Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of the women, the children and the men of this country who have been raped, bashed and traumatised by violence. I rise to share my anger and disgust at the government's abandonment of the funding used to support the National Sexual Assault, Family and Domestic Violence Counselling Line. The changes and the defunding of the service are diabolical. Jane Gold, who is the chair of Rape & Domestic Violence Services Australia and the manager of my local women's health centre in Lindsay, stated that the hotline has been a critical support for women all around the country, particularly in Western Sydney. There is no profit in rape, and I want to make sure—and I put this on the record today—that the Prime Minister understands there is no profit from rape victims. There is no profit in outsourcing this specialist service. All it is doing is spitting in the face of the women who are already highly traumatised. Most victims are women. The organisation does assist men, but most of the people using the service are women.

The Prime Minister gives a rousing speech when it comes to supporting women. He talks about women holding up half the sky. Why then does he preside over cutting 75 per cent of the funding for the counselling of women, children and men who have been raped and bashed? The Prime Minister is putting lives at risk. I call on him and all of those opposite to ensure that victims and survivors of rape and domestic violence have access to specialist well-trained, experienced violence counselling services. This is unnecessary cutting of funding. The Prime Minister needs to do less talking about supporting women and more action on these things.