Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) 25 November 2024 marks the United Nations' International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, beginning 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence;

(b) in Australia, it has been publicly reported that approximately 64 women have been killed by acts of violence by men as of 17 November 2024;

(c) one in three Australian women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence perpetrated by a man since the age of 15;

(d) violence against women and girls impacts everyone, of all genders, ages, ethnicities, religions and socio-economic backgrounds, it does not discriminate, and is almost always committed by men; and

(e) there is no excuse for violence against women and girls;

(2) commends the work that the Government has done so far in taking immediate and practical steps to support women and children to escape from violence through significant investments to support the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022-32;

(3) recognises the following additional commitments made by the Government to end violence against women and children in a generation:

(a) $4.4 billion in new funding to address the scourge of gender-based violence and respond to the government initiated Rapid Review into Prevention Approaches through:

(i) convening a national cabinet on gender-based violence at which the Government committed to investing $3.9 billion in support for frontline legal assistance services;

(ii) investing $351 million over five years for funding under a renewed five-year national partnership agreement to be matched by states and territories; and

(iii) allocating $169 million in targeted initiatives to support the National Plan; and

(b) $1 billion through the National Housing Infrastructure Facility for housing for women and children impacted by violence, plus other supports for housing single parents; and

(4) further recognises that there is still much more work to be done to prevent violence against women and children and to create lasting change, that it is a whole of community response, and that the Government is absolutely committed to leading this response.

It is with a heavy heart that I rise to speak to this motion moved in my name. Sixty-six Australian women have been killed so far this year in acts of violence—mostly at the hands of men. This time last year, that number was 53. Each year, I rise in parliament to read the names of those women who've been killed over the past year, and I long for the day when there is no list and there is no need for this speech. But, sadly, today is not that day.

Let us honour and remember Alison Robinson, who was just 39 when she was killed; Nerol Doble, aged 65; Bonnie-Lee Anderson, 39; Keira Marshall, 29; Alana Martin, aged 30; Antoinette Tozer, aged 76; Vyleen White, aged 70; an unnamed woman, 42; another unnamed woman, in her 60s; Samira Kammalledine, 80 years of age; Amarjit Kaur Sardar, aged 41; Min Cho, 41; an unnamed woman, 26; Samantha Murphy, aged 51; another unnamed woman, aged 60; Joanne Perry, 53; Chaithanya 'Swetha' Madhagani, aged 35; Mauwa Kizenga, aged 22; an unnamed woman, 66; Hannah McGuire, aged 23; Tara Morrison, 38; Ashlee Good, aged 38; Dawn Singleton, 25; Jade Young, 55; Pikria Darchia, aged 55; Yixuan Cheng, 27; Molly Ticehurst, aged 28; Emma Bates, 49; Erica Hay, aged 30; Joan Drane, 78; Jennifer Petelczyc, 59 and Gretl Petelczyc, aged 18; an unnamed woman, 36; Wanda Dorothy Uhle, aged 78; an unnamed woman, 77; Evette Verney, aged 61; Natalie Frahm, 34; Annette Kiss, aged 53; Carolyn McCarthy, 51; Sarah Miles, aged 40; Annette Brennan, aged 67; Nunia Kurualeba, aged 21; Kierra-Lea Jensen, 28; Lolene Whitehand, aged 85; Kiesha Thompson, 23; an unnamed woman, 36; Frances Crawford, aged 49; Xiaoting Wang, 21; an unnamed woman, 43; Suzy Rackemann, 61; Jasmine Sloane, aged 35; Loyla Morgan, 39; Debra Hunter, 67; Natalie Galcsik, aged 46; an unnamed woman, 22; Christine Mills, aged 58; another unnamed woman, 37; Isla Bell, aged 19; an unnamed woman, 42; Cheryl Davidson, in her 50s; Nikkita Azzopardi, aged 35; Mavis Stanley, 47; an unnamed woman, aged 70, Shirley So, 50; Vicky Van Aken, 51; and another unnamed woman, aged 61.

This is not just a list of names. These are 66 women, each loved and cherished, who were living ordinary lives just like ours—lives that were tragically and unjustly stolen through acts of violence. We know their names because of the tireless and heartbreaking work of Destroy the Joint, who maintain the Counting Dead Women Australia register. I want each member of parliament to join me in redoubling our efforts to act with urgency to stop this violence against women and children. Together, we can break this cycle.

Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support this motion, and I want to thank the member for Newcastle for bringing it. I also want to thank the member for Newcastle particularly for reading out the names of those 66 Australian women who have died as at today at the hands of violent men. I think what was most poignant about the list that was read out was the age range. I think I heard that the youngest was a teenager and the eldest was a lady of 85. In the middle of all that were at least seven or eight women with names unknown. We can only guess at their stories.

The elimination of violence against women is something I think all of us in this place are absolutely committed to addressing. It is so important that we keep talking about it, because we all often feel completely overwhelmed about how we tackle this problem. As the mother of 18-year-old boys, I've always been very conscious of this issue and very conscious to instil in them whatever I can to ensure that they do not end up as perpetrators. Perpetrators cross all lines in Australia. They have different ages and different socioeconomic backgrounds. It can happen in leafy suburbs; it can happen in remote communities. It does not seem to be, in any way, something where we can simply say, 'Here is a box, and here is the man that fits into that box.' I think that that is at the heart of this problem.

I recently met with one of my constituents, Aaron Myers. Aaron has asked me to speak up about this issue. I just want to start by reading his initial email to me. He wrote:

Dear Jenny,

Some time ago I received in the post a questionnaire advertising your electorate. One of the questions was:

"If you could raise one issue in Federal Parliament what would it be?".

I answered—"DOMESTIC VIOLENCE".

The reason I answered that was:

In 2016 my older brother Kieth murdered his wife. He shot her in the head and she died before the paramedics arrived.

Molly was a beautiful person. She wasn't just a sister-in-law. She was a sister to me. In that terrible moment, I lost Molly and also my brother.

Jenny, over and over I hear stories of domestic violence on the news.

You now, I never thought that I would be writing this stuff. Every night on the news you hear about domestic violence. But like so many others, I thought it would never happen in my family.

But it did happen in my family.    In one moment a woman is dead. A woman who is loved and cherished. A mother, wife, friend, sister.

I lost my brother too. Keith is in prison and that's where he should be. My heart breaks for both of them.

Before Keith actually did this deed he said he'd kill Molly. The police knew this. They did nothing.

Why do men do this? As a man I am at a loss to explain this behaviour.

Kieths' mental health was always in question. But nothing was ever determined or acted upon.

Molly and Kieth were childhood sweethearts. They have two children. Bianca and Rachel. They're my nieces. I struggle to support them. Their lives have been destroyed.

Jenny, I believe that we can stop domestic violence. Men don't want to behave like this do they?    Surely we can stop women being killed. It isn't just women being killed though. It's about families. I'm a man who is touched by this scourge and my heart breaks every minute of every day. I lost my brother and my sister in law.

We need to do more about mental health. I believe that if Keith had better treatment then he would have got the treatment he needed.

And Molly would still be here.

What do you think, Jenny?

Aaron asked if I could stand up in parliament and tell this story. I said to him, 'Yes, Aaron, I promise you I will,' and so I have today. I know that the member for Cowper has also spoken about addressing domestic violence by also looking at how we can reframe this as a mental health issue to try to stop further perpetration of this violence.

Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to begin by thanking my friend the member for Newcastle for bringing this important motion to the House and for the time that she gave to remembering the 66 women, by name where possible, who have lost their lives over the last 12 months. This is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and it's heartbreaking that the statistics are even worse this year than they were last year when we spoke about this issue.

I want to thank the formidable frontline workers, researchers and survivors who advocate all the time for improved responses and prevention of violence against women in our communities. I recently was able to take the Minister for Women to one of the universities in my electorate to sit and talk to researchers about how we can shift the dial on this terrible issue. The work is going to be challenging. There is no doubt about that. But I think that there is a really good sense of bipartisanship in this chamber today in terms of the commitment that we're all making to women's safety. Family and domestic violence is indiscriminate. It affects people of every age, cultural background, job type and level of education, and it destroys lives. Every life lost is one too many. To be faced with that awful statistic of 66 lives lost already this year, I think, is a really stark reminder of how much work we all have to do.

Our government is prioritising the elimination of violence against women and children. It has been a priority for us since the day we formed government. In each of our first three budgets, we've invested significant—and, indeed, record—funding for women's safety. Our most recent investments, announced following the second dedicated National Cabinet meeting on gender based violence, brought the figure to $4 billion. Obviously it hasn't eliminated violence against women and children, and we need to be mindful of that, but it has been able to deliver immediate and practical investment to support women and children experiencing violence now by supporting the critically important work of preventing violence and intervening before it escalates and supporting the recovery of victims-survivors.

