Linda Kirk (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to speak on behalf of the many women who are victims of violence. Last Saturday, 25 November, was the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, also known as White Ribbon Day. According to the latest personal safety survey, published by the ABS in August this year, one in five women experiences sexual violence and one in three women experiences physical violence during their lifetimes. Family violence is of particular concern. Many people are surprised when they hear that most women who are murdered or are physically or sexually assaulted in Australia are killed or assaulted by their male partners. According to the Australian Institute of Criminology, around half of all female murder victims are killed during a domestic argument.

During the time that I have available today, I want to give the Senate an update on some of the things that have occurred over the past 12 months. I spoke on this issue last year and will continue to do so during my time here. I would like to start with some of the positives that we can point to. Firstly, I would like to applaud the government of India for legislation that it introduced earlier this month which for the first time recognises domestic violence as a crime. The Protection of Women Against Domestic Violence Act 2006, which came into force this month, defines domestic violence as including physical, verbal, emotional or economic abuse. This new law recognises marital rape and dowry harassment as crimes. It also prevents men refusing to let women work or banishing them from their homes.

Another important step forward in the same region was when President Musharraf and the government of Pakistan voted to amend the rape laws in that country, paving the way for civil courts to try rape cases. This law came into effect in November this year. Previously, according to the law, rape cases were dealt with in sharia courts. It was the case that, unless victims had four male witnesses to the crime, they faced prosecution for adultery. These old laws had the effect of making rape virtually impossible to prosecute in Pakistan. These two new developments in that region are very much positives from the last 12 months.

I also want to pay tribute to the work of UNIFEM, which organises White Ribbon Day and the events that occur on that day internationally. White Ribbon Day was started in 1991—some 15 years ago—by a group of Canadian men who wanted to commemorate the killing of 14 Montreal women the year before. UNIFEM must be congratulated for their ongoing efforts to involve men—not only women, but men—in the White Ribbon campaign. This year, it was interesting and pleasing to see that the Gillette Rugby League Tri-Nations competition came on board. It is a sponsor of the White Ribbon campaign. During the tri-nations final—which coincidently happened on Saturday, which was White Ribbon Day—several NRL players were nominated as White Ribbon ambassadors. The AFL has also introduced a new program, known as ‘Respect and Responsibility’, in order to tackle violence.

One gentleman who I am sure did not receive a single nomination to become a White Ribbon ambassador this year is Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilali. As has been widely reported, it appears to be the case that the Sheikh considers that certain women ask to be sexually assaulted. He implied that what women wear determines whether or not they are asking for it. According to a translation that was reproduced in the Australian, this is what the Sheikh said to followers during a religious service:

If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat? The uncovered meat is the problem ... If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred.

I am sure that all senators would agree that a woman is not piece of meat and should not be likened to one. A woman has the right to wear whatever she chooses, whether it be a hijab, a short skirt or anything else for that matter. A woman has the right to be in her room, in her home, at work or, for that matter, in any public place, at any time of the day or night. Rape and assault are never the fault of the victim.

Domestic violence plays a significant role in the lead-up to lethal violence, accounting for 27 per cent of all homicides in Australia. Witnessing parental violence turns out to be one of the strongest predictors of later perpetration of violence. It certainly does not bode well for the future that, according to the Australian Institute of Criminology’s latest figures, up to one quarter of children have witnessed parental violence against their mother or stepmother. Young people of lower socioeconomic status are about one and a half times more likely to be aware of violence.

Indigenous youths are significantly more likely to witness violence. Tragically, Indigenous Australians are overrepresented as both victims and perpetrators of all forms of violent crime in this country.

I want to spend a bit of the time that I have left talking about violence against Indigenous women. But before I do, I would like to thank Nanette Rogers, the Crown Prosecutor based in Alice Springs. I do not know her personally but I saw the Lateline program on which she was interviewed, where she spoke out about the epidemic of sexual abuse, violence and death among Indigenous women and children in Central Australia.

We all know that there are links between domestic violence and child abuse and that the social, economic and other disadvantage factors that contribute to one also contribute to the other. I come across many sad and disturbing cases, particularly in my role as convenor of Parliamentarians Against Child Abuse—and I acknowledge, Mr Acting Deputy President Murray, that you are a member and that you are very active in this area—but I have to say that when I learnt of the details that Ms Rogers brought to public scrutiny, I was horrified.

But one thing that it is important to stress is that it is clearly not the case that all Indigenous communities are in disarray. And we have to be very careful not to stereotype all Indigenous communities as having problems. We must also be very careful not to stereotype all Indigenous men as abusers.

Fixing the problems where they genuinely exist must be based on partnerships with Indigenous peoples and with their full participation. However, statistics in the Australian component of the International Violence Against Women Survey 2004 show that the rate of family violence victimisation for Indigenous women may be 40 times the rate for non-Indigenous women. Despite representing just over two per cent of the total Australian population, Indigenous women accounted for 15 per cent of the homicide victims in Australia in 2002-03.

In June this year, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission released a paper, Ending family violence and abuse in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. I commend the paper to senators. It covers the period 2001 to 2006 and it highlights issues that are linked to violence, including substance abuse and the high incidence of mental illness, poor health and suicide in these communities.

The No. 1 recommendation in the HREOC report is that government commitments must be turned into action. According to the HREOC report there is a patchwork of programs and approaches to addressing family violence in Indigenous communities across federal, state and territory governments. The report said there remains a lack of coordination and consistency.

In the time I have remaining I would just like to emphasise the fact that the government has to stop paying lip-service to ending family violence in Indigenous communities—and more generally across the wider community—and implement a national strategy and some leadership in this critical area.