escaping gender based violence and family and domestic violence. I personally know a woman in my electorate—I've met far too many in this situation—who sought help for domestic and family violence. She didn't seek it until her six-year-old daughter went to school with a bruise on her cheek. She was referred to a community legal centre and was supported in separating from her ex-husband and pursuing an AVO against him. I don't want to think about what would have happened if the CLC involved was not there to assist her.

I'm heartened by the efforts this government has made to fund the new National Access to Justice Partnership, which will see a critical $800 million increase in funding for the legal assistance sector over five years, with a focus on uplifting services responding to gender based violence. Under this agreement, the Commonwealth will invest $3.9 billion over five years as well, providing ongoing funding beyond the five-year agreement, so that the sector has long-term funding certainty.

Frankly, women are tired of having to seek justice. Justice is important, but, by its very nature, justice happens after the fact, after the pain, after the crime. By the time you need a women's sanctuary to step in and provide a safe haven to a family, by the time a CLC is involved, by the time a bruise is noticed by a teacher, a woman and her children are already hurt—or, worse, dead. I think we all want to live in a world where women never need to have services after the fact, after the violence. We want a world where the violence never happens to begin with.

Phil Cleary's advocacy and work for his sister is so important, and he's putting together programs to teach young boys and men how to respect women and how to engage respectfully. Entering male dominated spaces, like sporting clubs, to speak about preventing violence is an extremely important element of preventing violence at its source, and that advocacy continues. Phil tirelessly attends local schools, businesses and sporting clubs to advocate for antiviolence strategies. I say to Phil: thank you for all your efforts. Obviously these conversations aren't easy. A lot of victims and family members of victims are part of those conversations at the local schools and sporting clubs. But I'm glad they're happening. I'm glad Phil is initiating them in my local community of Wills, and I want to support him further.