I have received a letter from the honourable member for Clark proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely:

The urgent need for this Parliament to address the attitudes, behaviours and systems within Australian society that enable and perpetuate violence against women.

I call upon those honourable members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

In Australia, the most likely perpetrator of sexual abuse against an adolescent is an adolescent boy. Let that sink in. That single fact should stop this parliament in its tracks, but, instead, many are still debating whether this problem is even serious enough to warrant action. Heavens—some boys and men, echoed by leaders and commentators in our community, even believe that gender equality has gone too far. Meanwhile, a woman dies every nine days in this country at the hands of a current or former partner. In other words, this problem is not solved and it's not fading away. Rather, it's getting worse in some of the ways that matter most.

For instance, in our schools, teachers are raising the alarm. Indeed, three in four teachers report witnessing or experiencing sexism or misogyny in their own schools. What's more, within 25 minutes of a young man signing up to a social media platform, he's being fed misogynistic content, and this misogyny does not stay confined to the classroom or the screen. It follows boys into adulthood—into workplaces, relationships and locker rooms. It's not some abstract concept. The culture of misogyny is the soil that violence grows in.

In my home state of Tasmania, 672 people have applied for the leaving violence program payment since it began last year. Almost 90 per cent of them were women. This is undoubtedly an important investment to support victims-survivors, but it's also a reminder that prevention and early intervention must remain a priority, which they too often aren't. If they were, we'd see attitudes improve. Instead, some harmful attitudes are becoming more entrenched.

We are failing our young people on both sides of this equation. Women and children overwhelmingly bear the consequences of violence. That is unacceptable. But the men who perpetrate it are also being failed. They're rarely held to account or given the tools to build healthy, respectful relationships. In Tasmania, there are 400 identified serial family-violence offenders, yet the program built for them has an 18 to 24 month waiting list in the south of the state. Meanwhile, the state government cuts resources to a justice system already notorious for retraumatising victims-survivors.

Nationally, it's no better. In New South Wales, six victims-survivors are turned away from homelessness services each day. In Victoria, almost 4,000 people a year seeking family violence support get none at all. In the ACT, the crisis service can only answer half its calls.

I recently met with a group of mothers who shared their experience of surviving domestic violence with me. I was especially disturbed to hear how difficult it is for the young children who have witnessed violence to access the specialist support they so desperately need, with waiting lists running to three years, even though, according to the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, with proper support and safety measures, children and young people can heal and recover from the impacts of family violence. Too many Tasmanian children are being denied that chance. This is deeply disturbing, because research shows that children who witness violence against their mother are 2½ times more likely to become victims of intimate partner domestic violence themselves. Moreover, witnessing domestic violence as a young person is the highest risk factor associated with going on to perpetrate violence in adult relationships.

Under the existing arrangements, 23,000 people across the country who need sexual violence support aren't currently receiving it. What are we going to do about it? There's no shortage of solutions from those on the front lines. What has been lacking is adequate stable funding. For instance, frontline sexual assault services suggest they need $240 million a year, an increase of $80 million. What's more, in this year's federal budget, the government committed a meagre $308 million over five years. That's just $61 million a year to address family, domestic and sexual violence. Compare this to the $2.5 billion the federal and New South Wales governments jointly committed to save an aluminium smelter in Tomago, and that puts the government's priorities into perspective.

We must do more, all of us in every way. We must support programs that promote healthy masculinity and respectful relationships for boys and men before the harm is done, and we must adequately fund support services for women and children when they need it most, because every day of delay is another day someone is turned away, waitlisted or, far too often, killed.

():  I thank the member for Clark for raising this matter of public importance. We need men leading by example, speaking up about family, domestic and sexual violence and joining our government in raising this as a national priority, because, whether it be today or any other day of the year, there could be no issue more important than keeping women and children safe. Let me be clear from the outset: any death, any attack and any violence against women and children is completely unacceptable. Having men like the member for Clark as part of this conversation is important, and I know this is an issue he and many others from across the political divide in this parliament have worked together on, so thank you.

It matters even more, as, last week, the Leader of the Nationals demonised this nation's hardworking teachers for teaching kids about respect and care, blaming them for the so-called feminisation of the curriculum. I have to tell you that is completely wrong. It is not feminisation of the curriculum, to start with. It is teaching boys and girls about respect and care, and it is absolutely trying to deal with prevention and early intervention, as the member raised, as important issues around misogynistic behaviour that we are seeing in young men. The Leader of the Nationals completely ignored the dangerous impact of the manosphere and its horrible players.