I think it is really significant that one of the first things our government did upon being elected was to introduce 10 days of paid domestic and family violence leave. I will never forget being in the chamber and seeing all of the victims-survivors and advocates who had fought so long and so hard for this sitting in the gallery listening to the stories of women, knowing that this leave will save lives. It isn't every day that we recognise that what we do has an immediate effect of saving someone's life, but being able to recognise that was a really profound moment. Of course we have so much more to do.

It's important that we be ambitious and that we seek to totally eliminate domestic and gendered violence in our communities within a generation. This is going to be incredibly hard work, but, if we don't set these ambitions for ourselves as governments, then we're not going to work towards trying to achieve them. We know we've got a lot of work to do that crosses a range of different portfolio areas, and I'm really pleased that every single minister takes very seriously the work in their portfolio when it comes to the contribution they can make to eliminating violence against women, whether it is through education, through frontline specialists and legal services or through the provision of health care and housing.

This issue is—as it should be—a priority for our government. We have a lot of work to do collectively in this country to improve the situation. I, for one, stand absolutely committed to ensuring we eliminate violence against women and children within a generation.

Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Community Safety, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for this motion. I have made a number of speeches on this very topic, sadly, as have many other members of parliament. A quick internet search tells the tragic story of how many women are murdered in Australia. Everyone would have heard of Isla Bell, who was 19 years of age. Sadly, every day we read these issues in the media, and obviously that should never be the case. Police have charged a 53-year-old man days after family and friends were trying to find this beautiful young lady. Bell was last seen leaving her home about 6 pm on 4 October, but her family had earlier said the last contact they were aware of was via social media on 7 October. The missing persons squad raided two properties. I won't go into further details about the ongoing police investigation. On Wednesday, Bell's mother, Justine Spokes—and you can just imagine how the poor mother would feel—paid tribute to her beautiful, beloved daughter in the Age:

Cherished forever and suffering no more.

I am so sorry I could not protect you, that your experience of the world was cruel and unsafe. Despite your challenges, you lived bravely, stood up for what was right and remained the kindest human, the gentlest soul … With the deepest love and respect, your Mumma.

Bell's family championed her search efforts, setting up social media pages, blanketing Melbourne's inner north with posters and repeatedly pleading with the public to help find their 19-year-old daughter. About a fortnight after Bell went missing, her mother told reporters that she thought her disappearance was strange.

It's just awful for the mother and the family and friends to be trying to find this beautiful young girl. Sadly, they're not alone, as I said at the outset. According to Destroy the Joint's Counting Dead Women tally, 46 women were killed between January and August this year. In Victoria alone, Rebecca Young, 42, Samantha Murphy, 51, Chaithanya Madhagani, 35, and Hannah McGuire, 23, have been killed, allegedly by men, and just last week Bayswater woman Vicky Apostolopoulos's neighbour allegedly stabbed her to death in front of her two children.

Today is White Ribbon Day, which is marked on 25 November each year. It is also know as International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. It marks the start of days of activism against gender based violence, which runs from 25 November until 10 December.

When you look at domestic violence, the data is horrific. As a former police officer, I know how bad it is for family members. I did write to the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police about the need to ensure that multicultural women in particular are made aware, when there's an intervention order, that it's actually not them taking out the order, that they don't need a lawyer to go up against the defendant and that Victorian police and the government are actually supporting them.

In my portfolio as shadow minister for multicultural affairs, I've found that language barriers make it very difficult for women in a number of multicultural communities. There are also cultural issues that we need to deal with. When I go to multicultural events, especially in some communities, I'm very strong about making sure that it's very clear that people have to understand that, in Australia, everyone—women, men and children—is regarded as equal. If any woman wants to get a job, she is allowed to get a job. If she wants to get a drivers licence, she's allowed to get a drivers licence. If she wants visit friends and families, she's absolutely entitled to do that. Sometimes, in the case of victims I've spoken to, even their own families have said, 'No. You just need to put up with this.' You don't need to put up with this.

