Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I inform the Senate that at 8.30 am today eight proposals were received in accordance with standing order 75. The question of which proposal would be submitted to the Senate was determined by lot. As a result, I inform the Senate that the following letter has been received from Senator Di Natale:

Pursuant to standing order 75, I give notice that today I propose to move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The government’s failure to commit adequate resources to address the national security crisis of violence against women.

Is the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

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

I rise to speak on this matter of urgency which addresses the government's failure to commit adequate resources and to address the national security crisis of violence against women. It's an issue that the Greens have worked on for many years. It's an issue where for many years the sector have said that they don't have enough funds to help everyone who reaches out to seek their help when they flee violence.

We've had multiple inquiries about this. There have been multiple inquiries in state parliaments about this. Chief amongst the recommendations has always been that frontline services need more funding, which should not come as news to the government. I asked the question earlier today about when the sector will be heard and when the government will finally stump up the money to make sure that there are enough staff in those organisations so that women can be helped when they reach out, so that phone calls don't go unanswered and so that they don't have to say: 'No, the beds are full. We've got nowhere to put you.' Sadly, the response from the Minister for Women was that I was politicising the issue—

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You are.

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

because I was giving voice—and I'll take that interjection from Minister Ruston, who obviously concurs that it's somehow a politicisation to ask for more funding for organisations that exist on the smell of an oily rag, trying to stop people from being killed when they reach out for help and who have been saying over and over and over again that they don't have enough resources to keep women and children safe. If you think that's politicisation then every single person will be disgusted at that response.

The funding that this government has provided is woeful. They often bang a drum about how they've put a little bit of money here and a little bit of money there, and that it's better than ever before. Well, great, but it's still not enough. Nine women now have been killed this year. Last year it was 61. It's been in the order of one woman or more a week for many, many years now. The funding is clearly not enough. When are you going to fix it?

We saw late last week that the minister gave, I think, $2.4 million for men's behaviour change programs, but what a drop in the ocean. Clearly vastly more investment is needed in support programs like that, as well as frontline services for crisis response, and clearly for other prevention programs; $2.4 million is an absolute insult to all of the women and children who are living in fear of their very life. If the incidents of last week are not enough to shake the government out of their reverie, out of their denial about their ability to fix this problem, I don't know what is.

We've seen cuts to frontline domestic violence services by former administrations. The Abbott government did that. Thankfully, after pressure from this Senate, after an inquiry that I initiated and that reported in 2015, we saw the government overturn some of those cuts. But it didn't ever actually have a funding increase. And we've seen in recent years funding for National Family Violence Prevention Legal Services, or FVPLS, which is an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women's service, being cut. We've seen the funding for a safe phone program—which allows women, who are often being tracked, to get free and to have those telecommunications without being bugged—reduced as well. In fact, they're facing funding uncertainty.

So don't sit here and tell us that you're doing everything you can when you are cutting funding to frontline services and when you are deaf to their calls for increased funding to help everybody that reaches out. In 2015, the sector said, 'Women are being forced to choose between violence and homelessness because there is not enough investment in crisis housing, and nor is there enough investment in long-term affordable housing.' You've had at least five years of that very poignant remark being put to you, and there is still inadequate funding for homelessness services and a failure to recognise that the largest—and growing—cohort of homeless people is older women, and many of those are fleeing violence.

There are so many things that this government could be acting on: paid domestic violence leave, proper funding for the courts to address some of those backlogs, proper training for judges and for the police to properly deal with family violence and domestic violence situations, and axing the shared parenting presumption where violence exists. There are so many things, yet all you do is give the deputy chairship of a family law inquiry to Senator Hanson, who thinks that women lie about domestic violence and who this morning was excusing the actions of a murderer. It is disgusting, and it will not be forgotten.

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can I just say that I find it really disappointing that today we would be debating an urgency motion written in this way. While the Clarke family are grieving, while their friends and family are grieving and while the nation is grieving, I think it's particularly insensitive that we should be in here playing a blame game already. Today we should be honouring the bravery of Hannah, grieving for her loss and the loss of her children, and allowing Australians to come to terms with what has been one of the most horrendous tragedies that have ever happened in this country.

