Dave Sharma (Wentworth, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Almost one in six women will experience domestic violence at some point during their life, and, unfortunately, through this pandemic, we've seen anecdotal evidence at least that this has been on the rise. I've spoken to a number of domestic violence support organisations in my own electorate in recent weeks, and I arranged a Zoom meeting with the Minister for Women's Safety, Anne Ruston, a number of weeks ago, to hear directly from some of these domestic violence organisations. The Lokahi Foundation was one of them; Bondi Cottage, another; the Wayside Chapel, which also supports women fleeing domestic violence; and the Run for Good Project, which is run by a good friend of mine, which has helped women fleeing situations of domestic violence.

What you hear from these organisations—and certainly through the pandemic—is that often women have a hard time fleeing these relationships because they don't have the means to support themselves when they do. Frequently, they're taking their children with them; frequently, they've lost access to the bank accounts that they might share with their partner; frequently, they obviously don't want to have any more contact with their partner or be found by that partner, which means they need to find ways to support themselves. A number of the organisations in my electorate help women with this. They help find them temporary housing; they help find them work; they help clothe their children; they provide them with clothing, food and other essential items.

What we saw with the trial of the early access to super scheme last year, and, anecdotally, at least, what I saw in my electorate, was that women were accessing that scheme in order to access liquid assets—cash—to support them and their children in the first few weeks and months after they'd fled a domestic violence relationship. So that's why I'm very pleased that this week the measure that was announced in the recent budget has come into effect. This is the $5,000 one-off payment for fleeing domestic violence. That will provide women fleeing violent or abusive relationships $1½ thousand in cash and $3½ thousand in in-kind payments to pay things like school fees, rental fees, utilities and what not. Whilst this won't be a cure-all, it will hopefully provide, for some women who are trapped in abusive and violent relationships, the means and some support for their decision to leave those relationships, which is obviously not only good for them but also good for their children. It will hopefully provide a means for organisations such as those in my electorate to support these women as well.

Surprisingly, in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, in my own seat of Wentworth, which does have a high socioeconomic index and what not, I frequently hear from police that, in fact, domestic violence is disproportionately prevalent in those suburbs and there's a high incidence—often, masked by seemingly comfortable, happy and secure lives. There is a lot of violent and abusive behaviour that goes on behind closed doors. So I'm very pleased that we've got this policy in effect from this week, to help women find a safer and more secure future.