I encourage all those women in situations where they're suffering from violence or harm to please go to police and please go to places like Orange Door and get support. We note that the government has put in $3.9 billion in response to rapid review into preventive approaches, and I thank them for that. Obviously more work needs to be done. I don't want to make this into any sort of political attack, but, working together, we all need to ensure that we do everything we can to protect women and children.

Sadly, there'll be more speeches like this. I'll just make this final point: education is the key for change. The earlier we get to young men, the better lives women will have in the future.

Sally Sitou (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I appreciate all the contributions that have been made on this issue. It is great to see that this is something that all members of parliament feel strongly about, regardless of what political party they are representing in this place. I think we are all onboard with the idea that violence against women and children needs to be stamped out.

I have been to visit a refuge in my electorate. Whenever people ask me why the woman doesn't just leave, I want them to visit a refuge and experience how traumatic and difficult it is to be in a place like that. That is when you have extraordinary staff who are trying their best to support women and children fleeing domestic violence. But it is a really difficult place to live in. Often your entire family is squeezed into one room, having to share facilities with 20 or 30 other families. You don't have your paperwork in order to get your Centrelink payments set up. You often don't have clothes or other items that you need. It is a really difficult situation, and I take my hat off to the extraordinary people who work in the sector. They are doing extraordinary work to help support these women and children.

I often wonder why it is always the woman who has to leave the home. It is always the woman who has to flee, and we need to change that as well. Because if she is fleeing with children then she is having to uproot their lives, having to figure out what school they are going to go to, how to get help and support for that family. The burden of all of that falls on her, and we need to change that.

I held a domestic violence roundtable in my local community and I appreciate all the men and women who work in the space who came along to share their views. It was a fantastic discussion about what we could be doing locally to help support these families. One of the initiatives that sprung out of some of these discussions was to design a hub to give women the wraparound support that they need, whether it be talking to police, legal aid, Centrelink or a local community organisation or a translator. The police will tell you that sometimes when women are fleeing these situations they don't want to go to police; they just want safety for their kids. They just want to be out of that situation, so turning up to a police station is not necessarily the right course of action for them. Now these women can come to this hub and if they want to talk to the police, they can; if they want to get legal assistance, they can; or if they want to get that Centrelink payment or similar practical help and support to get away from the situation, they can. That would all be available to them there.

I've been talking to principals in my local area who see the firsthand impact domestic violence is having on students. Principles have said to me that they have seen examples where the mother has worked up the courage to leave the situation. However, she wants the child to be able to stay the same school but cannot find a rental property in that area to enable the child to have that continuity of care and support within the school environment, so she ends up going back to the perpetrator. This is a situation we have set up where, when women get up the courage to leave, we force them into refuges and situations where they cannot get housing through the private rental system. This is a government that recognises that this is where the problem lies. We need to be providing housing support and that's why I'm rally proud of the work we're doing to provide $10 billion in funding to increase the amount of social and affordable housing that we will build, and a portion of that will be set aside for women and children fleeing domestic violence. That is going to be critical. Yes, we need to help police; yes, we need to help frontline workers but we also need to get housing sorted for these women who are fleeing some desperate situations.

Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Newcastle for moving this motion. Firstly, I would like to acknowledge all those victims, those 66 victims, who have been murdered this year. My thoughts and prayers go to the families of those victims. I would also acknowledge victim-survivors for the work that you do in speaking out against domestic violence within Australia.

All governments regardless of what side they sit on, regardless of what level, have tried to address this pandemic of domestic violence in Australia. It should be above politics, it should be bipartisan—how we work together—and I think that we do do that. We do recognise that it has to be a bipartisan approach. But we have failed. We have failed to address the core issue. I will be blunt: we have failed because we have not looked at prevention and intervention the way we should have. We have looked at response and recovery. I commend Labor on their commitment of $4 billion towards the prevention of family violence. But the fact is—and it was the same with the coalition when we were in government—a fraction of those billions of dollars goes towards prevention and intervention. Seventeen per cent of the $4 billion currently is going to measures to stop domestic violence. Let's call it for what it is. Men—not all men, but men—are the problem. So, in addressing the solution, we have to address men. We have to address solutions that address the causal problem or the causal issue. Whether that's men with drug or alcohol issues that lead to domestic violence or whether that's men who are coming from a place of trauma from domestic violence in their own childhoods, we have to address that.

