Kerrynne Liddle (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Child Protection and the Prevention of Family Violence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You cannot deliver on the national ambition to end violence against women within a generation if you don't focus on children. Violence is a problem of epidemic proportions in Australia. In some places, though—not likely in the comfort of inner-city living—what is normal can at times be really disturbing. The hypocrisy of Labor, the Greens and Senator David Pocock in rejecting an audit of services that exist for the most vulnerable is breathtaking. You said no to understanding through a royal commission the experiences of child sexual abuse and to understanding better the necessary scale of response. It is action that makes a difference; doing nothing does nothing. You did nothing.

The abuse of children knows no boundaries, but alcohol and drug abuse, poverty, housing shortages and unemployment—in short, family dysfunction—increase the opportunity for risk. Surely you cannot be blind to that? Maybe you say no because you have the privilege of sleeping soundly at night, in sharp contrast to the children who are terrified to sleep so instead roam the streets. I don't get it. The rate of hospitalisation due to family violence for Indigenous women compared to others is breathtaking. I'm talking about hospitalisation at a rate of eight for every 1,000 women compared to two for non-Indigenous women. I'm talking about one in five women and one in 21 men reporting sexual violence in evidence based statistics. These are not numbers; these are people. Did you notice who was missing from those statistics? It was the children. Children are hidden as a representation of the available data. They are silent, and your silence does nothing to protect them or to help their families to also protect them. That is also your national shame.