Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Morton for this motion. I join with the shadow Attorney-General and endorse his comments thoroughly. Family and domestic violence are growing problems in our community and it is good to see that these issues are being discussed in this place today.

It is a shocking phenomenon. Domestic violence affects one in four women and is the most likely form of preventable death for women under the age of 45. That is a breathtaking reality. For the Aboriginal community things are even worse: 34 times more likely to be hospitalised as a result of domestic violence and 10 times more likely to be killed.

I come to this debate with extensive experience, both personal experience and professional experience, both within the community sector and in my past roles as minister in the New South Wales government. In my first speech, I spoke about rhetoric having to be matched by action. And the simple reality is that, come 30 June, this government will defund to a large degree many, many legal services.

More than a million women have experienced physical or sexual assault by their male current or ex-partner since the age of 15. Some women may be counted twice if they experience both physical and sexual assault. Thirty seven point eight per cent of women who experienced physical assault in the 12 months before the survey said the perpetrator was a current or previous male partner, and 34.4 per cent said the perpetrator was a male family member or friend. Most incidents of physical assault against women in the 12 months prior to 2005 were committed at home.

This is a very important point to understand. Community legal centres give women the capacity to take back control, through the legal processes that are already in place, but so often women are not able to access the courts system. They do not know how or they are scared to confront their attackers. Community legal centres can help close that gap. But, as the motion before this place also points out, cuts to legal aid mean that the perpetrators of violence are increasingly representing themselves, and this means they may personally cross-examine their victims. This cannot be allowed to happen. Victims are already traumatised. By the time they have made it into the courts system, they have already displayed bravery beyond what should be required. In communities in which there is already immense pressure on women to stay silent, this will provide yet another barrier.

There has been much discussion of domestic violence in the Aboriginal community over the last few days. I have been part of that discussion. Some have suggested that Aboriginal people are silent, and I want to repeat that this is not the case. I will have more to say on this as the days pass by. But it is true to say that some people in communities, families and friends of perpetrators, can and do exert pressure on women to stay silent—but stay silent they do not.

It is also important in this debate to understand what domestic and family violence is. It is not limited to physical assault. We know that there are women who live in fear who are emotionally abused or financially abused by their partners. As local members, many of us will have heard these stories—women left with no money to pay bills, often in the most desperate of situations, women for whom access to the legal system is limited by their lack of control over their finances and for whom the emotional abuse has made fleeing all the more difficult.

The opposition's proposal which sees perpetrators prevented from cross-examining their victims is a sensible one and would go some way to combating this issue. So would restoring cuts to legal aid, community legal centres and women's legal services. It just seems incredible to me that there is so much rhetoric, so much talk, about domestic violence but the very things that assist women in pursuing justice through the legal system are going to be ripped away by this government, despite what the member for Corangamite said. It is a reality that 30 June will bring to fruition. I implore the government to adopt these changes and to reverse its stinging cuts to vital services. Safety must come first in family law. I commend this motion to the House.

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