As the shadow assistant minister for the prevention of family violence, I have travelled Australia and had almost 100 meetings with victims-survivors, agencies, police and support networks. We're now coming to that conversation. They agree. If we don't support men then how can we have healthy men? I am not suggesting that a man who commits an offence against a woman shouldn't be subject to the sentencing principles under the Crime (Sentencing Procedure) Act of general deterrence and specific deterrence. They should go to jail. But what is there after they go to jail? Are there support networks to address the alcohol problem or the drug problem? That's why we need men's behavioural programs all around Australia. We need to have the funding for those programs. We need to have a nationally recognised program that is funded. There are waiting lists of hundreds and hundreds of men trying to get on these programs to improve themselves, to change their history and to change their future. So we have to be there to implement those programs. We need a national workforce funded to do that—somebody coming out of a TAFE or university course who says: 'I am not going to be an aged-care worker or a childcare worker; I want to move into a recognised workforce that supports men to change their behaviour, to change our future.'

Then there's the education piece. We need to get a national curriculum into the school at kindergarten level, and that needs to travel with that child from kindergarten all the way through to year 12. It should not just be for boys. It should be across the board about healthy relationships and what a healthy person looks like. That's because a healthy child becomes a healthy adult and we will have a healthy society.

Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As we mark the start of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, we must reflect on what more we can do to end this scourge of violence that has brutally taken the lives of so many women and destroyed the lives of their loved ones. It affects people across every part of our society. No matter the town you live in or your age, family or cultural background, domestic violence could affect you or a loved one. Around one in four women have experienced domestic violence from a partner or family member since the age of 15. This number is far too high, and that's why our government has a commitment to end family and domestic violence in one generation. That's why we're taking strong and immediate action towards this aim.

The safety of women and children experiencing family, domestic and sexual violence is a national priority for the Albanese Labor government and it has been since the day that we formed government. In our first three budgets we invested record funding for women's safety. Our most recent announcement after a second dedicated National Cabinet meeting on gendered violence brought the figure to $4 billion. All state and territory governments have committed to working to end violence within a generation through the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children. The national plan was developed with victims-survivors, advocates and the family, domestic and sexual violence sector. Listening to people who have been doing this work for years is the best way to ensure our government is making the correct decisions and putting funding where it will have the biggest impact.

Through this, we have delivered much needed funding for frontline specialist support services and legal services. As part of the funding package, the Australian government will invest $3.9 billion in support for frontline legal assistance services to be delivered through a new National Access to Justice Partnership with the states and territories. Every part of the legal assistance sector will benefit from this funding. Importantly, this includes increased funding both for women's legal services and for family violence prevention legal services.

We have also invested $85 million to deliver innovative approaches to better identify and respond to high-risk perpetrators to prevent homicide and keep women safe. By sharing information across systems and state borders, police and frontline services can intervene earlier and get women to safety. We have also invested in supporting women's economic security so that women don't need to choose between safety and poverty. We have made the leaving violence payment permanent, providing $5,000 to people leaving intimate partner violence, 10 days of paid domestic and family violence leave for all employees, including casuals, and expanding the single-parent payment.

This year, as a co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Ending Violence against Women and Children with the member for Bass and Senator Waters, I've had the pleasure to meet with many groups that are responsible for prevention activities across the country and organising events to engage all members of parliament in these important discussions. From saturation models to working directly with perpetrators to stop reoffending, these groups are doing critical frontline work to protect Australian women and children.

Our government's investment into prevention is through respectful relationships education and consent campaigns. We are also supporting the work of Our Watch, the national primary prevention organisation and expressing exposure to online harms for children and young people. We know that ending family and domestic violence is everyone's responsibility not just the government's, but that government has a really important role to play. We all need to work together to make sure that we can end domestic violence in our country.

With the time I have remaining, I want to acknowledge the incredible work of local organisations in my electorate of Canberra and in the ACT more broadly. I find it really hard to find words that do justice to the incredible work that those organisations do to support women and their families in the darkest times and the most difficult times of their lives. I don't want to forget anyone, but I want to acknowledge the Domestic Violence Crisis Service, the Rape Crisis Centre, the Women's Legal Centre, the YWCA and there are many more. It was wonderful to announce a pilot program to help train GPs, who are often the first port of call, to identify and support victims. The amazing Dr Anita Hutchison, who has long been an advocate, has an important role in that and that's going to support GPs to support women in this space too.

Debate adjourned.