Ben Small (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I spent a decade on the road as a volunteer ambulance officer, and I've been to more than my fair share of houses after dark to see the kids trembling in the corner and the female partner's voice cracking with emotion as she says, 'It's fine; it's fine; no, no, no, I'll be alright.' The statistics that we've heard today in this place tell the real story, and that's a stain on our national story. The reality is that women around Australia today and the kids growing up in those homes aren't fine. Indeed, when we talk about prosperity in this place, about our true wealth as a country, I think we need to measure it not only by how high we can reach economically but by how low and how broad our safety nets in this country really are. We can't lay claim to being a prosperous nation in the true sense of the word with our blind eye turned to so many.

Unfortunately, it has manifested as it has across the country in the south-west of WA. In my own community there's an organisation called Harbour refuge who are dedicated to providing support to victims of family and domestic violence. Of course, this was a city recently visited by the Prime Minister and his whole cabinet, so I think it's an appropriate time to put on record what Bunbury can be like for a largely unseen cohort of our community who are pretty much focused on survival. I want to put on the record today the numbers that evidence the failings of the 'system' in Australia today.

In a single month this year, Harbour refuge received 122 calls for assistance, and 84 of those were in direct relation to a domestic violence incident. In the course of the financial year, Harbour refuge reported it received 1,410 calls from domestic-abuse survivors in that period alone. To put that into context, the Harbour refuge in Bunbury has only seven beds for women. That's 1,410 calls for assistance and seven beds. Reporting in my local community has highlighted that significant gap, and Harbour CEO Ali White has gone on to say to local media that 817 vulnerable women and children were unable to be accommodated in the most recent financial year. So, while they've managed to support some 246 women through their Safe at Home program, the capacity to deliver that outreach service is constrained, with just three FTE funded through to 2027. That's 817 left on the street, with nowhere to flee to, being told there is no room. Of course, in a regional community, unlike in a metro area, the ability to flee is further compounded by issues like limited public transport. There's no room for mothers who have summoned the courage to flee violence and no room for the children who witnessed the fallout.

We need to do better as a country. Although more federal money is not the answer to everything, the reality is that we simply do need to do better in terms of funding ongoing operational staffing and providing resources to organisations like Harbour. On a day like today, when we're discussing these sorts of issues, I think it is fair to say that we can do better, because only through backing our non-profit and our community based organisations can we truly provide wraparound services in every community in Australia.

This is not a 'one size fits all' sort of problem. Indeed, it's not a problem that we can simply announce a particular program for and expect that, magically, we will have resolved one of the great and intractable problems of our society. But the failure of our governance really, as I said earlier, is a stain on our national character, and, unfortunately, in that plight of every mother and her children sleeping rough, we see a tragic loss of humanity in our country. If taxpayer dollars are allocated to that human indignity, then we need to see some long-term, compassionate and specialised solutions for safe accommodation in every community across Australia. I'm very pleased to advocate for organisations like Harbour refuge because the work they do is truly meaningful.

See this speech in context