Mark Furner (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tomorrow marks the anniversary of White Ribbon Day. In my first year as an elected senator for Queensland I attended the White Ribbon Day function in Parliament House, Canberra. As a proponent in condemning violence against women I did not hesitate in becoming an ambassador of White Ribbon Day. As a husband of an amazing wife and as a father of two beautiful girls, I could not consider anything more important in making this choice.

White Ribbon Day was started in Canada in 1991 by a group of male students on the second anniversary of the shooting of 14 female peers at the University of Montreal. The White Ribbon Campaign is the largest effort in the world of men working together to end men’s violence against women. In the first year, 100,000 ribbons were distributed to men across Canada. Ten thousand white ribbons were distributed in 2003 and today hundreds of thousands of white ribbons are worn by men and women across Australia. This includes men at work, in Australian police forces, in national and local sporting associations, in the media, in politics and in the defence forces, across all our capital cities as well as in rural and regional areas. The campaign continues to go from strength to strength and now boasts more than 350 White Ribbon ambassadors Australia-wide. There are also an increasing number of events being held across the country, and more organisations and individuals are participating every year.

As a White Ribbon ambassador I started out this year with an objective of recruiting more ambassadors, and am happy to announce the successful recruitment of two well-known Queensland men, Secretary of the Australian Services Union, David Smith, and Mick Gillam, Councillor for Moreton Bay Regional Council, Division 8. Both David and Mick, who represent many women in their respective positions, did not hesitate in stepping up to the plate to take on the responsibilities of a White Ribbon ambassador. David and Mick join the Queensland list of White Ribbon ambassadors along with our Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, Senator Joe Ludwig, other federal, state and local council parliamentarians, union leaders, lawyers, police, sporting leaders and many more professionals.

In addition, my office was involved in three events last Friday. At around noon last Friday we conducted a presentation and discussions around a barbeque at the Supercheap Auto distribution centre in Pine Rivers. In attendance were: CEO of Supercheap Auto, Peter Riffles; Graham Chad, General Manager Group Logistics; Sonia La Penna, General Manager Group Human Resources; over 80 employees; and Mick Gillam. The gathering listened intently to a presentation I provided on violence against women and repeated the pledge, which is: ‘I swear never to commit violence against women, never to excuse violence against women, and never to remain silent about violence against women. This is my oath.’

Later on that afternoon we did a similar presentation at Queensland Rail Institute at the Queensland Rail centre, Central Station, Brisbane. The event was well attended, with many members of the Australian Services Union; ASU Secretary, David Smith; and the Queensland rail CEO, Lance Hockridge. I was pleasantly surprised to hear in Lance’s address of his involvement in the Queensland CEO Challenge, which this year raised $25,000 towards this particular cause.

Lastly we met at the event ‘Men in the Mall’ held at Queen Street Mall, central Brisbane. The event was reasonably well attended, with guest speakers including former Brisbane Bronco legend, Steve Renouf, the 2009 Young Queenslander of the Year, Chiu-Hing Chan; Assistant Commissioner, State Crime Operations Command, Ross Barnett; and me as an ambassador. During the proceedings the crowd also received a presentation on self-protection by Ian ‘Powerhouse’ Jacobs, who did a live SAFE demo. Additionally, a group of young Muslim men attended the event.

I consider that my inspiration for this cause commenced from my prior career as a union official, providing many opportunities in defending women who had unfortunately fallen victim to unnecessary approaches by males in cases of workplace harassment and sexual discrimination. In some of these cases I was amazed that companies had not introduced sexual harassment policies to make employees aware of inappropriate conduct. Clearly in some cases there was a lack of knowledge both by employers and employees of their rights and responsibilities in the workplace. After representation was made by the union along with representatives from employees and the employer, suitable policy would be implemented to make all stakeholders aware of the issues concerning sexual harassment in the workplace.

The statistics are profoundly disturbing, which reflects a sad indictment of our society. The statistics are that one in three women experience violence in their relationship. That is 1,000 women each day—1,000 today, 1,000 tomorrow, another 1,000 on the next day and so on. Aboriginal women are significantly more likely to be victims of violence than non-Aboriginal women. In Queensland alone the police handle more than 30,000 confirmed domestic violence incidents each year. Domestic violence is a major cause of death and disability in women aged 15 to 44.

Frightfully, most family and intimate violence goes unreported. Surveys estimate that nine in 10 do not report incidents of domestic violence. Yet over 30,000 children and young people accompany their mothers to a refuge. If we take no action, an estimated 750,000 Australian women will report being a victim of violence in 2021-22. Naturally, this type of violence comes at a cost to our society. A 2009 KPMG study estimated that, annually, domestic and family violence costs Australia $13.6 billion.

Employers are in a strong position to assist survivors of domestic and family violence to continue to work safely. Employment and the economic security that it provides can be critical when a survivor leaves an abusive relationship and, more often than not, their home. Domestic violence does not just affect the individual; it also affects family members, both immediate and external. A close friend is fighting the demons as his daughter has for many years struggled with this insidious scourge. My friend titled his story Domestic violence—a father's story and it reads as follows:

The verbal abuse of my daughter by her husband started on their honeymoon with him telling her she was too fat, too lazy, ugly and dumb. This continued for two years; completely demoralised her and made her think she was worthless.

Then after the birth of two boys, he started dragging her around the house by her hair and throwing her against the wall. He then started kicking her out of the house with no money and no clothes and no where to go. She slept in her car because she was too ashamed to tell anybody.

He then started to isolate her from her friends and family but the relationship with her family was too strong. He then moved on to really belting her up even in front of his children.

Finally my daughter had had enough and she left and had him charged with aggravated assault and had a domestic violence order taken out against him for the boys and herself as well as for me and my wife. He has also threatened to kill the boys.

We moved them into a unit in a secured town house complex but she struggled with two boys and not enough money even though we helped her out. She moved back into the house with her husband, but living separate lives. We are worried that he will start hitting them again and this time it will be worse. The domestic violence order is still in place and this may help.

I felt so helpless during this marriage because I could not do anything about it and only found out about it after five years of their marriage. It has affected the two boys very badly. No one should have to put up with this violence in a family life.

My daughter is five foot four tall and her husband is six foot two.

It is signed off ‘Les’. Nicole Kidman, a goodwill ambassador of the United Nations Development Fund for Women recently told the American Congress that violence against women and girls was perhaps the most systematic and widespread human rights violation in the world. If it is good enough for Nicole, it is good enough for us males to take up the gauntlet. We must not rest until violence against women is eliminated. We all have mothers and some of us have wives, sisters, daughters and nieces. We must ensure that they never fall victim. I am fortunate to have all those and I love them dearly. As males, we need to call on all males to swear with me today to never be violent and never be silent.