Today we also must acknowledge that domestic violence in any form is unacceptable. We know that domestic, family and sexual violence is an issue for all Australians. It doesn't discriminate. It touches every corner of our communities and impacts people from all walks of life. It brings shame upon our nation. We know that overwhelmingly it's women and their children who are the victims of this violence. It is totally unacceptable that one woman a week should lose her life to a current or former partner. It's unacceptable that any woman should lose her life at the hand of a previous partner or a current partner. It is absolutely abhorrent, it's destructive and it has a lasting effect on those who have survived it and the families that have not. We must continue as governments—state government and federal government—and the community to make sure that we stamp out this scourge on our society. Responding to this issue is absolutely everybody's business. Whether it be our government, state governments, local government, the wider community, families or individuals, we all have a role to play. Whilst it's absolutely important that we provide sufficient resources to make sure that frontline services are available, money alone will not change the dial on this issue. We need to change people's attitudes to domestic violence, and that starts with respect.

To that end, I would like to commend one of the programs as part of the series of action plans: the Stop it at the Start campaign. This campaign recognises that we need to break the cycle of domestic violence by encouraging adults to reflect on their own attitudes and to have conversations with children about respectful relationships. It aims to reset young people's attitudes by motivating their adult influencers as role models, such as parents, members of family, teachers, coaches and community role models. The campaign seeks to, through four stages, recognise that domestic violence absolutely is a true problem and understand where it can begin, and that's in childhood. We need to reconcile our role in the perpetuation of this situation; we need to respond by increasing confidence in everyone to take action; and we need to reinforce, through multiple voices, the breadth and sustainability of that campaign.

In the first phase of the campaign, we aimed to help adults recognise and understand the link between disrespect and violence and their influence on young people. In phase 2 we aim to help influencers to recognise what they could do to ensure that they are not misinterpreted by young people and to recognise their role in perpetuating disrespectful attitudes. We need positive role models. The third phase, which is just about to begin, aims to empower influencers to respond to the issue by reconsidering their own attitudes and behaviours and by having conversations with young people about respect. That's why the government has committed not just to dealing with a response to domestic violence but also to actively pursuing prevention and early intervention in order to ensure that we make the best use of the $340 million—the biggest ever commitment by a government—to address the scourge that is family and domestic violence under the fourth action plan to reduce violence against women and their children. This will take a significant and very sustained effort and we will not be able to do it alone. We will require partnerships with state and territory governments, who are the first-line responders.

It is so important that we get the language around this right. It is so important that we encourage everybody to come on this journey to stamp out this scourge on Australian society. We must make sure that our language isn't provocative and that it isn't unhelpful. In some instances we have seen language that we can only describe as downright repugnant. But if language is important then culture is important and changing behaviour is important—along with the money.

Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I start my contribution on this urgency motion I would like to remind anyone listening who is experiencing family or domestic violence that there is a free 24-hour counselling service available. They can access this service by calling 1800 737 732 or 1800RESPECT. If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, you should, of course, call 000 instead.

Earlier today we observed a minute's silence for Hannah Clarke and her children. This was an important gesture, but, as a parliament, when we make gestures like this we also need to back them up. We need to commit to making sure that we do everything within our power to prevent tragedies like this from happening again. You may think that the incident in Camp Hill makes this a timely debate. But as much as this tragedy has received widespread media coverage, and as shocked and appalled as Australians are, let us not forget that one woman is murdered every week in Australia by a current or former partner. It is shocking enough that so many women are murdered, but the statistics on violence against women who survive are also quite shocking. I have taken these statistics from the website of Our Watch, which provides sources for each of the statistics. One in three Australian women have experienced physical violence since the age of 15 and one in five have experienced sexual violence. Women are three times more likely than men to have experienced violence from an intimate partner and four times more likely to be hospitalised as a result of this violence. Two-thirds of mothers with children in their care who have experienced violence from their previous partner say that their children have seen or heard the violence. So, we need to ask ourselves: what is the impact on these children?

It is important to realise that violence against women takes many forms; it's not always just physical. It can include psychological, economic, emotional and sexual violence and abuse, and a wide range of controlling, coercive and intimidating behaviours. It's also important to realise that even when abuse in domestic and family settings doesn't involve physical violence it can still be extremely harmful and destructive to the victims and to any children involved. In addition to those women who are losing their lives, many more are suffering physical injuries, maiming and disfigurement, which, obviously, can easily lead to psychological injuries and ongoing trauma. This suffering is also experienced by children who are witnessing the violence or, even worse, having it perpetrated against them.

