Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

Obviously, violence against women and their children is absolutely abhorrent. It's as simple as that, and we must never ever make any excuses for the sorts of behaviours that are perpetrated under situations of domestic and family violence. This isn't just limited to physical violence. It could be verbal, it could be sexual, it could be emotional and it could be financial. We believe that this must be stamped out in all its forms. It is completely unacceptable that any woman or her child should feel unsafe in Australia at the hands of a partner or a previous partner.

That is why we have a target of zero tolerance, in relation to domestic violence, and we have committed the largest ever amount of money towards achieving that through the fourth action plan. Particularly, we want to make sure that men take responsibility for their own attitudes and their behaviours, and we want to encourage them to seek the necessary help that they need to change those attitudes and behaviours. Last week, as part of the overall commitment of $340 million, we announced $2.4 million to go towards four specific programs to assist men, to help them make the behavioural changes that they need, to make sure that they end their use of control, of abusive behaviour and other problematic behaviours that lead, eventually, to a level of violence.

While it's absolutely essential that we continue to provide the level of financial resources to enable frontline services, to be able to meet the demands and respond to the issues that come before them, money alone is not going to change the dial. What we need to do is we need to change everybody's attitudes but, particularly, we need to make sure that those attitudes are changed to start with respect. It's very important that we make sure that the language that we talk about is a language of respect for everybody.