Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I support the motion by the member for Fowler. It is a privilege to talk on this issue because it affects so many families across Australia. Having worked in the fields of both education and health, I have seen the direct result of violence inflicted on women and families. A close colleague of mine, Judy Atkinson, who lectures at the Southern Cross University in the top end of New South Wales, once spoke to me about the intergenerational impact of family violence and violence perpetrated against women. This intergenerational trauma is passed through generations of the family, and the practices and learned behaviours are there for some time.

I strongly endorse and support the My Oath campaign and I believe that all Australian men and other men living in Australia should commit to this campaign because this violence has social consequences that are far reaching, and the dislocation of women and children in times of hardship and in times of stress is something that we do not want to see experienced on the scale that we do at times. I also swear to commit to never excuse or remain silent about violence against women. I would like to salute the Canadian men who, after the massacre of 14 women in Canada by a gunman, made a commitment to acknowledge that there was a need to address violence against women.

I had the privilege of working in New South Wales as Director of Aboriginal Health, and I had a strong association with the Education Centre Against Violence, whose principal task is to work with communities—all communities, because family violence is not an issue particular to any section of society but tends to be right across the socioeconomic spectrum—to develop women’s awareness of the avenues, services and resources that are available to them when seeking refuge from violence or seeking a strategy in which an intervention can occur which allows them to change from being a recipient of violence to being much more proactive about removing themselves and their children from a violent situation.

I am pleased that the United Nations has established an International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, which aims to prevent violence against women by increasing public awareness and education, and by challenging the attitudes and behaviours that allow violence to continue. Certainly, the fundamental role of the ECAV program in New South Wales was to develop the awareness of communities and men that it is not appropriate for a male to exercise any level of violence against a woman or against children within the family. There is a need, as I said, for all men to drive the change in our society, because, if we go to the whole crux of the way in which we bully or are violent towards another human being, it leads in our minds our ability to control the circumstances that we sometimes find ourselves in.

I will certainly work tirelessly in Hasluck to create wide-scale awareness of the positive role that men can play in bringing an end to violence against women and in influencing other men who are violent to look at behaviours to deal with that rage, to protect the women who are part of their lives and to protect their family. It should also enable leadership, particularly by men and boys, to bring about social change and build collective knowledge and understanding of the effective prevention of violence against women. I concur with the comments by the previous speaker, the member for Hindmarsh, about the need to ensure that services in this area are real, provided at appropriate times and readily accessible.

I am also proud to say that I am now a member of the male parliamentarians for the elimination of violence against women subcommittee. We will ensure that awareness of the impact of violence and the inappropriateness of violence against women and children becomes a focal point of our work and that we continue to influence the way in which men behave in family or in partnership relationships. When you consider the range of violence that is part of that whole make-up, we certainly have a challenge. I commend the member for Fowler for putting this motion forward.

See this speech in context