We know from a wealth of evidence that leaving a violent relationship is not easy. We also know that the most dangerous time in a violent relationship is when the partner experiencing the abuse leaves. We know that the situation can be made safer for a victim when they have support around them. But, because perpetrators of domestic violence often seek to isolate their victims from friends and family, victims, when they try to leave, often rely on community services funded by government. Yet this government is failing victims by cutting services. It's absolutely outrageous that when we have a national crisis in domestic and family violence, and when there is a clear need to invest more in tackling the problem, this government is making cuts. The latest cut to family violence services is WESNET, a service which provides free, secure phones to women experiencing family violence so they cannot be tracked, traced or stalked by abusive partners. Yes, that's what often happens. Having a secure phone is often critical for a woman who is escaping a violent relationship. Since the program was established in 2016 WESNET has provided 20,000 of these phones. The program's national director, Karen Bentley, explained to the ABC that abusive ex-partners use mobile phones to track women and locate them after their relationship has ended. Ms Bentley said: 'Quite often they just either don't have a phone, they have never been able to have one, or their phone has been compromised by the abuser or potentially smashed or broken by the abuser.'

This is such a simple program, but it can make such a huge difference for women. This government's cut it, with funding running out later this year. Another recent cut was to the National Family Violence Prevention Legal Services Forum. This service assists First Nations women, who, sadly, are 32 times more likely to be hospitalised and 10 times more likely to be killed than other women as a result of violent assault. This organisation is the peak body for Indigenous survivors of domestic and family violence. It survives on a mere $244,000 a year. In the context of the federal budget that's basically spare change. But the penny-pinching government has cut it. And to add insult to injury, guess what day the government chose to announce this cut? It was 25 November, which also happens to be International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. That's true. I just couldn't believe it. It's such unbelievable irony that it could be funny if it weren't so cruel and tragic.

I ask those opposite, when you cut these services to make a small saving here or there, do you really understand the cost? Do you realise the impact? Do you realise that these women and families need to have support at home, in the workplace and in the court system? If women escaping violence cannot be supported, we can expect more police callouts, more hospitalisations, more pressure on our mental health services and, sadly, more murders. It seems that those opposite are happy to push these costs on to the states and territories if it helps to protect their precious surplus.

In addition to these cuts, the government is failing to invest in the resources needed in legal services and shelter for women escaping family violence. In my home state of Tasmania hundreds of women have been turned away from shelters, which are struggling and failing to keep up with demand. In 2017 I visited community legal centres with shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus to hear about the potential impact of a planned 30 per cent cut. Fortunately the government didn't go ahead with that cut, but even with their funding at that time CLCs were struggling to meet demand, including the massive demand from women escaping violence.

It's not just the Liberals at the federal level who are failing women escaping domestic violence. As I mentioned in an adjournment speech last year, Tasmania's Family Violence and Counselling Support Service is only funded to handle one-third of the referrals that they receive. This means they're faced with the difficult choice of turning away victims or not offering them the full support they need. They have decided not to turn anyone away, but without being able to give every client the full support and help they need, it makes it more difficult for the thousands of Tasmanian victims of domestic and family violence to safely escape. It's extraordinary that the recently retired Premier, Will Hodgman, is a White Ribbon Ambassador, yet he allowed this to happen under his watch. For the sake of women in my home state of Tasmania who are trying to escape domestic and family violence, I truly hope that the new Premier, Peter Gutwein, can take a more proactive approach and provide the FVCSS with the funding they need to do their job.

As I said earlier, this is a national crisis and it needs an urgent national response. It requires awareness, community education and cultural and attitudinal changes. It requires support for victims to escape from violence and support for perpetrators to wake up and change their behaviour.

I reiterate opposition leader Anthony Albanese's call for a national summit on domestic and family violence. That is a practical first step that the Morrison government can take. Bring together government agencies, community groups, experts and victims to explore and develop a long-term response which drives long-term cultural change. But we need it now, not in a few years time. We need leadership to make sure that this doesn't fall off the agenda until the next tragedy occurs. While doing that, governments at all levels, including those opposite, need to recognise the need to invest in the services that we know work and which are already working on the front line in helping victims. We need investment, not more cruel cuts. I hope that the government take up Mr Albanese's call for a national summit and that they do it quickly, that they get some responses out and that they start to take action a lot more quickly.

Stirling Griff (SA, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of this matter of public urgency. Senators spoke earlier today of the shocking murder of Hannah Clarke and her three young children. Tragically, events like their deaths at the hands of a parent and former partner are all too common. As legislators, we have the power to do more. That is why the announcement by the Minister for Social Services last week of only $2.4 million towards men's behavioural change programs has left me incredibly bewildered. The announcement is welcome, but it's only a drop in the ocean. The sector truly needs a lot more. On top of that, why is the funding only available in three states—New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia? The minister hasn't explained why the funding is so low and why the funding is limited to those three states.

