Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Senator Ruston. Can the minister advise how the Morrison government is supporting Australians who are escaping violence?

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

I thank Senator Hughes for her question on this really important issue. In the 2021-22 budget I think we have demonstrated our absolute commitment to keeping Australian women safe with our historic $1.1 billion commitment to ending domestic violence, family violence and sexual violence against women and their children. It also lays the groundwork for the establishment of the next national plan. As I said, we're talking about ending violence against women and their children, not merely reducing the level of violence.

The package focuses on all aspects: prevention, early intervention and responding to give women support when they make that extraordinarily brave decision to leave a violent relationship. That's why we have made an investment into the escaping violence payment: $164.8 million over the next two years to provide up to $5,000 in support to women and their children when they leave a violent situation. We know that financial dependency is something that often keeps women in a violent relationship, and we are absolutely committed to helping women who wish to escape those situations. This money goes towards a $1,500 payment in cash so that a woman can buy the essentials for herself and her family. There is also a further $3,500 to do things, maybe, like paying a bond or registering the car, or maybe it's just being able to give her the confidence to start a new life.

We've also provided $130 million through the COVID pandemic to help frontline services. We will be providing an additional $260 million to continue to support our states and territories to bolster frontline services over the next two years. We have also added money to our safe places program—$60 million over the last two years, with another $12.6 million—to make sure that women have a safe place to go when they're escaping violence. We know that emergency accommodation is one of the most critical things on that night or day when a woman chooses to leave home.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Hughes, a supplementary question?

Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can the minister outline how the Morrison government is helping prevent domestic, family and sexual violence into the future?

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

Our priority has to be early intervention and prevention, because we know that a future without domestic, family and sexual violence can only happen if we change behaviours and attitudes and if we make sure that people understand what acceptable behaviour is. We have announced $35.1 million to expand our national campaign, 'Stop it at the Start', which has been so tremendously successful to date.

Yesterday I was very pleased to announce the launch of a five-part series of children's audiobooks, which can be downloaded wherever you download your podcasts from, to encourage respectful behaviour amongst children. I'd like to thank Nova Entertainment for partnering with the government in this thing, which we called Project ARI. It's a series which has been written by children's author Nat Amoore, and it focuses on a young robot called ARI, who's sent to live with a family. He has to learn to have a human experience. It's a fantastic resource. It's great fun, and I'd encourage everybody here to download it and listen to it.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order, Senator Ruston. Senator Hughes, a final supplementary question?

Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can the minister update the Senate on the work the Morrison government has been doing with the states and territories to keep women and children safe?

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

We know that domestic violence orders or apprehended violence orders are not worth the paper they're written on unless they're enforced. Recently, Minister Cash, Minister Payne and I convened an extraordinary meeting of our state and territory counterparts, women's safety ministers, attorneys-general and police ministers to discuss how we can all work together to improve safety outcomes for women and their children, particularly in the wake of the terrible tragedies that we have seen again this year. States shared details of what they were doing. Last week, I visited Tasmania and had the opportunity to talk to the Tasmanian team down there about a GPS monitoring system that they have in place on high-risk people subject to domestic violence orders. The fantastic news is that we have seen an 82 per cent decrease in the number of AVOs that have been breached since people have been on this program and a 100 per cent reduction in the amount of stalking that's being reported. That's a fantastic initiative and I congratulate the Tasmanian government.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order, Senator Ruston. Senator Farrell.