Today, thanks to people who get the issue, like the member for Clark and our government, we are focused on what actually matters—confronting the attitudes that contribute towards violence against women and girls. I begin today by acknowledging all victims-survivors of family, domestic and sexual violence. They are and must always remain at the heart of our collective efforts to end gender based violence in Australia. With sadness, we also remember the women and children who are not with us, those whose lives have been taken through acts of violence that continue to have a devastating impact across our country. I also think of the families, friends and communities carrying the profound grief of that loss. The consequences of violence extend far beyond the individual victim, leaving lasting impacts on everyone who loved and cared for them. I also hold in my thoughts the many victims-survivors who continue to live with the effects of trauma. Many have generously shared their lived experience and trusted me with their stories. Their courage helps guide the work of this government and strengthens our resolve to build a safer future.

I think of a woman who is leading a service in Melbourne for children and young people who have experienced violence. She wrote to me recently and disclosed her own lived experience both as a child and, later, as an adult. She is remarkable both for her advocacy and her commitment to building a future free from violence and for using the most horrific trauma to improve and save the lives of others. I hold her story with me today and every day, and I thank her for trusting me with it.

I acknowledge, too, the frontline workers, advocates and organisations who work tirelessly to support victims-survivors, prevent violence and make our communities safer. One of those workers who I've worked closely with over the past year is the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner, Micaela Cronin, who today tabled her yearly report. The minister spoke to that today here in this House. I acknowledge her dedicated leadership and the tireless efforts of the commission's entire team for the work they do. The report today reminds us that while we've made significant strides, there is more work to be done, and it has been one of the honours of my life to work with all those mentioned to help keep women safe.

Ending gender based violence is a national priority for this government and something every single one of us in this House has a role to play in. The Albanese Labor government has invested more than any Australian government ever—more than $4.4 billion—to take action to end family, domestic and sexual violence. This includes funding for 1,400 organisations that have directly helped almost half a million people across Australia experiencing violence.

This government has also made significant investments, including making the leaving violence payment permanent—$5,000 in financial help—as well as safety planning support for women leaving violence; launching Australia's first ever standalone plan to address family, domestic and sexual violence for First Nations women and children, backed by a $218 million investment; boosting funding for the 500 Workers Initiative by more than 70 per cent to support the essential frontline services that support women and children every day; legislating to make sure our social security system can't be weaponised by perpetrators of abuse; providing $1.2 billion for emergency and transitional accommodation to ensure women can reach safety; and legislating 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave so workplaces can support women to stay financially secure and connected.

We've committed to world-leading action to address the impact of online harms, including the social media ban and restricting access to predatory technologies like nudify apps and undetectable stalking tools. The recently announced digital duty of care will protect under-18s from harmful content that promotes harmful ideas about women, gender equality and pornography. I thank the member for Lilley for her world-leading work on this and the member for Grayndler for the courage and leadership he's showing as prime minister to lead a global reckoning with big tech because, while the internet didn't invent misogyny, it's platforming, spreading and exacerbating it. It's providing new ways to perpetrate harm and new audiences to reach, and it is evolving before our eyes.

We're seeing good progress in our collective efforts to address violence against women and children, but too many women and children continue to be killed, and too many people continue to live with violence. We know that one in four women have experienced violence by an intimate partner since the age of 15, and sexual violence remains concerningly prevalent, even though we know how underreported it is. Recent headlines of allegations of sexual violence in our schools, our homes and our sporting clubs and out in the community have horrified us all. Sadly, this is a reality too many women and girls live with every day. Rates of sexual violence are trending in the wrong direction and, most concerningly, the fastest growing rates of sexual violence are being perpetrated by teenage boys. For the first time in history, teenage boys have overtaken adult men as the most likely perpetrators of sexual violence.

So there is so much more work to do for everyone in this place, for women, for men, for boys and for our society and culture as a whole. Where our work and attention should be focused has been recently explored in a series of consultations for the Second Action Plan under the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children. It will drive our collective efforts for the next five years. We've held over 163 roundtables with over 1,100 people, from Broome to Brisbane and Darwin to Devonport.

I know many members of this place have contributed, and I thank the member for Greenway, the member for Sydney and Senator Gallagher for their leadership in driving these consultations. Together, we've heard firsthand stories from organisations, advocates, victims-survivors, frontline workers and community groups. We heard their stories firsthand, and it's these stories and these people and their lived experiences that will drive our actions and policy for the remaining years of the national plan. While we continue to focus on supporting victims-survivors to navigate systems designed to work for them rather than against them and to improve accountability across state and territory justice systems, prevention, early intervention and working with people who use violence will be a focus of that, along with young people, system coordination and workforce issues.

