Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sadly, in October five women were murdered at the hands of their partners in the space of 10 days, and I know that the thoughts and prayers of everyone in this place go out to the families and friends of those five women. But the fact is, on average, one woman is murdered every single week at the hands of somebody who says he loves her. That is a national tragedy. This is despite the fact we are spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year in the budget on the response to, and recovery of, domestic violence victims. I'm not saying that we shouldn't be, and I'm certainly not being critical of any government, because this issue should be bipartisan and be above politics, but the reality is that 17 per cent of those hundreds of millions of dollars goes towards prevention of domestic violence. Think about that. We are funding the reaction rather than funding the response, and, until we fund the prevention, nothing is going to change and we'll continue to see these statistics of one or more women a week being killed. As the assistant shadow minister for the prevention of family violence, I have travelled the country, I've been to all the states and territories, I've met with the agencies and I'm being told the same thing: we are not funding enough for preventative measures, such as men's behavioural change programs.

Only recently, Logan and Rockhampton were using funding from another stream to fund a small behavioural change program for men. They don't have enough staff or qualified professionals, and there are men who have self-referred or who have been referred from agencies or courts who cannot get on these programs to change their behaviour, to change the way that they think. And we need to change that because if we don't change that we will perpetually be the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. So I'm urging the government: let's work together, let's change the funding model, let's change the way Australia is and let's protect vulnerable women and children.