Natasha Stott Despoja (SA, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Ludwig will have the support of the Australian Democrats for this amendment. I must admit that I was a little confused by Senator Ludwig’s earlier remarks when he opposed the Democrats definition partly on the basis that there should be the inquiry or review and that the institute should be given time to report before we made these changes. But I do understand now in the context in which he has put forward the ALP amendment. It indeed seeks to return to a situation where, certainly for a start, there is the removal of the objective element.

I support the amendment. I think the Democrats’ definition, modelled on the Western Australian legislation, was better. I actually thought it was more of a compendium, to use the minister’s terminology, and not prescriptive in some respects, as the minister claimed. But I will not reflect on a vote of the Senate. Having said that, I do believe that our amendment was preferable. I believe that this amendment is certainly preferable to the legislation as it currently stands.

I have already outlined some of the concerns that we have with this. I think we are trying to address this in a very clinical way, but I want to make it very clear that this is not a trifling issue. This is not a mere issue of terminology and semantics. This is where laws change lives. This law and this change will affect lives. It will affect some of the most powerless people in our community—usually women and children. I do not care what gets said about me on the websites tomorrow for saying that. The reality is that these are the people we are talking about. We are addressing this in the most clinical fashion, because that is our job and role.

I want to make it very clear that family violence and criminal assault are of great concern to many of us here. I am scared that the impact of this change will be one that is quite devastating. Therefore, I seek to see these changes made. I recognise that my amendments on behalf of the Democrats have failed, but I certainly hope that, in a last-ditch attempt, this Labor amendment will not fail.