We have to hold on to working with men and boys. I want to be clear that this is not in place of accountability. It is not instead of supporting victims-survivors to heal and recover. It is about supporting men and boys to be the best versions of themselves and stopping violence before it starts. That's why the member for Hunter and I have joined forces to embark on the Healthy Men Community Conversations project. We have been right around the country hearing about the experiences of men and boys and the perceptions, pressures and stereotypes that they are exposed to. I thank the member for Hunter, who's here in the chamber today, for the incredible hard work that he has done standing up with me, talking to men and boys right across the country, because those conversations will absolutely play an important part in how we prevent and find early intervention mechanisms that absolutely work to prevent violence against women and children.

Research shows that when young boys internalise restrictive masculine norms, they are more likely to hold harmful attitudes and engage in abusive behaviours. We need to do better in this space. We need to do better for men. We need to do better for boys, for women, for girls, for victims-survivors and for our future generations. I hope that, from today, those at home can understand that there is a lot of work being done and that our government believes victims-survivors. We know there is more work to do, but we are absolutely committed to doing it.

I thank the member for Clark for calling this House's attention to what truly is a matter of urgent public importance. Violence against women and children, whether sexual in nature or not, is not a removed or remote issue for any adult in this country. So prevalent and pervasive is this scourge that in Australia one in five women reports having experienced sexual violence after the age of 15—one in five of our daughters, our friends and our mothers. Tragically, violence against women and children continues to escalate. One in four men in this country has perpetrated sexual violence against women in adulthood, with even more doing that in adolescence. As of today, 49 women and 19 children have been violently killed this year, according to Australian Femicide Watch. Every nine days in Australia, a woman dies at the hands of her current or former partner.

Last week, National Cabinet acknowledged this crisis and acknowledged that the rates of intimate partner homicide and sexual violence in this country remain unacceptably high. On behalf of the women and children of Australia, I call on governments at all levels to do more. I echo the calls of the members for Warringah and Wentworth to give the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission stronger powers to hold those governments to account. The commission needs the power to compel information and data to track recommendations and to ensure that governments and agencies deliver the services and funding that they promise. This will lead to better data and greater transparency over how that funding is spent.

While I support the investments that the Minister for Social Services oversees across 583 initiatives under the First Action Plan, including those initiatives which have been delivered with state and territory governments, the impacts of those investments are not yet being adequately tracked. If we're serious about addressing this crisis, we have to know what is working and what's not working, and we have to track every dollar spent in that process. Federal, state and territory inquiries have now produced more than a thousand recommendations about this issue since 2010. It's two years now since the government received the final report from the Rapid review of preventionapproaches of those 1,000 recommendations, and too many of them are still sitting on the shelf.

Australians want our government to deliver results, not platitudes. This parliament will soon debate the government's digital duty of care, and we know that, every day, social media algorithms are exposing Australians, particularly our young people, to harmful content and that they reinforce toxic and harmful attitudes, particularly towards women. So I thank the government for its announcement this week that it will introduce an opt-in model for social media algorithms, and I salute and pay respect to the work of people like Chanel Contos and the Teach Us Consent group for their remarkable work in this area. Young Australians are constantly being subjected to violent imagery, acts of sexual violence and information about these in online spaces. Almost 60 per cent of 18- to 35-year-olds report that they have themselves experienced sexual strangulation. There is no safe way to strangle somebody, but these acts are being actively promoted to our children and their friends as normal. They're being pushed as normalised content online to young Australians, and we have no oversight of that and no vision of that at this point in time.

I say it again: strangulation is an act of sexual violence. If we're serious about ending all violence against women and children, we have to confront all of the attitudes and all of the behaviours that precipitate it. None of us in this country or in this place want to see another woman killed, another child harmed or another family shattered by that violence. We have to create safer online environments and we have to hold governments to account for whether the measures that they fund and introduce are actually working.

I thank the member for Clark for bringing this matter of public importance to the House today. There is no more pressing issue facing our country than preventing violence against women and children. We must confront the attitudes that excuse violence, the behaviours that normalise it and the systems that allow it to continue. I want to also acknowledge the victims and survivors of family, sexual and domestic violence and remember the Australian women whose lives have been stolen. As we've already heard, according to Australian Femicide Watch, 49 women have been killed this year, 79 women were killed last year and 106 women were killed the year before. We honour them through how we act as a government and through what we are prepared to change. I am proud to be part of an Albanese Labor government that is acting.

