Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question, and I thank him also for making our commitment to stop violence against women and children a national, totally bipartisan, priority. It is absolutely critical that all men—as fathers, as grandfathers, as teachers, as employers, as members of parliament, as prime ministers and as alternative prime ministers, like the Leader of the Opposition—that all of us make it absolutely clear that violence against women and children must stop. And all of us must recognise that, while disrespecting women does not always result in violence against women, all violence against women begins with disrespecting women. This is, at heart, an issue where there needs to be cultural change.

We know of the deaths that the honourable member spoke about a moment ago—well understood, well mourned. The member for Corangamite last night spoke in this House, movingly, of another death; another shocking case of a woman—a friend of hers—killed by her husband. Yesterday I met with Dr Ann O'Neill, who is a truly inspirational survivor of domestic violence. Her estranged husband broke into her home, shot her, and killed her two children before turning the gun on himself. Ann was the only survivor. And yet, she says that the most common question she was asked after that tragedy was: 'What did you do to make him do that?' The victim of the most horrific crime was blamed.

We pay tribute to all of the victims of domestic violence, like Ann, past and present, who have borne the brunt of our failure to act for too long. Violence against women and children is one of the great shames of our nation.

Mr Speaker, the honourable member has asked me about his proposal to have five days' paid domestic violence leave if elected. I thank the honourable member for the proposal. We will consider it very carefully. It is a complicated issue, as indeed the member for Sydney acknowledged earlier in the year. It is important that individual businesses are able to deal with this in a way that works both for themselves and for their female employees. But we will certainly take it on board. As you know, Mr Speaker, the government has engaged the Productivity Commission to review the Fair Work laws. I understand that, as part of the process, the commission has received several submissions that will raise the issue of domestic violence. We look forward to its report. I thank the Leader of the Opposition for the suggestion; we certainly will consider it, as indeed will the Productivity Commission.

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