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

Action and urgency, not announcements—that's what this Albanese government should have done in response to Australia's family violence epidemic. Instead, they spent 2023 distracted by their $450 million failed Voice, and only now do they tell us that they're focused on the cost of living. Already this year more than 10 people are dead as a result of domestic and family violence. These are Aussie families that are impacted forever.

There is no excuse for violence, but the drivers are well known and the urgency has been obvious. In a recent 12-month period, domestic violence incidents were up 20 per cent in the Northern Territory and 12 per cent in my home state of South Australia. Scratch at the rhetoric of the Albanese government and the reality of their poor progress in this portfolio area becomes clear. The 2021 election commitment was 500 frontline community service workers. The 2022 budget commitment was $170 million to get on with it. In November last year, the Prime Minister told parliament his government had delivered on that commitment. The truth is that, when the Prime Minister, who claims his word is his bond, said that, not a single worker—not one—had started work.

In the Northern Territory, with its horrific level of family violence, only one of the 18 workers is actually on the front line. In my home state of South Australia, just one of the 37 promised is on the front line. Media reports suggest the PM is busy working on the next election, when, by any measure, his government is nowhere near delivering on this promise he made to get your vote before the last one. Senate estimates confirmed the number is two out of 500 in almost two years. At that rate, there is little hope for the national plan target of ending violence against women and children in Australia in one generation or of coming close to the Closing the Gap target of reducing all forms of violence by at least 50 per cent by 2031.

This is how the Albanese government does its business in this area. Not a single frontline community service worker has been employed in Western Australia, Tasmania, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria or the ACT, and they couldn't even think to prioritise the areas of greatest need. This Labor government handed over $38 million of the $170 million to the states and territories in November, and still, four months later, there are only two. The sector was saying the rollout was such a farce and the criteria so restrictive that some DV shelter operators were not even going to bother applying. That's what they told me.

I sought answers from the relevant minister and from state and territory ministers, but I got nothing, because there was nothing to tell. There is no real progress to report. There is not a single worker in place. There are no new resources for a desperate sector. There is no promised extra help for women, children and vulnerable people living every day with the fear, trauma and devastation of violence. In domestic violence, lives matter. In domestic and family violence, time matters. In domestic and family violence, getting help when you need it matters.

I reflect on the impact of the lifting of alcohol restrictions in the Northern Territory before the eventual pressuring of the Territory Labor government to reinstate them. While the Albanese government took its time to act, there was a drastic spike in the rate of harm, and then there was an announcement of $400 million to respond to it. This ideology was at times cheered on by the Australian Greens. I reflect, too, on this Labor government's investment of hundreds of millions of dollars to get rid of the cashless debit card and the extra programs in Ceduna, the Goldfields and the East Kimberley that would address the social consequences associated with its removal. If you voted for the end of the card, you should visit those communities—the same ones where you don't hold federal electorates—and ask them how your handiwork is working out for those people who actually live there.

With Senator Pocock, stop blocking a much-needed audit of organisations delivering Indigenous programs, despite Senate estimates confirming there's an issue with some of them. When vulnerable people don't get the quality services they need, their outcomes are worse. This Labor government's poor performance, its distraction and its go-slow has let women down. It has let children down and it has let vulnerable people down. Sadly they are the ones who bear the consequences. You need to get on with it if you're serious about ending violence in all communities. Your progress to date is not good enough.

Senate adjourned at 20:20