As a former domestic violence and family lawyer, I saw how a perpetrator's control could reach into every single part of a woman's life—her finances, her housing, her children, her ability to seek help. Leaving does not automatically end that control. In fact, leaving is the most dangerous time for a woman and her children. That is why practical reforms matter. Labor introduced 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave. Labor is investing $183 million to make the child support system safer and to help more children receive the support they are owed. Labor delivered Australia's first and only standalone plan to address family, domestic and sexual violence against First Nations women and children, backed in by $216 million. Labor has increased funding for 1800RESPECT by 40 per cent, invested $1.2 billion in emergency and transitional accommodation and funded programs that intervene earlier with men who use violence. We are also investing $82 million to better identify high-risk perpetrators and share critical information across systems and state borders. And, through a record $3.9 billion investment in legal assistance, including an additional $800 million for family violence legal services, we're ensuring justice systems protect victims-survivors rather than becoming another instrument for abuse.

We must also prevent violence before it begins. That means confronting what our children are learning online. As parents, we work hard to teach respect to our kids, but we are doing so in an online environment where misogyny can be packaged as entertainment, control can be presented as masculinity and humiliation can be rewarded with attention. We cannot leave parents and teachers to take on some of the wealthiest tech companies in the world alone. That's why Labor's proposed digital duty of care matters. Released for consultation this week, it would require digital services to address risks of harm, including protecting people under 18 from content promoting hostility towards women and gender equality, pornography, abuse and bullying. It would reach beyond social media to services including online games and AI chatbots. But, when someone needs help today, that help must be there. That's why our frontline workforce is so important.

Last month I was proud to join Assistant Minister Ged Kearney in Bonner at the Red Rose Foundation to announce more than $67 million to strengthen frontline services through the 500 Workers Initiative. The Red Rose Foundation's work supports survivors of non-fatal strangulation, and that expertise is critically important. They're the only organisation of their type in Australia. Across government, we've invested more than $4.4 billion to tackle violence including funding 1,400 organisations that have helped almost half a million people who have experienced violence. I want every child in Australia to inherit a country where women and children are safe and free from violence. There is so much more work to do, but we will keep acting as a government to keep them safe. We will keep listening to victims-survivors and we will keep working together until every woman and every child is safe and free from violence.

Australia witnesses shocking attacks on women, some of whom have been tragically killed, within and outside of their homes. I'd like to acknowledge the survivors, those whose lives have been impacted by family and domestic violence and in particular the children who have witnessed behaviours and actions that they should never have seen that have scarred their childhood. I also want to acknowledge those who are no longer with us who have had their lives taken by violence.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics report that family and domestic violence offender numbers rose eight per cent in the years 2023-24 to 2024-25, and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's figures from 2024-25 show that on average one woman was killed every 11 days and one man was killed every 26 days by an intimate partner. Australian discussion on the cause of violence against women focuses on gender inequality and the power imbalance. Drivers that have been identified include dominant masculinity, emphasising aggression, dominance and control and the condoning of violence against women. The following distinct gendered drivers of violence have been identified: condoning of violence against women, men's control of decision-making, men limiting women's independence in public and private life, rigid gender stereotypes, dominant forms of masculinity and male peer relations and cultures of masculinity that emphasise aggression, dominance and control.

We also know from the statistics that newly arrived migrants in Australia, people from CALD backgrounds and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women experience family violence at far greater rates. I also want to draw attention to the factors recognised as exacerbating violence against women and intimate partner violence including the use of alcohol and illicit drugs and gambling. In 2021-22, almost half of the women who experienced sexual assault in the past decade indicated that alcohol or other substance use had contributed. That data is from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. The Centre for Alcohol Policy Research has found that crisis support services for domestic violence experienced a 30 to 40 per cent surge in demand and distress calls during the NRL State of Origin series. Victoria Police reported 20 per cent increase in family violence incidents during the AFL grand finals. It's surely not a coincidence that these events provide a nexus of increased alcohol use and gambling with huge increases in domestic and family violence.

While the Australian Institute of Family Studies found that gambling does not cause intimate partner violence, it held that, like alcohol, gambling and associated financial losses can intensify the frequency and severity of intimate partner violence against women. Economic abuse is prevalent among women experiencing gambling related intimate partner violence. The National Gambling Prevalence Study 2024 found that one in five people whose partners gambled weekly or more had experienced intimate partner violence from that partner in the last year, and one in 10 people whose partner gambled less than once weekly had experienced violence from them. One in 15 people whose partners had not gambled in the last year experienced some violence. There's definitely a correlation here. Given this association, we must do much better in this place with respect to gambling harm, and recognise that there is that nexus between gambling harm and family and domestic violence, and I would state that both football codes need to do far, far better in advocating against family and domestic violence, and in promoting and respecting women. With the recent allegations with respect to the Sydney Swans, I think that is a very timely message to give to both of the codes.

