Carol Berry (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about the national crisis of domestic violence and outline the action the Albanese government is taking to uphold the right of Australian women and girls to live in safety.

My electorate of Whitlam includes the southern Illawarra region, and I was very concerned to learn last week in the latest report released by the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research that the Illawarra recorded the highest increase in domestic violence assaults in New South Wales. While recorded incidents of domestic violence remained relatively stable across New South Wales generally, in the two years to December 2025 there was a very concerning jump of 12.1 per cent in the Illawarra. Almost 1,200 domestic violence assaults were reported to the region's police in the 2025 calendar year. This is about three domestic violence assaults each day.

In one of my earlier roles that I held before I became the member for Whitlam, I was the CEO of the Illawarra Women's Health Centre. The centre provides a range of services to support women who are currently experiencing or have previously experienced domestic and sexual violence. An important initiative of the Illawarra Women's Health Centre in recent years is the Illawarra Women's Trauma Recovery Centre, which is located in Shellharbour in my electorate of Whitlam. This trauma recovery centre was made possible by a $25 million investment by the Albanese Labor government, and was opened 18 months ago by my predecessor as the member for Whitlam, Stephen Jones. He was joined by the New South Wales Minister for Health, Ryan Park, and the state member for Shellharbour, Anna Watson. The centre is the first of its kind in Australia, providing specialised support to victims-survivors of family, domestic or sexual violence.

One in four Australian women have experienced violence by an intimate partner. These women are our mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, nieces and friends, and we must recognise that violence against women and girls impacts, in some way, everyone in our community. The Albanese Labor government is committed to building a safer Australia where every woman and child can live free from gender based violence.

Since being elected in 2022, we have invested more than $4 billion, more than any other previous government, in frontline services, preventative programs, behaviour change programs and support services for children. We have made the leaving violence payment permanent. That's $5,000 in financial help for women leaving violence. We have provided $1.2 billion for emergency and transitional accommodation for women fleeing domestic violence. We have legislated 10 days of paid domestic violence leave. We have expanded discretionary powers for Centrelink, so perpetrators can't use the social security system to burden domestic violence survivors with tens of thousands of dollars in debt. We have reformed the family law system so that it is safer, simpler and more accessible, and we've established the new national higher education code to prevent and respond to gender based violence.

Eighteen months ago the Prime Minister convened an urgent National Cabinet meeting on gender based violence. As a result, we agreed to strengthen our collective efforts under the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children. At the end of last year, Ministers Plibersek and Gallagher, who have done an absolutely outstanding job in this space, released an update on our progress. They reported that the Albanese government has boosted support for essential frontline services, with $700 million in new matched funding with the states and territories to support women and children at risk to reach safety. Informed by the Australian Law Reform Commission inquiry into justice responses to sexual violence, we are investing more than $21 million to expand trauma informed legal services and pilot new roles to help victims of sexual violence navigate the justice system. We have invested close to $4 billion in the new National Access to Justice Partnership, including $800 million for family violence legal services—the largest amount invested in Australia's history.

The Albanese Labor government has made ending violence against women and children a national priority, and I'm proud of what we have delivered. But we are fully aware there is still much more work to do, and we will continue to take action to build a safer Australia for women and girls.