Laurie Ferguson (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

At the outset, I congratulate the staff of Liverpool station, who held a White Ribbon event last Friday. I regret my inability to attend. The figures are indeed horrific—whether it is the 24 women in New South Wales killed in 2013 through domestic violence or the reality that 42 per cent of all of that state's homicides are related to domestic conflict. What is seriously concerning to us is the fact that the problem is underestimated—64 per cent of women who have experienced physical assault and 81 per cent of women who have experienced sexual assault have not reported it to police, according to surveys. And it is disturbing that the level of reporting by people from a non-English-speaking background is only half that of the rest of the Australian population. That is not a credible statistic, so what we are talking about is significant underreporting among migrant communities and, of course, a lesser access to the various organisations that assist. Despite the fact that we have that underreporting, there has been growth of 3.3 per cent in domestic assault in the official statistics despite a general downturn in criminal offences. In a situation where there is underreporting, debates like this and the White Ribbon activities increase public awareness and help people to come forward to reveal this issue.

I think it is worth commending the police force in regard to that uplift in reporting. I had the opportunity to go to the South-West Sydney Pacific Islanders Organisation domestic violence event recently. There I heard the Macquarie Fields police actually admit that in the past the police had had a bit of a tendency not to take this issue seriously enough, but they have made major efforts locally to ensure that they are more responsive. So the picture we have is that there is serious underreporting, particularly in non-English-speaking background communities where there are patriarchal and community aspects, but at the same time a lift in overall reporting possibly because of more police awareness.

I commend Dr Sharman Stone, from the government side of politics, who is playing a regional role in regard to this matter as the chair of the women's standing committee of the Asia Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development. I recently had an the opportunity to attend with Dr Sharman Stone a conference in Cambodia around a number of related issues—underage marriage, trafficking of women and domestic violence. While we can be critical of the downturn in Australia's foreign aid, it is good to see that it is focused on women's issues in our region and the way Australian tax dollars are working against domestic violence in the Pacific and Asia. It was good to see in Cambodia that some countries are responsible enough to tell the truth about their problems. I was particularly impressed with the reports from Bangladesh and East Timor. They pulled no punches in regard to the monstrous obstacles they have to overcome with these problems. I have been very critical of Cambodia on human rights, but there has been a real effort by the government of Cambodia in regard to combating domestic violence. They have put money in and worked with Australia and other countries. They have a program called Good Men, which indicates to men that there are better aspects of your lifestyle and image than macho aggressiveness. That program is working very well. I commend Sharman Stone for playing a very important role on this front.

This issue can deeply affect all of us. The most memorable situation I have had was being asked by one friend to meet a young girl whose mother was gunned down in public outside Parramatta court by her estranged husband in front of about 10 immigration department employees who have been traumatised for decades since. That woman put to me her absolute terror that her father would be released from jail. But the most telling words she said to me were that, throughout the entire period that her mother had been separated from her father, her mother and her family lived a life of terror to the point that she was thankful that her mother had been murdered; life was just so bad. This problem was exacerbated by managers and employees of the Commonwealth Bank giving the husband the details of changes of address by the family so that he could follow them and pursue them. This is probably an extreme example but we are all aware that there has to be a national effort, there has to be people vocal about it. We commend people in our electorates working on this issue every day of the year.

See this speech in context