Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Reconciliation and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The date 25 November is International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, otherwise known as White Ribbon Day. As one of the White Ribbon Day ambassadors, I, along with a number of members from both sides of the House, as well as businesspeople, sports leaders and others in the community, take very seriously the fact that males have to stand up and say clearly and unequivocally that violence of any kind against women is not acceptable. It could be violence against someone’s mother, someone’s niece, someone that we know in the family or someone’s grandmother. In Australia, the level of violence against women is unacceptably high. Over their lifetimes, about one in three women will experience some act of violence against them. It is simply unacceptable. The emotional cost is extreme. The financial cost is estimated at over $8 billion a year.

On Friday, 24 November, I was very pleased to be able to make a presentation at the Royal Randwick Shopping Centre and to have the assistance of members of the community and students from Randwick Boys High School in handing out white ribbons to people in the Kingsford Smith electorate. We wanted to make it very clear that it is necessary for us not only to have a public response to the levels of violence in the community, such as a program that Labor leader Kim Beazley committed himself to on White Ribbon Day, but additionally to have a private response to it. It is not acceptable that there is violence of any kind against women. (Time expired)