Family violence is a scourge, and its scars, particularly for the victims and their children, run deep and are generational. We must do better—all of us as a nation.

I have appreciated the contributions of everyone who has spoken today on this really important issue. I agree with the member for Makin that our sporting codes and so many other parts of our community must do better when it comes to family and sexual violence.

I've had an opportunity in this role to meet some of the most extraordinary people who are committed to their jobs and who deeply care about the people that they're trying to help, but the people who get me every time with their commitment and compassion are those who work directly with women and children fleeing domestic violence. They are the most extraordinary people, who have the biggest hearts, and the they care so deeply about the people that they're trying to support. One of those individuals is a woman called Nicole Yade, the CEO of the Women & Girls' Emergency Centre, whom I have had the absolute privilege of meeting on a number of occasions. Each time, I am inspired by her work and her commitment to helping others. She leads one of the country's largest frontline services supporting women and children fleeing abuse and homelessness, and through the centres that she oversees, every night around 200 women and children go to one of their centres to find safety and shelter. Nicole's ability to extend a deep well of compassion and gentleness to the women and children that she sees come through her door is extraordinary. She sits down, patiently helping them work through a whole range of issues that they are going through, and I am incredibly grateful for her time in explaining to me the challenges that these families experience.

What is extraordinary about Nicole is that she doesn't come at this at an arm's length. She's someone who experienced domestic violence when she was just 24 years old. She had a five-month-old daughter at the time and was in a relationship that had been violent for a number of months. She describes how she kept trying to leave, and all the tactics that her partner used to bring her back. She knows the challenges that these women are going through and the fact that it's not just about whether you can build up the courage to leave your violent partner; it's about the fact that you are having to make a choice. How are you going to pay for food for your children? How are you going to pay for rent? Do you have a safe place to go to? These are the difficult trade-offs that we are asking women to make every day.

I am inspired by the work that Nicole is doing now in a way that is deeply grounded in ensuring that these women are empowered and that they know that they can make these choices. There is no judgement. They have a place to call home at WAGEC. Every woman deserves to feel safe. They deserve to feel safe at home, in the workplace and in our community. The statistics are startling. The fact that one in four women have experienced violence by an intimate partner since the age of 15 is a scary and sad statistic—one that we should all be doing something to reduce. This is something that our government is deeply committed to. We have invested now $4.4 billion to help end family and domestic violence.

There is a story that Nicole told me about two young boys who came into her service. When they first got there, they themselves, because of the violence that they had witnessed, had become violent to others. But within three weeks of being at that centre, they had become young children who could play and laugh and treat others with care and compassion. That's the story that I think really drives my motivation to make sure that we continue to do important work in this space.

I thank the member for Clark for the opportunity to speak on the urgent need for this parliament to address the ongoing national crisis we are facing, and that is domestic and sexual violence against women. I want to start by saying that this is definitely not a rant against men and boys. I'm the proud mum of two wonderful young men. In this role, I meet so many men, young and old, doing incredible things for our community. These are the role models our young people need to see.

However, we also need to face up to what is in front of our eyes. Sexual violence against women is at a record high. Recent weeks have once again been devastating for our nation, as we heard the shocking allegations of extreme sexual violence by groups of school aged boys, each time against a girl on her own. And this is just what we hear about; so much is not reported in the media. National data shows that over one in five women have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15. ABS crime data released just last week shows that of the nearly 40,000 victims of sexual assault recorded last year, 54 per cent of victims were under the age of 18. We also know reporting rates to police remains extremely low. During a recent conversation with the Acting Assistant Commissioner for NSW Police, I was absolutely shocked to hear her say that around 80 per cent of their workload was domestic violence related. Quite simply, we are not winning when it comes to reducing violence against women in Australia.

Violence against women grows in the attitudes we tolerate and the culture we foster. It is clear that foreign owned social media platforms are having an outsized harmful influence on the culture and attitudes towards women and girls in Australia. Researchers at Dublin City University created social media accounts mimicking 16- to 18-year-old boys who were interested in ordinary things like sports, gaming and the gym. In this study, every male identified account was fed toxic content within just 23 minutes, even if it had not been sought out. After only two to three hours, 76 per cent of TikTok recommendations and 78 per cent of YouTube shorts recommendations were classified as toxic, with much of it manosphere and misogynistic content. Then there are the alarming findings of the recent University of Melbourne study that nearly 25 per cent of adolescent boys in Australia believe that feminism is damaging to our society and should be resisted with violence if necessary.

