Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the Senate and I thank all colleagues for their contributions to this debate today. I especially want to thank those senators who have suffered violence for sharing their very powerful stories. It's been a difficult debate to sit here and listen to, as someone who has experienced family violence, but it's an important debate. Sometimes, when senators and MPs bear too much of ourselves for the sake of breaking the convention of speeches in this place that are very matter of fact, we can often feel like we've said too much. This is a debate when not enough can be said, and not enough can be said from personal reflections. It supports and helps women in the community to hear these very personal and deeply powerful stories being said here in our most powerful place. There are women on every side of this chamber who can speak from personal experience, and that speaks to the prevalence of this issue in our society. It's a sad state of affairs, but it's a situation that allows us to talk frankly and quite personally today.

I'm very thankful for the work that has been undertaken by senators in this chamber over many years, and I do want to acknowledge that work. There have been calls for funding strategies and efforts to highlight the importance of this issue. Perhaps one piece of this puzzle seems insignificant against the huge, insurmountable problem we face, but I think when you put those things together they actually have delivered strategies that can work and a discussion in this country that has changed. So I thank Senator Waters for her continued support of women and for always making sure that this is on the agenda. I thank Senator Payne, who worked very hard in the previous parliament; Senator McAllister obviously, my friend, who always gives me a pat on the back after these speeches; and Senator Gallagher, our current Minister for Women. When I was growing up and I didn't really know much about politics I knew that Senator Gallagher was a boss and I knew that she was the kind of woman that would get things done. I'm really pleased and proud that she is our Minister for Women. I know she really cares about this issue.

I thank those women and the chamber for this discussion today. I also want to thank one of the women who are here in the chamber today—Helena Brunker. She is an ANU intern. She has been working in my office on some work around the operation and efficacy of Australian consent laws, which is part of the discussion that we need to have around ending gender based violence in this country. It's really tough work. For such a young woman she has taken on this work with skill and without being daunted by the task ahead of her.

In contributing to this debate today I want to speak to Helena, her friends and her generation and to acknowledge that this is an opportunity for us to talk about the work that we're doing and the work we've done. I'd like to think that when your generation gets the opportunity to sit in these seats we're not talking about this issue in the same way anymore and we're not talking about these things from personal experience, because we've put an end to domestic violence, to gender based violence and to sexual assault that isn't able to be rectified through any form of justice for victims. That's a tall ask, but we take that on. We thank you and your generation for giving us something to work towards and giving us something to deliver.

Finally, I thank my family. My mum doesn't talk very much about this issue and about the past, but she is very special to me. I thank her.