Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of this motion. White Ribbon Day, followed by the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, provides all Australians with an opportunity to step up and to stop and think about the scourge of domestic violence that is in our community. Like a lot of people in this place, I've been a proud White Ribbon ambassador for a very long time. I was one of the first ambassadors in South Australia. Like all of us, I deplore acts of violence against anybody but particularly acts of violence towards women.

Statistics show that, despite all the efforts, the message is just not getting through, and it is a stain on our nation. We have seen far too many cases this year where women have been killed in random acts of violence and attacks where the victim had never interacted with the culprit before. We've heard some horrendous stories. These kinds of attacks increase the already intensified fear that women have of simply walking by themselves or being out late at night—all simple acts of living and all things that most men almost certainly never stop to think about. I personally can't remember the last time I thought, 'I'd better not walk a certain way for fear of my safety.' I can't remember the last time I thought, 'I'd better pretend to be speaking to someone on my phone in the hope that it might deter unwanted attention.' And that's not because I'm special but because it's largely not an issue for men. These random attacks are all too regular, but what's more shocking and truly frightening is that, on average, one woman is killed by a current or former partner every single week. One in five women will experience physical or sexual violence from the age of 15. This is what our statistics show. This is absolutely disgraceful and it needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

To address this problem of violence against women, we need to deal with the source. It's about the attitudes that some men have towards women. It's about the examples that parents set their children and the examples that fathers set their sons. It's about the way children see men treating women. And it's not just about seeing violent behaviours. It's also about seeing how men treat women as the more inferior sex in some cases and hearing people using sexist and demeaning language such as, 'You throw a ball like a girl,' or 'Don't be such a girl,' or 'Don't cry like a girl.' They're some of the things that we hear, and those seemingly innocuous comments matter. They all matter because they affect the thinking of children and provide them with the false impression that boys are better than girls. This starts at a very early age.

The other important issues that need to be addressed, and I think they needs to be addressed by all of us, are the frequency of sexual harassment within our community and the importance of calling it out—in particular, the importance of men calling it out when they see it. Almost all the women I know in my life have some kind of story of having experienced some form of harassment. Most of us men do not have such stories. I think we, as men, have a big role to play in calling out harassment when we see it and in setting the right example. And I'm not saying that all men behave like this, but, clearly, we are hearing far too many stories and seeing far too many statistics, and it's up to us to do something about that. We need to call it out and not just be bystanders when we see these actions, which are unacceptable. We need to continue to work hard to ultimately eliminate violence against women. It is something we all need to be involved in. We can lead it from this place, but, ultimately, all of us as individuals right throughout society need to be involved in this. I am certainly committed—as are, I know, many others in this place—to ensuring that this happens.

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