Gabriel Ng (Menzies, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about the vital work that is occurring across our country to prevent and respond to the national crisis that is domestic, family and sexual violence. Late last year, Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner Micaela Cronin tabled her annual report in this parliament. This report is an important reminder that we must maintain our commitment to making sure every woman and child in our community is safe and our commitment to breaking the cycle of violence that shatters families, lives and communities.

We know that still too many women and children are being killed or experiencing lifelong physical and psychological harm from people who should be loving and protecting them. Too many men are making the choice to use violence. Every eight days, a woman is killed by a man's use of violence, almost always a man she knows. This commissioner's 2025 annual report provided a timely update of the progress we've made through the leadership and collective efforts of governments, frontline services and communities, but it's also a reminder of how far we have to go.

The Albanese Labor government's leadership on this issue has driven collective action across our country that is essential for success. Our government has matched our commitment to ending this epidemic within a generation by investing more than $4 billion since 2022, the most of any government in history. We have committed $1.2 billion for crisis and transitional housing. Too often, women cannot leave a family violence situation because they feel they must make a choice between an unsafe home for themselves and their children, and no home at all. This funding ensures this happens less of the time.

We have made the leaving family violence payment permanent so that more people have access to financial support to escape violence. We have delivered 10 days of paid domestic violence leave. We are protecting more women from attempts to use government support to inflict financial abuse, and we have ensured that community legal centres are given the resources they need to support women and children.

I have volunteered at community legal centres in the past, giving me an understanding of how vital they are in helping women obtain and enforce intervention orders, manage criminal proceedings and navigate the complex web of legal issues that arise when leaving a family violence situation. In my electorate, Eastern Community Legal Services provide this vital support day in, day out, helping people in Menzies and across Melbourne's east to deal with one of the most difficult times in their lives.

We are investing in evidence based interventions that change the way we think about how we respond to those using violence and how we help victims-survivors to heal. Unfortunately, as the commissioner's report notes, we must do much more to end violence against women and children. Within my electorate of Menzies, I see almost daily the significant impact that those choices have across our community. We have services from Doncaster to Blackburn, Box Hill and Warrandyte that dedicate themselves day in, day out to supporting people affected by family and sexual violence, frontline services like the dedicated team at Box Hill Orange Door and other specialist family violence services.

Doncare in Doncaster, which are near my electorate office, provide a unique locally based model that delivers low-cost counselling, and their innovative dawn mentoring and volunteering program provides long-term support for women recovering from family violence through mentoring. This is a unique program that focuses on recovery, and I'm grateful to Assistant Minister for Social Services Ged Kearney for visiting Doncare with me to hear about the fantastic work that they do.

The reality is this problem is so endemic and widespread that it touches every community service in Menzies because of the numerous ways in which it affects people's daily lives. Health and disability services like Access Health and Community, healthAbility, the Family Action Network, Doncare, local neighbourhood houses and Box Hill Rotary are all working to keep families safe. I am proud to be part of a community that takes seriously our collective responsibility to call out and address this violence and support women and children to be safe. There is no place, suburb, community or city where gender based violence doesn't exist. Given this, it is on all of us to do our bit to demand better and bring about change.

Today this government made an additional announcement to strengthen the frontline workforce to help combat this scourge. The Albanese Labor government has announced a 72 per cent funding boost to our frontline family, domestic and sexual violence workforce. Without this critical and specialised workforce, there is no way for us to effectively combat family violence and keep people safe. They are the people who are the most trusted and qualified to assist victims-survivors to navigate complicated and dangerous situations, which is why we will continue to support them through our commitment to deliver 500 additional frontline workers across Australia.

Continuing our government's leadership, Minister Plibersek last year announced an inquiry into domestic, family and sexual violence related suicide, to be conducted by the House Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs, of which I am privileged to be a member. This inquiry will be critical to progressing our understanding of the ways in which gender based violence impacts on victims-survivors and those around them. Briefings for the committee are underway, and public hearings have been scheduled. I look forward to doing my part in understanding this important work.

The lived experience of victims-survivors must be the foundation of any reform. Too often, victims-survivors have had laws and policy made about them without their input or perspective. This leads to less effective policy and programs that don't work for the people they are meant to serve. It leads to disempowerment and disenfranchisement. Regularly in Menzies my staff and I speak with victims-survivors who know firsthand how fragmented and difficult to navigate services can be. They know there is no quick fix and that policy solutions have unintended consequences that can be a matter of life and death. As a government, we believe we need to empower those affected by family violence to not just survive but thrive. This doesn't happen without centring their experience and understanding.

That's why I'm so pleased that the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner has highlighted this as a key priority as we move forward in delivering the national plan. The commissioner's Lived Experience Advisory Council will lead the development of an engagement framework and toolkit that will help inform best-practice approaches across the country. In addition, we are establishing a DFSVC youth advisory council to embed young voices in planning and to help make sure that voices are heard.

Ending family violence in a generation will require the whole of society to be working together, and we must acknowledge that gender based violence is not just a women's issue; it is a men's issue. The vast majority of family and sexual violence is committed by men. It is vital that men speak up to condemn this violence, call out bad behaviour and encourage others to be better. Men need to call out disrespect and misogyny with their mates, with their colleagues at the pub and on the footy field. Men need to show their children, their peers and their community what respectful relationships look like. This is not about demonising all men; it's about making sure we recognise the problem and support people to make better choices.

I'd like to acknowledge the amazing work of Professor Kate Fitz-Gibbon from Monash University and Matt Tyler, executive director of the Men's Project, at Jesuit Social Services. In November last year, I met with Kate and Matt and heard about their work on The Man Box and The Adolescent Man Box, which examine how adolescents perceive and enforce damaging and traditional stereotypes around masculinity. These man-box rules say that vulnerability is a negative thing and that to appear manly by putting others down and maintaining stereotypical gender roles is the only way to be a man. The Man Box survey also reminds us of the reality that many perpetrators of abuse are also victims of abuse themselves. This groundbreaking research helps give us a road map to effective interventions to help break these cycles of intergenerational abuse and trauma.

This is about creating a better future for both women and men. I will continue to take every opportunity I can to use my voice to call out gendered violence. I am proud to be part of this Labor government, which has invested more in tackling this violence than any other government in history. I am proud to be part of a government that is committed to ending family and domestic violence in a generation, and I am proud to support the work of the frontline services in my electorate of Menzies that are working to protect vulnerable people every single day.

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