Domestic violence is borderless, affecting every community and socioeconomic group across the nation. My home state of South Australia is desperate for more funding for behavioural change programs. One South Australian service, KWY, do incredible work helping Aboriginal families in South Australia. The safety of women and children is at the heart of everything they do. They provide specialist knowledge and culturally appropriate services to break the cycle of domestic violence. They run a specialised 12-week Accountability, Responsibility to Change, ARC, program, using cultural ways to engage Aboriginal men. But, incredibly, South Australia was left out of last week's announcement, and programs like the one run by KWY are at risk because of very little funding. Indigenous Australians are 32 times more likely to be hospitalised for domestic violence than non-Indigenous people—32 times!

If the government is really serious about tackling the scourge of domestic violence in Australia, it needs to get serious about providing the funding that prevention and support services ask for, and not limit it to three states. At the moment, it's barely scratching the surface, and the women and children who are facing this daily reality very much deserve so much more.

Wendy Askew (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Violence against women and children is not okay and we must never make excuses for behaviour of this type. The responsibility to end violence is one that we all share. Governments, communities, schools, workplaces, religious institutions and the media all have a role to play—we all have a role to play—in ending violence in our community. The violence we have seen in the past week with the deaths of Hannah Clarke and her three beautiful children at the hands of her husband, the children's father, is distressing and heartbreaking, and I hope to never hear of anything like this again. Our country has been deeply affected by these murders, and it is right that we examine what we can do to prevent such an incident being repeated.

The government's first priority has always been to keep Australians safe and secure. We have a strong history of standing up against family, domestic and sexual violence. We know it is a major health and welfare issue that affects people of all ages and from all backgrounds, but we also know it mainly affects women and children. Under the government's National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010-2022, we've invested millions in providing safe places for women and children escaping violence, such as emergency accommodation; prevention strategies to stop violence before it occurs; funding for 1800RESPECT, which is the national sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling service; and increasing frontline services to help deal with such violence. The Fourth Action Plan under this national plan, which was agreed with state and territory governments last year, will provide continued improvement to existing initiatives by identifying and addressing gaps from earlier action plans, and look at future policy areas as part of its review.

Since the national plan's implementation 10 years ago, there has been evidence of an increase in reporting of family and domestic violence. This indicates that the quality and availability of support services are increasing, as is women's trust in them. Community awareness of violence against women and their children is growing, and the stigma associated with being a victim and seeking help is decreasing. These are good signs. First response counsellors with 1800RESPECT answered over 163,000 contacts in 2018-19, an increase of 66 per cent from the preceding year. Despite this increase, the plan states that the prevalence of violence against women in Australia remains largely unchanged, but:

… the gap between prevalence rates and reporting rates is diminishing as more women than ever are feeling able to seek help and support.

This is a good start, but there is still much more to be done.

Our government has a strong record in this area, and we're committed to continuing to build upon this work. We have already banned the direct cross-examination of women by their alleged perpetrator during family law proceedings. We've introduced domestic violence leave, and we've extended the early release of superannuation on compassionate grounds to domestic violence survivors. We're providing no-interest loans to thousands of women experiencing family and domestic violence, and we have issued thousands of visas for women and children overseas needing safe refuge. Since 2013, we have invested more than $852 million to address the scourge of family, domestic and sexual violence. Further, we're committed to the ongoing improvement of the family law system to ensure that it helps families to separate in a safe, child centred, supportive, accessible and timely way. The establishment of a joint parliamentary committee of both the House of Representatives and the Senate will conduct a wide-ranging inquiry into the family law system. This inquiry will hear from families accessing the family law system and provide a greater understanding of the issues and barriers they encounter.

To stop violence against women, we need to counter the culture of disrespect towards women, as this is a precursor to violence. We need to change attitudes around violence by making sure that those who think violence is an option stop. The national primary prevention campaign, Stop it at the Start, encourages adults to stop and reflect on their attitudes and to discuss respectful relationships with children and young people. Evaluation of this program shows that the campaign is having an effect, and maintaining a continued focus on showing respect for others is vital within our community. I cannot stress enough to anyone who is experiencing family or domestic violence of any kind that help is available. I encourage you to act. Reach out to trusted family, friends or your doctor or simply contact 1800RESPECT—it's there for you. Domestic violence is a risk all women face; however, abuse can take different forms, none of which are acceptable.

Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One woman a week in Australia is murdered by a current or former male partner according to the Bureau of Statistics, and Aboriginal women are 34 times more likely to be hospitalised and 10 times more likely to be murdered in a violent assault. I know this also firsthand from seeing it across the communities of the Northern Territory and listening to the women in the Northern Territory who speak often about their situation and the helplessness and the hopelessness that they feel in trying to remove themselves from those situations. We have terrific workers in our women's shelters and safe houses in our communities and, in particular, in our towns of Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, Katherine and Darwin. I've spoken here on many occasions about the concerns those shelters have about continued funding support for the families—for the women and the children—who come looking for safety and looking for a way forward where they can be financially capable of standing alone with their children without being in a violent home life or with a violent partner.

We know that there is more to this than funding, but I have to address the fact that there has been so much cut in the area of the services to our families—certainly across the Northern Territory, but I'm acutely aware of those same calls being echoed right across the country, including by organisations like the working women's centres in Australia. Many organisations have been shut down or defunded. We have a wonderful Working Women's Centre in the Northern Territory that's struggling. They're able to support and talk and listen to these women who come forward wanting to be financially stable and financially independent to be able to remove themselves from situations that are enormously violent for them and their children.

But there has to be an understanding. I know we say—and I've heard this a few times today—that we shouldn't politicise these events. I think we also have to be very realistic in understanding that, when you remove certain abilities for workers in those women's shelters, legal services and working women's centres, it has a profound and direct impact on the lives of Australian families who are in vulnerable positions. Putting your head in the sand and saying that that is not the answer is not the way to go—it really isn't. There has to be an injection of incredible amounts of support and resourcing for all of these Australians who work so hard to assist those families. Whether they're working, as I've said, in the working women's centres, in the women's legal services or in the Aboriginal community controlled organisations, they are critical at the front line of assisting our families who desperately need support and help.

I, like everyone else in this country, was horrified to see what happened in Brisbane last week, and I certainly extend my condolences to the family of Hannah Clarke and her children. It was indeed an act of horrendous violence. But I've also seen similar acts on my families in the gulf region. I can stand here and say that nearly every second woman in my family has experienced some form of violence, and we live with it. We try to support each other. I have an aunty who was in a coma for six to eight months, just trying to recover from incredible abuse. She came through, but she lost a foot and some toes on the other foot, and she can hardly move her arm. So we look at what kind of support she can get with prosthetics to assist her in being able to continue to live in Borroloola, but it's hard.

That's the physical trauma. What about the emotional, spiritual and psychological trauma that a lot of these women do not have the chance to even talk through? They don't have a chance. We need these mental health workers. We need these counsellors. Certainly for First Nations women, we need them to be culturally appropriate services that can be spoken in language and can be in an environment where these women can talk about what has happened to them so that they can then share those stories, so that it can help our younger women, wherever they are, to stand up and know that there is support out there, not just in their families but also in the services that governments at every level—state, territory and local governments and this federal government—must be providing to our Australians who are enormously vulnerable in this position.

I've been to the Darwin Aboriginal & Islander Women's Shelter and seen the amazing work of people like Regina Bennett, who runs that organisation on the smell of an oily rag, really. The dedication and the loyalty of people like her and her team to ensure that they are there for these women is outstanding. I commend people like Regina and others who are working in our safe houses across the Northern Territory and right across Australia. What I'm saying here is not just isolated to the Territory. I know that there are services in every state and territory whose employees try to work with vulnerable families. You think you can take that money from this bucket here and put it over there and that should be okay, but it's not okay. There is a correlation between when you remove resourcing and when these organisations step up and say: 'This is going to dramatically impact us. We're going to lose a counsellor. We're going to lose a mental health worker. We're going to lose an Aboriginal interpreter.' That has a direct impact on these families.

Late last year, on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, we heard that the Morrison government told the National Family Violence Prevention Legal Services Forum that its $244,000 a year funding would not be renewed past June 2020. That forum is critical in bringing Indigenous women's voices to the table when family violence policies and approaches are being discussed. The amount of money the government is cutting is minuscule in terms of what the government can afford. The government goes to the Tindal air base and says, 'Here's a billion dollars for the Air Force,' yet it removes $244,000 which impacts on the women in the Katherine region. It just doesn't make sense. That's where you—the government senators and the government members—have to see that there is a direct correlation between those decisions. The forum had a meeting with the Minister for Indigenous Australians earlier this month, but, despite making sympathetic noises, the minister was unable to give the forum any assistance or any assurance that they would be able to operate into the future. They're asking for $244,000 a year. Instead, the minister has told the sector, already thinly resourced and outstretched, to engage in a co-design process. But the sector is very strongly of the view: why redesign something they know already works?

