Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens won't stand in the way of yet another inquiry into violence against women, but we note that the inquiries that this chamber got up—thanks to the Greens moving it—in 2015 and 2017 have still largely remained not acted upon by this government. So, we're not confident that this inquiry would be any different. The frontline domestic violence services sector have made it perfectly clear this week that they don't want more talkfests and that they are sick of telling this government what they need in order to keep women safe, which is proper funding so that they don't have to turn people away. We hope this inquiry doesn't simply take the pressure off government to properly fund frontline services so that 40 per cent of calls don't go unanswered when women seek out legal help in particular. The government knows what needs to be done. It's just not doing it, because it doesn't give a damn. But we look forward to this inquiry once again forcing people to give evidence—to say the same thing that the government will ignore yet again.