Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. In the past week, Australians have looked on in horror as three women have been killed at the hands of someone they allegedly knew, highlighting the need for urgent and meaningful action on family violence. Will the Prime Minister declare that family violence is a national crisis? And will the Prime Minister join with me and commit to a family violence package, including front-line legal services to be funded to ensure women suffering from family violence get the right legal support and programs to keep women safe at home and to help identify opportunities to prevent violence by mapping perpetrator activities?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question, and I respect the passion and the commitment that he brings to this cause. Frankly, it is an absolute disgrace that we still have these horrific incidents of family violence. The point I make is that violence is violence, and we do not in any way explain it or minimise it by saying that it is domestic violence. In fact, if anything, there is more horror to violence when it takes place inside the home than when it takes place in other contexts, because the home should be a refuge and a haven, not a place of persecution and violence. I make the fundamental point, in response to the Leader of the Opposition: anyone who strikes a woman is not a real man. Anyone who strikes a woman or a child is a coward. All of us have a very heavy duty to say to our brothers, to our fathers, to our sons and to our mates that domestic violence is never, ever acceptable and never, ever justifiable.

I certainly do not rule out another summit—I do not rule that out at all. I know that this suggestion is made in very good faith by the Leader of the Opposition. Obviously, much is already happening. There was a COAG summit on domestic violence earlier this year. As members of this House would know, there is a panel headed by Rosie Batty and Ken Lay, the former Victorian police commissioner, advising COAG on this matter. There is a $30 million national campaign about to get underway, which the government announced on 4 May. On 17 May, we committed an additional $4 million towards the 1800RESPECT helpline. There is also $100 million over four years to support the implementation of the second action plan.

What I think we need is concerted action. Maybe a summit might help, but what we really want is action. I will have more to say about this in the next few days. Essentially, we need to ensure that men with a predisposition to violence against members of their families are better monitored and better tracked so that, the instant there is any suggestion of harm, the police can act—because the last thing we want to see is repeated atrocities like those we saw in this country last week.