I'll give you an idea of how this government's cuts will impact services on the ground in the NT. The National Family Violence Prevention Legal Services Forum supports small, culturally appropriate Indigenous frontline services to ensure their experiences and views are reflected in national discussions. So, if you're going to remove it, you're saying to the women of the Northern Territory that, in this instance, their voices don't matter, but you're also saying to the vulnerable women right across Australia that it's not a priority. Listening to Senator Cormann and other senators speak today, I know that you know it's important. I'm just asking you to recognise that, when you make those decisions of funding, it does have a profound and direct impact on our families across Australia when these organisations either are so underresourced or have to close shop. It's not good enough.

Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to contribute to this matter of urgency on the national security crisis of violence against women. In the wake of the truly horrific murder of Hannah Clarke and her three beautiful, innocent children, it is absolutely essential that we as a nation reiterate that violence is never acceptable in any form. There is never any justification. There are no excuses, no ifs and no buts—none. We need to call out the toxic culture of some men and their supporters, some of whom raised these issues in this place, who think they are entitled to exert power and control over women. That is at the heart of this towards women and their children.

Women think that they can rely on the justice system and the police to respond to the violence that is being perpetrated against them, but too often we see that that is not the case. We see in the media today that there's a very brave woman who took her own civil action because the police didn't think it was in the public interest to prosecute when someone doused her in petrol and threatened to set her alight. We see domestic violence orders—they're called other things in other states; AVOs—simply ignored and not worth the paper they're written on.

How can we say that people can have confidence in our justice systems when this is continuing to happen? For every woman—we have heard that one a week that loses her life—there are thousands of women and their children who are living the daily reality of violence and abuse. Exposure to violence against their mother or other caregivers causes profound harm to children and has life-long effects on those children. It is not good enough to say, 'Well, it's okay, we're giving money—we're spending this and we're spending that' when we know that $5 billion is needed to address this crisis.

Just at the end of last year, the National Family Violence Prevention Legal Services were told that their funding of only $244,000 was going to be cut. The government used as a weak excuse the supposed recommendations of a report, when the report made no recommendations at all. The government needs to act to stop that. We just heard Senator McCarthy's contribution about the 32-fold impact of domestic violence on First Nations women; yet the government thinks it's okay to cut funding to one of their essential services. In 2006, the Howard government made the mistake of amending the family law to put parents' shared care above the interest of the child. It was a fundamental mistake, and we called it out at the time.

These mistakes cannot continue. We need to invest; we need to change the laws; we need to enforce the current laws and change the laws to ensure that this doesn't happen. Importantly, we have to call out any excuse for violence. There is no excuse. We have to call it out every single time. (Time expired)

Amanda Stoker (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was at the vigil in Camp Hill last night when Nikki Brookes spoke bravely for her beautiful friend, Hannah Clarke, and her children, Aaliyah, Laianah and Trey. I want to refer to some of her speech now to remind all of us in this chamber of the important things she had to say. She said:

We are a nation in pain, whether you knew our beautiful Hannah or not, we are all deeply affected by this tragedy.

I see her face on television, her smile like sunshine. She has the face of a friend. And maybe that's what it is that hurts—that she is so instantly relatable and that we are not only heartbroken for her family but we have all become a little scared for our own. I wish I had something profound to tell you: the perfect message of how we stop the violence, how we take away the rage. But, if I had it all figured out, we wouldn't be standing here today. What I will tell you is that in their short lives, Hannah, Aaliyah, Laianah and Trey loved hard and laughed hard every day. Hannah carried the weight of the world on her shoulders and you never knew it. Her strength of character was only matched by her wicked sense of humour. Giggles filled their days and they were truly happy.

I don't want us to get caught up in a blame game that takes us beyond the animal that did this. There was no excuse. There could never be an excuse—no buts. The blame lives and dies with him. You can do all the calls to arms you want. You can blame the system and demand change, but there is no quick fix. I don't think there's a single law or order that would have saved our darlings. Monsters find a way. So what can we do?