Social media algorithms are force-feeding our boys and young men a diet of toxic content to elicit a strong emotional response that keeps them doomscrolling and addicted. Manosphere influencers are turning the vulnerabilities of young men into hatred for women and profit for themselves. Let's be clear about this. This culture of disrespect for women is being cultivated on purpose in order to drive profits for influencers and the big-tech bros.

That's why I've been advocating so strongly, with the crossbench, for Chanel Contos's and Teach Us Consent's Fix Our Feeds policy, and why I backed the government in with their digital duty of care announcement yesterday that will give people choice and control about the types of content they see on their own social media feeds. This step is absolutely critical to interrupting the rise in toxic attitudes being cultivated amongst our young men. Any argument that this somehow restricts people's freedom of expression is utter nonsense and is coming from an opposition that has no solutions. It is in fact the exact opposite. It's about placing choice, control and power back in the hands of the individual. No longer will Australians have to be the cannon fodder for overseas tech bros.

I also want to put on the record that I believe the comments of the Leader of The Nationals blaming our female teachers for the rise in misogyny are disgraceful, ignorant and unhelpful. On the other hand, I do want to do a shout-out to the principal of Joeys school in Sydney, Michael Blake, who said in an address to his students, 'I want women to be safer because of you—not just from you but because of you.' All I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you for your leadership, for not just pointing in the other direction, for not just saying 'not all men', for getting it and for acting decisively. Thank you. None of this is easy, but it takes strong leaders to face up to it. (Time expired)

I would also like to thank the member for Clark for this matter of public importance and all the contributions that we've heard this afternoon. When I received this MPI, the first thing that came to mind was the old saying that domestic violence happens behind closed doors. When I think about domestic violence today, I have two reflections. The first one is that the attitudes that drive domestic violence are increasingly being promoted openly, right in front of us, through our screens. The second one is that, for many women in culturally and linguistically diverse communities, domestic violence does remain behind closed doors. Both problems very much demand urgent action.

Domestic violence now happens right in front of our eyes, on our screens, rather than being confined to homes. Misogyny and the radicalisation of young men are happening online on an unprecedented scale. Algorithms promote extremist content or creators who gain attention by expressing hatred towards women and teaching young men harmful ways to view and treat them. Explicit online content is also normalising dangerous sexual behaviour, including strangulation as an ordinary part of sex. That hatred does not stay online. It can escalate into stalking, coercive control and real-world violence.

This is all too true in the electorate of Barton, as Lilie James and her family lived nearby. Lilie was also a former student of Danebank Anglican girls school. Lilie was murdered by her former partner at her workplace, St Andrew's Cathedral School, after she was also stalked online. Her murder followed a man's sense of entitlement and rejection and the digital stalking that came afterwards. We must always remember Lilie. I also acknowledge her parents, Peta and Jamie, who have become tireless advocates against domestic violence. They've worked with the local school principals and the St George Police Area Command while pressing governments to go further in tackling online misogyny. Our proposed digital duty of care is a very important step. It will require technology companies to take responsibility for the harm caused by their products and algorithms.

This is not about demonising men. Young men have every capacity to become loving fathers, brothers, sons and partners. As a Catholic, I also believe every person is created equal in the image of God and that we are taught to love our neighbour. Harmful online products are exploiting young men's fears and insecurities and are directing them towards hatred of women as the answer. Big tech is promoting hatred for profit. We are taking them on. Women's safety will not come second to a tech billionaire's bottom line.

However, in culturally and linguistically diverse communities like Barton, too many women remain trapped in their homes. Domestic violence is the dominant crime in the St George area. It is the No. 1 callout our local police have to respond to. Barton is very diverse, home to people of many cultures, languages and faiths. But members of diaspora communities can experience profound isolation, particularly when they are still learning English or do not have established support networks.

At my first Barton Bubs event, I was struck by how many new mothers told me they'd never met another local mum and did not know where to go for connection. That isolation can leave women without relationships they need to seek help, solidarity or safety. Women can live in fear without having the language or information to identify what is happening to them. Even when they recognise the abuse, language barriers, financial dependence and social isolation can leave them without a very clear way out.

We must do a better job of reaching culturally and linguistically diverse communities in the languages people understand. Trusted grassroots organisations like CASS and Kogarah Storehouse are doing really vital work reaching women who may not feel able to approach mainstream services. I also want to acknowledge the Family Co. program operating from the St George Police Area Command. It provides discreet, culturally appropriate support to local women and children escaping violence. Domestic violence is hidden behind closed doors and promoted openly on our screens. We must confront both head on.

