Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I went to one of those schools that does school reunions every 10 years. It's quite a competitive school. Our first couple of reunions were before the advent of Facebook, so, when we met up for our 10-year reunion, many of us had not seen each other since year 12. The 10-year reunion was about careers and marriages—who had married whom, how fantastic their lives were and who was living the dream. The 20-year reunion was about children—photos of adorable cherubs in colour coordinated family photos. The 30-year reunion was about divorce, and that's when the truth came out—the school friend whose marriage had lasted three months because their new spouse had beaten them so badly they'd had a broken leg; the school friend who, despite having a PhD and a very high-powered job, had spent close to two decades hiding bruises, dealing with blow-ups from their spouse that alienated friends and family and being isolated; and the school friend who had brought mementoes of herself to her children while she made plans to suicide to escape violence and coercive control.

Domestic and family violence, sadly, is in every strata of community irrespective of culture, education level, financial resources or age. It exists in first relationships in teenage years, in same-sex couples, in couples without children and in couples with children. In my work in women's homelessness, I saw women who had grown up as children in violent homes who were still showing the effects decades later. They had difficulty forming or keeping a trusting relationship, be it an intimate relationship, a friendship or a collegial relationship at work. Under pressure, they often made decisions that were based on a sense of vulnerability or downright panic. Sixty per cent or more of the women that we saw experiencing homelessness came from a domestic or family violence background. They were either escaping imminent violence or had a background that included violence. We know that one in four women and one in 14 men have experienced violence by an intimate partner since the age of 15.

The societal impacts of domestic and family violence are profound. It costs the Australian economy an estimated $26 billion annually. It places significant pressure on healthcare services, police, the justice system and support services. Domestic and family violence is also the leading cause of preventable death, disability and illness for women aged 15 to 44, and it's the primary driver of homelessness. It impacts workplaces—affecting retention, productivity and staff morale—and it's a human rights issue. No-one should have to live with the threat of violence hanging over them. No-one should be subject to coercive control or financial or psychological abuse.

The Albanese Labor government renews its commitment to building a safer Australia, where every woman and child can live free from gender-based violence. Ending gender based violence is a national priority for the Albanese Labor government. It's why we've invested more money into addressing this scourge than any previous government, but it is something every single one of us in this place—and, indeed, every single Australian—has a role to play in.

A few months ago I attended a Rotary event in Adelaide called Purple Waves of Change, where 10 Rotary clubs across southern Adelaide came together to run an event to raise funds and raise awareness about the impact of family and domestic violence on our communities. I give a shout-out to Holdfast Bay Rotary Club, Glenelg Rotary Club and Somerton Park Rotary Club, all in my electorate of Boothby, who participated in this event. We heard from Sally, who spoke about her experience of domestic violence and her experience of trying to leave that relationship. It took her six years to successfully leave. On average a woman will try seven times before she successfully leaves, and we know that the time of leaving, when the perpetrator is losing control over her, is often the most dangerous period. Sally's ex stalked her for many years, extending the fear and threat of violence as she tried to establish a new, secure and safe life for herself.

The great thing about having organisations like Rotary, which reach out into the community with the message that violence is not okay, is that we need the message to be echoed at the grassroots level. It can't just be the women's organisations or the anti-violence or DV-specific services. This requires a cultural change, and that means everyone. It needs to be something that everyone knows is a basic standard of decency in the community. People need to know: if you're using violence, your friends, your family, your neighbours and your colleagues will be horrified.

While we need the community to come along on this journey and establish a culture of safety and nonviolence, we recognise that there is a really important role for government in this as well. The Albanese government has invested more than any previous government in directly tackling this appalling scourge on our society. Since coming to government, Labor has invested more than $4 billion in frontline services, preventive programs, behaviour change and programs for children. We've made the leaving violence payment permanent—$5,000 in financial help and safety planning for women leaving violence. We know that women often stay in dangerous relationships because they can't see any way out other than homelessness, which is itself a significant safety risk, so we have invested $1.2 billion in emergency and transitional accommodation.

We've legislated 10 days of paid domestic violence leave so women can make the arrangements to leave and talk to lawyers and other services without having to lose money or organise such appointments after hours, when it might alert the perpetrators that they're leaving. We've expanded the discretion for Centrelink so perpetrators can't use the social security system to leave survivors with tens of thousands of dollars of debt. This is called the special circumstances debt waiver.

We've reformed the family law system so that it is safer, simpler and more accessible. With the states and territories, we've improved criminal justice responses to sexual violence. We've invested record legal services funding—an extra $800 million in family violence legal services—and we've established the new National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence, with legislation passed in the last sitting.

We're also focused on the prevention of sexual violence through a better understanding of consent. Our government has invested $40 million in the Consent Can't Wait campaign, launched on 26 May 2024, and we've invested $3.5 million to support Teach Us Consent to develop and distribute social media resources for young people aged 16 and above about sexual violence and consent. We've invested $8.3 million in the Partners in Prevention of Sexual Violence project with La Trobe University to build the evidence base on what works to prevent sexual violence.

In May 2024 the government commissioned an expert panel to conduct a rapid review of prevention approaches to gender based violence. The review complemented the work underway under the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children and provided advice to government about opportunities to further accelerate efforts. The rapid review was received in August, and, on 6 September 2024, National Cabinet agreed to progressively respond to the rapid review and use its recommendations to inform strengthened prevention services across all governments, state and federal.

Since then, our government has invested $3.9 billion in the new National Access to Justice Partnership, including a critical $800 million increase in funding to the legal assistance sector. We've invested $82.4 million to strengthen responses to high-risk and serial perpetrators of family and domestic violence, including developing national risk assessment principles and trialling innovative approaches to high-risk perpetrators. We've invested $81.3 million to enhance and expand child-centric, trauma-informed supports for children and young people with experience of violence, and today Minister Plibersek announced a further 72 per cent increase in funding for frontline family, domestic and sexual violence workers.

Minister Plibersek has also made a referral to the Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs, which I chair, to conduct an inquiry into the linkages between family, domestic and sexual violence and suicide. Suicides in the context of family, domestic and sexual violence, including coercive control, are not currently counted in the statistics of domestic violence fatalities. This was one of the recommendations of the rapid review and is something advocates have been calling for, for a long time.

We are currently calling for submissions that respond to the terms of reference, which are on the committee website and the Parliament House website. So far we've received around 130 high-quality submissions from peak bodies, organisations and individuals from the family domestic violence sector, the sexual assault and sexual abuse survivors sector and suicide mental health sectors, as well as submissions from multicultural groups, men's groups, LGBTQI groups and groups representing children, young people and much more. This is an important piece of work, and we're keen to ensure we've looked at it in the context of the broad community. If you're interested, please have a look at the website and respond to the terms of reference.

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