Little boys in pain grow into angry men. I want every person in this crowd to now turn to someone right now and cuddle them. Last night at the vigil, strangers did. She said, 'Get used to saying, "I love you," out loud. Say to our babies that being tough and strong isn't just physical; kindness is emotional strength.' She said:

Stop being so polite. 'It's none of our business', and 'I don't want to get stuck in the middle', are keeping secrets silent and the suffering is breeding …

Those phrases are isolating. Don't back away from your friends for the sake of convenience. Don't be gutless. If you see something, say something. One by one, we can let the world know we won't stand for this anymore.

She said, 'The time is up for domestic violence.' Gosh, she said it well. No parent ever should have to experience what Suzanne and Lloyd Clarke have over the last week. When I think of the cruelty and pain inflicted on Hannah, Laianah, Trey and Aaliyah by a father whose basic duty was to love and protect them, I feel sick. And yet this happens. Murder happens. Perhaps it happens less dramatically and perhaps less visibly, but it happens to another woman every week. It's not okay. It's never okay.

Domestic violence must end. I actually don't like the term. It shouldn't be treated like it is something different or less than because it is connected to the family. If anything, it's worse. It is a bigger breach of trust. It's a bigger betrayal of the oath between husband and wife, between parent and child, and yet every two minutes the police get a call out about a family violence incident. I'm sad to see Senator Di Natale attempt to politicise this sad and complex social issue with this motion, because it crosses generations and cultures, it crosses through the rich and through the poor, and it isn't the sole result of alcohol or other substance abuse.

In 2015, the Not now, not ever report commissioned by the Newman government was given to the Queensland government. This cross-party task force included people who worked in the area of domestic violence, including in Indigenous groups and in multicultural groups, and led by former Governor-General Dame Quentin Bryce. The report lists a range of factors which contribute to domestic violence and the danger that women find themselves too often in in the trying to get out of dangerous relationships. Those factors include the law, police, culture, different cultures in our community, generational abuse, substance abuse and the availability of safe places to go. When you look at what Hannah had done, it was clear she had good advice on getting out safely. She had reported the latest violence against her to the police. She had moved out. She was living with her parents. She had identified safe houses in her local area. She'd had an order issued that was supposed to protect her. She did everything right—textbook, really. She was smart, well educated, healthy, beautiful and a great example to her children, with a loving, supportive extended family. Maybe that's why it hurts so much, because we don't expect bad things like this to happen to people who look like her, but they do. It touches all walks of life.

What happened to Hannah and her children was pure evil, but the question of what we do next is hard. We as a government can't legislate for people to be kind. We can't legislate for love. Nikki correctly identified that little boys in pain grow into angry men and that it's the parents' job to model and show them how to love one another. They also need to show little girls what conduct is and isn't acceptable to receive from the people they love. Parents are working on this, and there are social workers and chaplains in virtually every school in this country working with children from homes that are not safe, trying to make that change. As I said, we can't legislate kindness, but, in the event that a person finds themselves in a violent situation of this kind, there are now more practical measures in place than ever to help them get out.

Last year, the Prime Minister, along with the then Minister for Women, committed $328 million funding for the Fourth Action Plan of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children between 2010 and 2022. It's record funding. There is $68.3 million worth of funding for prevention measures to stop violence before it even happens, $35 million specifically for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community women and $78 million for shelters and women seeking safety from their abusive partners. And, since 2015, the coalition has spent $840 million to help suffering domestic violence victims get out and rebuild their lives. In the 2019-20 budget, the minister secured more funding to speed up parenting payment processing times and property settlements. Seven million dollars was committed to the creation of the Family Violence and Cross-Examination of Parties Scheme—funds for legal aid expressly to ensure that a person injured by domestic violence doesn't have to face their abuser in court. That has been complemented by an amendment to the Family Law Act banning self-representation in these instances. And $31.8 million was allocated to Commonwealth funded specialist units, while $50.4 million went into family law property mediation services. In 2018, the then minister introduced five days of unpaid family and domestic violence leave. It was the first time any government had enshrined that as a workplace right.

There is no doubting that family breakdown is among the hardest things a person can ever experience in their life—a situation made more complex when drugs, mental health issues and child safety concerns are added into the mix. We can't expect any government to be able to turn this trauma into a happy time of life, but we as a government, as families, as friends and as communities can and must do everything possible to keep each other safe. It's time we looked not just to the government but also to what we as individuals can do, because more of this just will not do. Lloyd, I gave you a big hug last night, with tears in both our eyes. We won't forget Hannah and we won't forget her kids. We won't give up on making this right.

