Zaneta Mascarenhas (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make a statement on the significant matters arising from the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission's yearly report to the parliament. I want to acknowledge the commissioner and her team for work that is evidence based and grounded in the experience of victims-survivors. I recognise that this is a really challenging topic and that this continues to be a national crisis. The thing that I think is fascinating about this topic is that it is rare to have a conversation with a woman that has not been directly affected or had a close friend or family member that's been affected. This is something that is really grounded in the first experience of many people here.

I'm really proud to be a part of a federal government that listens and acts and backs women. We are standing up for vulnerable women, and we will continue to do that because our goal is to end all forms of domestic, family and sexual violence. A significant matter raised in this report is the scale of the challenge and the need for sustained and coordinated action. Since the national plan was launched in 2022, the Australian government has invested over $4 billion in women's safety initiatives. Safety must be practical, not theoretical.

I'd also say that financial insecurity is a major barrier to leaving violence, and that is why making the Leaving Violence Program permanent matters. I remember speaking to a woman who was in the process of leaving their partner. As a schoolteacher in some states, if you don't work on the last day of the school term, you don't get paid for your two weeks of school holidays. So this person was going through this traumatic break-up and did not know that this domestic violence leave was available. She made it to the last day of the school term and then had a conversation with her principal before she almost broke down. That was a barrier, and the thing that we have to continue to do as a government is look at the barriers that exist for women to ensure that they can leave relationships. For all the barriers that we lower, we have to continue to do that.

The program enables eligible victims-survivors with up to $5,000 in assistance, alongside safety planning and referral pathways. We must back frontline services. The renewed National Partnership Agreement on Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence responses will deliver over $700 million in new, matched investment across the Commonwealth, states and territories to support frontline services. This includes specialist services for women and children and men's behaviour change programs. This matters because a plan on paper is not enough if a person can't get timely help when they reach out.

Harrowingly, as we explored the role of financial abuse as a form of gender based violence, the link between domestic, family and sexual violence and suicide came into view, and we heard devastating stories like Molly Wilkes. Molly experienced severe emotional and sexual abuse. She had tried to leave her perpetrator six times since they married, and the last three times were in the last five months of her life. Tragically, Molly committed suicide. What is particularly shocking about this form of domestic violence is that even death does not stop perpetrators from continuing to abuse you. The perpetrator was successful in getting Molly's superannuation, which was pretty shocking. That's something that Julie Adams, her mother, fought about, and this is something that this government is continuing to work on.

I also welcome the House Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs inquiry into the relationship between domestic, family and sexual violence and suicide. Domestic violence related suicide numbers are not understood very well within our communities. There have been some reports and studies done in the past, including in WA, and, for every woman that is murdered at the hands of a perpetrator, there are many more that commit suicide because of the emotional and physical abuse that they have experienced. I think that this is a really important area, and I hope that this inquiry sheds some light into this issue. Fundamentally, we need better data, better systems and better prevention, because one death is too many.

Financial abuse, as an aspect of this, is something that I have seen and investigated through the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services. Financial abuse is insidious and often hidden and has devastating long-term impacts. The ABS reports that 16 per cent of women and almost eight per cent of men have experienced partner economic abuse since the age of 15. Victims-survivors and experts have also told us that economic abuse can occur within and through government systems.

That is why it's significant that the government commenced consultation on options to combat financial abuse perpetrated through coerced directorships, where perpetrators can use corporate and tax settings to saddle victims-survivors with liabilities. The consultation canvasses options to strengthen consent and removal processes for directors, expand relevant defences, improve responses for director penalty notices and set up safe mechanisms to hold perpetrators to account. We acknowledge the progress, but we also acknowledge that it's not enough, and this is why continued reform is important through the second action plan. Victims-survivors' voices are important, and we need to continue to work on evidence based policy. We also need to make sure that we continue to look at things like stopping serial perpetrators, supporting children's recovery and adapting to emerging threats.

This report will sharpen our resolve, and the thing that I think is particularly fascinating about this issue is protective behaviours. As a mother that has a son and a daughter, protective behaviours is one of the things that I teach my children. I recognise that one of my children is statistically more likely to be a victim compared to my other child, and that's based on gender. I recognise that there are things we can do in our family household unit, but to achieve the change we need to see I recognise that we need local, state and federal governments and communities working together—to make sure that we stop and end family domestic violence.

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