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

I also rise to speak to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee report for the inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women and children. This inquiry was referred on 20 November 2021, and that means this report has been nearly three years in the making.

Today is significant, and this report is significant. But, in terms of the real change that must come in the form of action, that has to come after this report is tabled. There are many in the community who have been waiting for this report, and I want to acknowledge all the people watching this who have been and will continue to protect First Nations women and children.

I didn't come to this inquiry with lived experience, but I acknowledge those who did—and I thank you for sharing it with us. From observing the conduct of all committee members of this inquiry, I think it is clear that all of us came to this inquiry with a real desire to find real solutions to one of our country's most shameful problems. I want to take the opportunity to thank and acknowledge Senator Cox for her work and leadership. I want to thank the chair, who I think was entirely hardworking and decent in the way that he went about the conduct of this inquiry. Deputy President, I think you were also incredibly helpful. It wasn't an easy inquiry to conduct.

The report that has been tabled today is a significant piece of work. This is reflected in 10 significant recommendations made by the committee to help governments make positive steps forward towards protecting First Nations women and children. I want to make clear that these are recommendations to the government, and yet Labor senators who are part of this committee support each of these recommendations. Key to these recommendations is the principle that we need to deeply involve those impacted by this violence in the work being done by governments to stop it. This report also recognises the need for and recommends continued scrutiny over governments to ensure that the implementation of their commitment to keep First Nations women and children safe are kept.

Perhaps the most critical, for those on the front line, a number of recommendations deal with the need for greater support and funding for family violence prevention and support services. I'm from a regional area myself. I know how hard these services work. I thank them for coming and giving us evidence, and I know how difficult it is for them, given the areas they operate in. I am sure that they will see these recommendations, which call for sustainable funding mechanisms for support services for First Nations people experiencing domestic family and sexual violence, including those that operate in regional and remote areas. Similarly, I know the recommendation calling for the Australian government to increase geographic spread and capacity of family violence prevention legal services will be welcomed across regional and remote areas, where accessing these services is not just hard; it is impossible.

I can't understate how important these frontline services are, and these recommendations recognise that they will be a key part of any solution that keeps First Nations women and children safe. These recommendations are important, and we owe it to the families of those who have loved ones who have been murdered or disappeared to deliver real change to protect First Nations women and children. We must ensure that the focus on the safety of First Nations women and children does not end with this committee report today; it should start.

As many members of the committee have today, I acknowledge all those who provided evidence and testimony. We heard from families right across the country about the loved ones they have lost and the experience these families faced of unsurmountable, unbearable grief. Hearing directly from these families was a humbling and important reminder of the very real human pain that comes from losing a loved one. But that loss was made worse by the actions of our institutions and systems. No-one and no family should ever have to go through the loss that these families experienced, and no family should ever have to go through the double loss of experiencing loss in such an undignified way. It's even more distressing to know that in many cases witnesses felt silenced, ignored or even further traumatised after their experiences with government services. I can only imagine how hard it must have been to share your grief with committee members who were strangers, and I am profoundly grateful for the experience that you provided the committee to help us shape this report.

The committee received 87 submissions in the course of this inquiry, with many more providing testimony directly to the committee during our numerous hearings. As a committee, we travelled across the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Western Australia, Queensland, the Northern Territory and Victoria to hear firsthand at 10 public hearings the true scale and number of disappeared First Nations women and children, which is horrifying. Throughout this inquiry we were confronted with truly horrific information on the disappeared and murdered First Nations women and children across the country.

The gross overrepresentation of First Nations women and children in the number of people who have disappeared or been murdered is an issue that no government can turn away from. The data already suggest that First Nations women are four times more likely than non-Indigenous women to be hospitalised due to violence, and they are six times more likely to die as a result of family violence. These are statistics we should be ashamed of. The picture painted by the data is even more scary when you consider inconsistencies in the collection and underreporting that may be masking just how bad the true statistics really are. These deeply disturbing statistics show exactly how dangerous it is in our country for First Nations women and children. Thankfully, there have been ongoing efforts to improve that collection, and I acknowledge some of the work that's being done now.

We can't hide from this issue, nor from the issue of gendered violence. Problems like these don't not disappear if we keep them hidden in the shadows. If we don't talk about this, if we don't talk about disappeared First Nations women and children, then we give permission for those who have inflicted pain on them to do more harm. The only way that we can really stop this is by making sure that there is as much attention on this issue as possible. Governments, the media and the wider Australian community need to reckon with these statistics and what they mean in terms of actual human loss and suffering. That is exactly why the committee has its first recommendation focus on urging federal, state and territory governments to co-design a culturally appropriate and nationally significant way in which to recognise and remember the First Nations women and children who have been murdered or disappeared.

All of the women and children whom we heard of through this inquiry were loved, and there are, sadly, countless more who are missing and disappeared who are being mourned and remembered by their loved ones. All of their loved ones deserve an opportunity to have their loss recognised and remembered. It is critical that we continue to push for real solutions to end the violence against women and children and in particular First Nations women and children. We need to make sure that this report is not the end of action on this issue but merely a step towards a future where women and children are not regularly subjected to violence, abuse and even death.

Our work as a government and as a parliament is not over today. We have an obligation to the families who came forward and shared their trauma to ensure that this report is not the end of an important inquiry but the start of important work to make things better. We need to act on the significant recommendations in this report together. Above all, we need to stop the violence against First Nations women and children, who deserve better. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.