Every eight days in this country, a woman is killed by a current or former partner. Our communities are not just grieving; they are despairing. I acknowledge every victim-survivor—those we have lost and those living with violence today. This parliament owes them action, not announcements and not reannouncements. It owes them outcomes.

We've spent weeks in this House talking about the crisis. Our communities are absorbing horrific reports of sexual violence among children and by high-profile sportsmen. But here is the uncomfortable truth: Australia has no shortage of reports or good intentions. What we lack is delivery. More than a thousand recommendations sit on the record from inquiry after inquiry and review after review. They are accepted, welcomed, noted. But acceptance isn't implementation. There is no single, transparent mechanism telling Australians which recommendations have been delivered, which have stalled and, most importantly, what is actually working.

So we fly blind. We pour money and goodwill in without the basic discipline of knowing what changes behaviour and what doesn't. When this government does talk about action, it talks about the dollars spent. I respect those dollars spent; I think they're incredibly important. But they cannot tell us about whether these dollars have made the difference that we are all seeking here.

I know that it is very difficult to change culture and change people's personal lives. This is extremely difficult. But that is why the focus on evidence is even more important. The evidence is hard to get, but we must seek it, and we must be very clear on the importance of it because we will not change something as fundamental as how our communities relate to each other until we do.

Fourteen members of the crossbench wrote to the Prime Minister ahead of the National Cabinet asking the commission to have the tools it needs to do the job already tasked of it. This is not a novel idea. It was a recommendation of the 2024 Unlocking the prevention potential report, repeated in the commissioner's 2025 report and again in the report tabled today. That's three reports in two years, with the same ask and no answer. We handed a commissioner a national emergency without the authority to find out what is really happening and without the authority to ensure that we know how money is being spent. In today's report, Commissioner Micaela Cronin says plainly that our ambition as it stands is unmeasurable.

We must give the commissioner genuine statutory authority. Let it compel data. Let it track delivery on a public dashboard. Good intentions do not protect women. Measurement, transparency and accountability might go some way, but we also need to look at our public systems. Our systems are built for incidents not patterns. They can see a bruise. They cannot see a decade of control. Too often, the system is not merely blind to the abuse; it is the instrument to it. Whether it's a child support claim, a tax debt or a court application, perpetrators have learned that these can land as hard as a fist.

I welcome the work that the government has done in this space. I welcome the audit of the Australian government's systems and the budget commitment to reform the child support and tax systems. This is good work, but it should go further. I urge the government to include the family law system in this review and in this audit, because it is part of the weapons.

Finally, if we are serious about prevention, we also need to reckon where misogynistic attitudes are being formed in the first place. Increasingly, that is online. University of Melbourne research found that 19 per cent of 18- to 29-year-olds agreed that violence could be legitimate to resist feminism. A Dublin City University study using accounts built to mimic teenage boys found that every test account was served antifeminist content within 23 minutes. Around one in three adolescent boys now report strong misogynistic beliefs or a distrust of women. This is not a fringe issue. This is a generation being steeped in hatred by machines that profit from their anger.

I welcome the government's commitment to create an opt-out of the algorithm. I urge the government to listen to the experts and to make this an opt-in to the algorithms. I commend Fix Our Feeds and the work that Chanel Contos and others have done to try and make this change, which I've been proud to back from the beginning. Australians of every age deserve the right to switch off the algorithms engineered to addict and outrage them. The last piece isn't 'show me the money'; it's show us the outcomes. Victims-survivors are owed the evidence, and, every eight days, that bill comes due.

Ending gender based violence is a national priority for this Albanese Labor government, and it is a responsibility shared by every single member in this place. As you know, before I entered parliament, I was working as a nurse and midwife in mostly remote and regional communities. I saw firsthand the physical and emotional scars of family violence. I sat with women who felt trapped, paralysed by fear, worried for their children, worried for their pets and were wondering where on earth they were going to sleep that night if they did dare to leave.

I recall one woman—it was decades ago—who came to me with her jaw hanging in her hands, and that was just one of her many injuries. She couldn't talk. She couldn't eat. She could barely breathe. She had no money, nowhere to go and no safe space. I helped her as best I could and sent her into town for surgery, away from her family support. Then, of course, she had to come back to that community, and I often wonder about how she continued her life.

