Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will resist the temptation to respond to the interjections from Senator Wong because I want to address a matter which is very important and something which I think unites all people in this chamber, and that is a significant day today, which is White Ribbon Day, of course. It means that people right around Australia are expressing their solidarity and their concern about the level of domestic violence within our community. It is a matter which I have to say unites everyone in this chamber. I have served with those from the crossbenches and those on the other side on committees in which we have looked at the level of domestic violence, and we have tried to put together reports which are unanimous in their recommendations for government in an attempt to alleviate it and to reduce the level of domestic violence and the social burden that is attached to it.

I have to say that the only solution that I can really see is for an absolutely zero tolerance of any form of domestic violence, whether it applies to men against women or women against men or it is about physical violence or the other sorts of violence and intimidation that often lead into very awkward and difficult circumstances which can obviously result in physical harm. This is a blight on our community. We have to have zero tolerance.

I want to relay just briefly a circumstance where I found myself the other day in a public arena, where I saw a man not treating his partner particularly well. The circumstance was such that I was motivated to intervene in that, but I was also absolutely mindful of the potential for serious implications, being a public official, of getting into a rather indecent public spectacle in a public place. But we cannot shut it down. We cannot turn a blind eye to it. We have to intercede wherever there is an opportunity.