Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

My heart is fairly beating out of my chest at this point in time. I've got four minutes and 52 seconds to make some comments about what's going on here today. And I can tell you it is nowhere near enough time to put on the record the disgrace of what has happened in this parliament and what has happened around this country for far too long. There were questions asked today—and I accept that Senate Scarr's doing his job of trying to defend his government, but it is hard to accept when you defend the indefensible.

Today we heard from Minister Payne, who should be standing up for women, who should be standing up with women today, outside this parliament—thousands and thousands of us across the country, with good men—and saying, 'Enough is enough. It's time for change,' and she chose to be in here, instead of with the Australian people. That is an indication of how out of touch this government is with the reality of what's happening to women. I've been in this chamber and I've spoken about sexual harassment that's going on in businesses across this country. I spoke for AMP Annie, whose voice was robbed of her. We're sick and tired of our voices being taken by people and silenced in the platitudinous words that we heard today from those who dared to stand and say, 'We didn't go outside, because they didn't want to meet us on our terms.' That's what the government said today. That's what Senator Payne said. That's what the Prime Minister said. 'They would not meet me on my terms inside this place where I have overseen rape.' They won't acknowledge that adequately. And today they showed that they are not up for the change that is needed to rid us of this cancer—the cancer in this building and across this nation.

Today Michele O'Neil, a fine Australian unionist—a union is a very, very powerful part of democracy, and this union is led by two remarkable women—commenced her speech and spoke about the pad foot, the sound of men's feet approaching as a young girl lies under the covers. I was reminded of what it was like when I was 10 years old and I was at a party and I heard that sound. Thank God I had enough education from my parents to be aware of it and to get up and get out of the way of sexual assault—as a 10-year-old! Let me tell you what's gone on for me in the last few weeks, like all these women across the country. I thought I'd packaged up a lot of the rubbish that I've had to take from men. I thought I'd put a lot of it away, in the boxes where I leave it littered behind me. I thought it was gone. But so much of it has come up, and this is what's happening to women across this country. It is a deep, wild and angry rage.

I've had men in this parliament—parliamentarians—yell out at me, as I'm walking along the corridor, 'Hey, sexy legs, how's it going!' When did that get sanctioned? When is that okay? It's never okay—Senator Scarr, you're right—and there are decent men. But there are too many who are not decent, and there are too many leading this government, both men and women, who are in the business of shutting this thing down, of silencing women. Well, we will not be silenced.

I've got one minute and 24 seconds. Do you want to hear more about what it's like, from the age of 12 or 13, when your breasts start to grow, to have men want to grope you? Do you want to hear what it's like to be in a workplace where, because you're a woman, you're fair game for any comment, any day, and where you learn to laugh it off with the blokes, because that's the only way you're considered tough enough for an Australian workplace? Well, that is not good enough. I will not stand for it. Women of Australia will not stand for this any longer. It's got to be done.

I can hear, from the very quiet, careful and controlled comments from Senator Birmingham, that this government is going to hide behind the words 'due process', 'procedures', 'strategies' and 'planning'. Well, we've heard all that before. We've heard it over and over and over, and it's not enough. It was never enough. It's not going to be enough. It's time for wholesale change. I don't want my daughters to continue to put up posts on the Me Too page about things that break my heart. I'm going to be a grandmother in two months, and I want the child who's born in the next two months to live in a different kind of Australia, but this government is not up to the task. (Time expired)