Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support this motion. I really want to add to the words of the member for Menzies and congratulate the member for Bonner for bringing this motion before the House today. May is Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Month. Domestic violence is one of the most important issues confronting us as a nation. It has a huge impact on too many people and too many families. This is a national crisis. No-one would say otherwise. It demands exactly the kind of national, coordinated and long-term response that the Albanese Labor government has prioritised.

The National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032 is the national framework agreed by all governments to end violence against women and children in one generation. It recognises that this work must happen across the whole system—prevention, early intervention, response, recovery and healing—and this government is implementing that plan. We have invested more than any other Commonwealth government in Australia's history to address violence against women and children—more than $4 billion across frontline services, prevention, housing, legal assistance, behaviour change programs, support for children and financial assistance for women escaping violence. We've legislated 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave, and we've made the leaving violence payment permanent, providing up to $5,000 in financial support alongside safety planning for women leaving violence. We're investing in emergency and transitional accommodation because women and children cannot leave violence if they have nowhere safe to. We are also strengthening frontline services, including through the 500 Workers Initiative, and reforming systems that, all too often, have been weaponized by perpetrators, such as the child support allowance.

A critical part of this national work is Our Ways, Strong Ways, Our Voices, Australia's first dedicated national plan for ending family, domestic and sexual violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children. This plan has been driven by the lived experience, leadership and advocacy of First Nations women, children, families, communities and organisations. It is focused on what Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have asked for: culturally safe, community led, trauma informed responses that support safety, healing and long-term change. It's backed by $218.3 million over four years, including support for Aboriginal community controlled organisations to deliver specialist family, domestic and sexual violence services.

In my own community of Newcastle we know how important these services are to meet women and children where they are. I was very pleased to support recent investments in innovative domestic, family and sexual violence health programs in my community, like the Supporting Outreach Healthcare pilot and the Hope in Healing project. The Supporting Outreach Healthcare pilot delivers multidisciplinary primary care clinics directly into refuge accommodation across Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Maitland.

The Hope in Healing project, funded through the Medical Research Future Fund, will help identify and respond to one of the hidden impacts of domestic and family violence: traumatic brain injury. Local screening by a local service found that more than 80 per cent of women, young people and children who've experienced potential head injury do not seek medical help. This is deeply concerning, and it shows why this work is so important.

I also want to acknowledge another important local project: the digital trauma informed Technology Facilitated Abuse Playbook. This web app is designed to strengthen the capability of frontline workers supporting victims-survivors of domestic and family violence. Developed through a partnership with the Hunter Domestic and Family Violence Consortium, WorkVentures and the Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation, it was launched at the Newcastle Museum just last week. The Hunter Domestic and Family Violence Consortium is a unique collaboration of specialist domestic family violence and homeless non-government services in the Hunter, including Family Support Newcastle, Got Your Back Sista, Jenny's Place, Wariga Ngurra, and Nova for Women and Children.

This work before us is urgent. It needs to be long term. It requires governments to lead but all of us to change. All of us need to keep this at the front and centre of our lives. It is a national emergency that requires all of us to lean in urgently.

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