My electorate, as you know, is named after Lieutenant Colonel Vivian Bullwinkel, who was the sole survivor of a horrific 1942 Bangka Island massacre of 21 unarmed nurses who were assaulted and murdered. This violence is not new. What we can take from Vivian's legacy is her courage. Throughout her life, she continued to fight for those women and for them to be remembered. Vivien showed extraordinary courage, and that's the same courage that we expect women to have when they are confronted with domestic violence. But courage alone is not enough. They need to know that they will be safe and that there is dignity in their care and real support if they do go to the other side of their domestic violence situation.

The sobering reality is that one in four Australian women and one in 14 men have experienced violence by an intimate partner since the age of 15—one in four women and one in 14 men. Too many lives continue to be stolen, and too many families live in terror. Our government are not turning away from this. Today Minister Plibersek tabled the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission's yearly report to parliament. It measures our national progress, and we welcome the commissioner's eight recommendations based on early intervention, sexual violence and predator accountability.

We need to put our money where we want the solution. Our record investment of more than $4.4 billion in this area is the largest commitment by any Australian government, and I'm proud to be associated with that. We, of course, have the $5,000 leaving violence payment. We have made that permanent. Labor has made 10 days of paid domestic violence leave available. We have put $1.2 billion into housing, including emergency and transitional accommodation—with 'transitional' meaning up to six months after a woman has left her home.

I'll leave you with this quote, which I recently received as an email. It was about a newly built social home in Bullwinkel that a lady and her two young children had escaped to. She says:

This new home has provided us with safe refuge. It could not have come at a better time as my ex was just charged with stalking, and we've had to move four times in the last two years. Thanks to you and the Australian Government, we are able to build a life of dignity and freedom.

This is why we do what we do. There is so much more to be done, and we're committed to doing that.

I'd like to start by thanking the member for Clark for this very important topic and acknowledging and remembering the many women and children whose lives were cut short and taken far too soon or who were impacted and live with the scars, as well as their families and the many advocates who passionately advocate for change and will simply never let this issue rest until it is dealt with appropriately.

Today the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission tabled its 2026 yearly report to parliament, and, seriously, the statistics in that report should shame all of us in this place. The evidence is devastating. Almost 40,000 victims of sexual assault were recorded by police just in 2025. Eighty per cent were female, and more than half were children. Hospitalisations of First Nations women and children following family violence have increased. Breaches of domestic violence orders have increased. Persistent homelessness amongst women and children affected by violence has increased. It is a national crisis. Too often women and children are having to choose between homelessness and violence.

It's a national crisis, yet the Albanese government is not responding with the urgency, funding or accountability it demands. With respect, I acknowledge that the minister and the assistant minister are working hard on this, and I've heard many members talk about the record amount of investment this government has made compared to previous ones. But just because the previous funding was too low doesn't mean continuing low funding is enough to meet the crisis. The government points to more than $4.4 billion that has been allocated in family, domestic and sexual violence since it came to office. That's over four years. Yes, it is more than governments before you, but is it enough to address this crisis? Funding announcements are not outcomes, and it is important to put those numbers in context, because it highlights priorities.

KPMG has estimated that violence against women and children costs Australia some $22 billion in a single year. Meanwhile, frontline organisations are still being forced to operate on short-term funding agreements, sometimes receiving decisions about renewals at the last minute. That means uncertainty for workers, it means experienced staff are leaving services, and it means less certainty for women and children who depend on them. Refuges are still turning women away, and, incredibly, governments cannot provide a single consolidated and transparent picture of how much is actually being invested across Australia and get some accountability.

I want to raise priorities because the government's priorities matter when we think about this crisis. Today the government announced $2.4 billion for one air missile defence capability. Defence funding for this year is $63.4 billion, and it is projected to reach $112.1 billion a year by 2035-36. In contrast, domestic violence receives roughly $1 billion annually for frontline services and preventive measures—$63.4 billion to $1 billion, and half the population is at risk. I would argue defence is important, but surely national security also means women and children being safe in their homes in Australia. Proportionality of investment matters.

It is not good enough to say you are investing more than previous governments, if what you're investing is still so far from what is actually needed. If the government can mobilise billions—and it seems to do so without much pause every time something is needed in the defence budget, once it determines something is of a national priority—why can't it properly fund the services that are keeping women and children alive? I ask the government to think of its priorities. Surely our national security includes the safety of women and children.

Then we have the report that we received today, where we still have a lack of measures to identify whether the national plan is working. We don't even collect the data yet. We urgently need so many recommendations to be implemented. Whilst I know there is goodwill in this place, there has to be more urgency. How can it be that so many of the recommendations of the report of the rapid review that this government got in 2024 have not yet been implemented? So please let's get on to some action and have fewer words in this place.

The time for this debate has concluded.