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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister representing the Minister for Women (Senator Wong) to a question without notice I asked today relating to violence against women.

We know that at least 28 women have been killed by violence this year already. In my opinion, that is a national emergency. This government hasn't called it that as such and it hasn't funded it as such. I note that for many years the women's safety sector, who help people trying to flee violence and stay alive, have said they need about $1 billion every year just to meet demand and be able to help everyone who reaches out for help to stay free of violence and remain alive.

So I asked the government: 'You said you'd be a government for women. Where's the $1 billion that the frontline services sector that deal with women escaping family, domestic and sexual violence needs? Where is that money? Will you make that commitment tonight in the budget?' Unfortunately, I didn't get any such commitment. I was accused of partisanship, which is always fun. The minister acknowledged that we're in a crisis but wouldn't say the words 'national emergency' and didn't make any financial commitments. What a disappointment.

When we look at the figures that I've analysed in estimates over many years now, the total funding commitment under the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children—it's a good plan, but it's underfunded—is less than half of what those frontline organisations say they need to help everyone who seeks their help. The women's legal service says that they're turning away 52,000 women a year—so 1,000 women a week—because they don't have the funding to keep up with demand. I'm sure they want to help those people, but they don't have the funding to do so.

There are so many other things at this government should be doing as well. We still don't have a national death toll of women killed by violence. We've got a road toll, and it helps raise awareness to try to keep people safe on the roads, but this government won't even put the work in to have a national toll of women killed by violence. That toll is left up to two volunteer organisations, who use different criteria, so we get different numbers. This government couldn't even tell you how many women have been killed by violence, because it's not tracking that. That leaves me incredulous. I've been asking for them to do that for at least five years now, and I remain floored that they still haven't done it.

Stopping violence against women will take systemic action to tackle the root causes and to transform those harmful social norms, but it also requires adequate funding of the organisations that do that frontline work. Prevention has to be prioritised, as well, to stop women being killed by men's violence and to dismantle what is a persistent rape culture in so many of our institutions and pervading society.

While we've now got consent and respectful relationships education in the national curriculum, which is good, the delivery is really lumpy, and we need more funding to make sure that public schools in particular are properly resourced and that specialist education providers can deliver and implement that education in partnership with the teachers.

We also know that an alarming number of people still disbelieve and victim-blame survivors of assault, so we desperately need to overhaul the criminal justice system so that trauma-informed training guides police and judges; otherwise we will still see 95 per cent of complaints go unreported, because women don't trust that they will get justice through the so-called justice system. So I was very disappointed that the minister wouldn't make any further commitments today.

I asked about National Cabinet, which happened a week or so ago. National Cabinet's announcement was to extend a Scott Morrison era payment that doesn't even kick in for another year, that has been plagued by delays and maladministration and for which women are being knocked back from eligibility because they ticked the wrong box or didn't use the right colour pen. It's absolutely ridiculous, and, for that to be seen as an adequate response out of National Cabinet, it shows a real lack of understanding of the seriousness of this issue and of the community sentiment about the need for action on this issue.

We welcome that extra money, but that extra money will help women reach out for help. Who are they reaching out for help from? From those same frontline services that this government is continuing to underfund. So they are going to add more pressure and more demand to a system that is already stretched, and I fear that will do even more harm.

My last question was about the so-called housing announcement from the weekend—none of which was new money, even though the government tried to pretend it was. We've looked at the figures, and even the minister yesterday, on Radio National, admitted it wasn't new money. It was already announced in MYEFO. They're recycling former prime minister Scott Morrison's policies. They're re-announcing old budget announcements. When are we going to get some serious action from this government about stopping violence against women and their children? We need to fund prevention. We need to fund frontline services. Get it done.

Question agreed to.