Rex Patrick (SA, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The shocking murder last week of Hannah Clarke and her three lovely children is the latest tragedy in an all-too-often repeated horror across our nation. As a father of two daughters, my heartfelt desire is that they are able to contribute and thrive in a society that values their opinion and provides them the opportunity to live free from harm, fear and retribution. I want my daughters—and all daughters and all Australian women—to always be safe in their home and as they go about their daily lives.

While the motion for debate today focuses on questions of Commonwealth funding—and that is a very important part of the picture—I think it's true to say that successive governments and, indeed, our political processes as a whole have failed to deal with this horrific issue. There have already been many inquiries and reports: the Victorian royal commission, two inquiries undertaken by the Senate Finance and Public Administration References Committee and a recent Auditor-General's report on the implementation of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children. Yet nothing much has changed. The national rates of serious crime, murder and assaults are falling, but the rate of family violence is, sadly, static. Things are not getting any better. On average, one Australian woman is killed by an intimate partner each week. Hannah Clarke was the eighth woman murdered by her former partner in Australia this year. Australian police deal with 5,000 domestic violence matters on average every week. That's one every two minutes, and 20 since this debate commenced.

Cuts in funding of frontline social welfare and support services definitely haven't helped, but they are only a small part of a complex picture. Moreover, against a backdrop of terrible tragedy and hurt, there is no merit in partisan argument and finger-pointing. What we do need right now is collective action across the Australian parliament to pressure governments—federal, state and territory—to tackle this issue in ways that really will make a difference.

To that end, I am proposing an urgent inquiry by the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee into family violence, especially violence against women and their children. The focus of the inquiry will be on action, not endless investigation. We know about the prevalence of domestic violence. We know its causes and it contributing factors. We know its effects on health, we know the impact on children, we know its financial impact and we know the impact on the community. The dimensions of the problem are really clear and we don't need to re-examine that. Rather, we need a process through which senators can directly pressure governments on the steps they need to take and the resources that need to be committed now that will eliminate domestic violence from our Australian society.

We need to look at where we can drive change in government policy, programs and resourcing to improve outcomes. With strong commitment from senators from all sides of politics we can do all of this and more. It is high time that all sides of this parliament and especially all segments of Australian society and indeed most particularly men face up to our collective responsibilities and work for real change.

In closing, I will just make the final observation that there are no male members of the Liberal Party speaking on this today. There are no male members of the Labor Party or, indeed, of the Greens. Madam Acting Deputy President, I just ask you to reflect on that.

Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to contribute to this debate. I'm just following on from Senator Patrick. I commend Senator Patrick and Senator Griff for being two men participating in this debate today, and I too reflect on the observation of the lack of male voices in this debate. I know this is a constrained amount of time. It is only an hour and lots of people want to speak. I would be more than happy to step aside if there were a male colleague from any side of politics who wanted to participate in this debate today, because I think it is absolutely important that decent men become part of this very-much-needed discussion about how we solve these issues going forward.

We know too many women and their children are at risk and are living in fear right now, today, in their own homes as we pay tribute to and grieve for the loss of life over the last week of Hannah Clarke and her children and, sadly, another woman who was murdered at the hands of her partner only days later in Townsville. Sadly, these statistics should not be shocking, because they are so regular. That is what is wrong here. But when something as grievous and as horrific happens as what occurred last week in Brisbane, there is a glimmer of hope that people were so outraged and so touched by this. I myself felt quite haunted by it. I couldn't shake, for two days, the stories, the reports and the images that I had seen. I could not stop thinking about Hannah and those children. I had never met this family. I know nothing about them apart from what I've read since this tragic event, but it shook me deeply—and I think many, many Australians feel the same. That's why we're discussing this today.

But we have to use that grief, that anger and that frustration to call for genuine and real action. As my colleagues Senator Waters and Senator Siewert have mentioned today, at the very least we should be able to commit, from a funding perspective, that no woman is ever turned away when she asks for help. When she is in danger, she should be able to get a safe place for her to sleep and a safe place for her children to be. There should be somebody at the end of the phone when a woman calls in desperate need of assistance. The fact that there is not is a national shame.

The fact that this issue is now at such an epidemic rate that one woman is killed a week is not okay. It is 2020 in modern Australia, where equality is meant to be part of the norm, where young girls are brought up believing they can be anything, that they are equal. To see the reports of mothers and their children being murdered at the hands of the very people who are meant to love and protect them, I can tell you that equality still has a long way to go. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.