Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Earlier this week, together with a number of other parliamentarians, I attended the Parliamentarians against Family Violence event. We heard from 2015 Australian of the Year and one of the most powerful advocates against family violence, Rosie Batty, as well from Jennifer Orr, a survivor of family violence, and Paul Linossier, the CEO of Our Watch. They talked about the persistent attitudes within our society which allow violence to continue, as well as the shortcomings in our responses to this most serious issue. The grim reality is that one in three women will experience violence in their lifetime, and one in five women will experience violence of a sexual nature. Already this year, 15 women have been killed by a partner or former partner. That takes our national average up to two deaths per week.

Our three insightful and very inspiring guest speakers last Monday night touched on a number of different areas where change must happen in order to give victims the support that they so desperately need. They identified the lack of safe and affordable accommodation as one of the greatest obstacles preventing women from leaving dangerous situations. At the moment, 423 people on average are being turned away from homeless shelters every day, and many of them are women escaping a violent situation. The 2008 white paper on homelessness—and this is supported by other studies—certainly shows a very clear link between homelessness and domestic violence. In fact, escaping family violence is the major reason for people seeking to access services for the homeless. Thirty-four per cent of people seeking assistance from services in 2012 had experienced domestic or family violence. The white paper also showed—and I think we would all be familiar with this— that 78 per cent of those victims were women. It is therefore concerning that organisations such as Bonnie Support Services in my electorate, which provides support and transitional housing for women escaping domestic and family violence, have faced significant funding cuts. Equally concerning is the fact that this government has also cut $42 million from the community and legal aid services which help victims of family violence.

Family violence needs to be elevated in our national conversation. We need to look at a number of areas where we might be failing the victims, and set up a national conversation to deal with this truly epidemic problem in our society. This is a blight on our nation and one we must address.

Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

During the election campaign, the political commentator Antony Green referred to the electorate of Mallee. He said, 'in the electorate of Mallee, people love the National Party and football'. Mr Deputy Speaker, I am not sure that they really love the National Party that much, but what they do love is football. As we come to the start of the season across the Mallee with seven leagues—the Wimmera Football League, the Mallee Football League, the Horsham District Football League, the Central Murray Football League, the Sunraysia Football and Netball League, the Millewa Football League and the North Central Football League—we think about the value that football has for community.

A recent study by Latrobe University said that, for every $1 spent in a club, there is at least $4.40 returned in social value. What we see is the role of community. When I was elected I said, 'We need to have a strategic plan.' Often we are not strategic in this place as members of parliament. I said, 'We should build wealth by building capacity.' So, if you invest in people and give them skills, and they have an entrepreneurial spirit, that translates to building wealth. But we should also build community by building interaction. We want our young Australians to get away from the Wii, the Nintendo and the television and to get out and play some sport. In fact, we want them to be more active more often.

The role of our football clubs and our netball clubs is instrumental to having a strong country community. In fact, when they are not able to field a team it is sort of the death knell of a community. We are now seeing the slightly overweight 'coulda been champions' pulling on their boots to keep the club alive by playing in the reserves team, and we see people trying to eat a pie and not spill it on themselves—and it is a real classic skill to be able to do that—and we see all the blokes standing around discussing when it is going to rain in the Mallee.

An honourable member: Never!

No, this year is the year for a very good season—I hope. I just want to pay testimony to all these local people and the clubs—the people who cook the schnitzel and the chips on Thursday night after training, the people who mow the field and the people who collect the rubbish. Country footy and country netball are so instrumental to our communities. May we have a great season this year with football and netball. May it build our communities. May Collingwood finish last at the end of the year and may the Western Bulldogs finally take home the flag this year. Here is hoping for both a good season with the rainfall across the Mallee and Wimmera and a great interaction of community as we pull together our football and netball clubs. Let us have a great year in the Mallee.