I'd like to start by acknowledging all victims-survivors of family, domestic and sexual violence. They are and always must be at the centre of all our efforts to end the scourge of gender based violence. I want to remember the women and children who aren't here with us today, who have lost their lives because of violence that remains all pervasive in this country.

The ripple effects of violence are significant, and I think of all the families and communities who are without their loved ones as I speak today. I hold the victims-survivors who are living with trauma with me today and every day, many of whom have shared their lived experiences and trusted me to use it to help guide the work of our government and who are demanding a better future. I also want to acknowledge the frontline workers, the advocates, the organisations and the day in, day out work to make our country safer.

I welcome the tabling of the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission's yearly report and acknowledge the tireless work of Commissioner Micaela Cronin and her whole team. It reminds us that, while we've made significant strides, there is so much more that needs to be done and there is no acceptable level of gender based violence. This could be could not be more apparent than for sexual violence. Recent allegations of sexual violence have been harrowing. For women and girls, they are not new. They have simply made the headlines. Rates in sexual violence are trending in the wrong direction. Most concerningly, the fastest growing rates 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. It's the people on the ground, our highly skilled and capable frontline workers, our teachers, who encounter the scale of this harm every day.

The sexual violence sector is full of some of the most remarkable people I've met in my life. I think of Karen Bevan, CEO of Full Stop in New South Wales, which was established in the early 1970s by a group of feminist trailblazers who banded together to support women and girls who were being harmed at the hands of violent men, all at a time when violence was a 'private issue' behind closed doors, something to be worked out as a family. I think of Nicci Lambert, Chair of NASASV and CEO of Allambee in WA and all the work she's leading in communities to address harmful sexual behaviours amongst children and working in multidisciplinary ways across health, housing, education, employment and financial services, because that is what victims-survivors need. I think of Karen Iles leading her own legal practice in New South Wales for victims-survivors of sexual violence. Karen has turned the most horrific gang rape she experienced as a child across multiple jurisdictions into a lifelong ambition to help other women and girls, many of whom are First Nations women. I think about a junior doctor I recently met with who was drugged and sexually assaulted by a senior doctor sharing her story now to highlight workplace safety, reporting pathways, power imbalances and the barriers that victims-survivors face when seeking justice. And I think about a mother who recently wrote to me about her daughter being drink-spiked at a pub, beaten and sexually assaulted. This woman told me she doesn't feel hopeless. She is hopeful that, by sharing her daughter's story, she can help to prevent sexual harm against others. What courage that takes.

I intend to honour the courage of victims-survivors and will always centre the lived experience of victims-survivors in everything that I do in this place. That is why we need to confront the scale of sexual violence harm from every angle. With the rise of social media algorithms perpetrating harmful gender stereotypes and views about women, focusing on evolving online harms is a critical part of a multipronged approach. While the internet didn't invent misogyny, it is most certainly cultivating it. Thanks to the leadership of the member for Sydney, Minister Plibersek; Senator Gallagher; the member for Greenway, Minister Rowland; and the member for Lilley, Minister Wells, we have put the global tech companies on notice through our digital duty of care legislation. This is on top of our already concrete steps through our investment of $4.4 billion to end gender based violence. We've reformed the family courts, child support, tax and superannuation systems and social security so that government systems can't be weaponised against victims-survivors. We've made the leaving violence payment permanent—$5,000 upfront to assist women and children to leave a violent situation. We've invested more than ever before in crisis and transitional housing—$1.2 billion so that women and girls have somewhere to go when they need to leave. We've boosted funding for frontline workers through our 500 workers program. We've launched the first ever dedicated plan to end violence against First Nations women and children—$218.3 million for 'Our Ways—Strong Ways—Our Voices', recognising the high and disproportionate rates of violence against First Nations women. I don't share this investment with you because I'm saying it's enough. It never will be when a single woman or child experiences family, domestic and sexual violence. More work lies ahead.

While we continue to focus on supporting victim-survivors to navigate systems designed to work for them, especially through our consultation on the Second Action Plan for the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children, there is another truth that we need to hold at the same time: we need to work with men and boys. I want to be clear: this is not in place of accountability. It is not 'instead of' supporting victim-survivors to heal and recover. It's about supporting men and boys to be the best versions of themselves. That's why the member for Hunter and I joined forces to embark on the Healthy Men Community Conversations project.

We've been around the country, hearing about the experiences of men and boys and the perceptions, pressures and stereotypes they are exposed to—restrictive masculine norms that research shows, when young boys internalise, makes them more likely to hold harmful attitudes and engage in abusive behaviours. Only last week we sat down with a group of young men who talked about the increasing pressures they experience to be a man. What struck me most was that 100 per cent of the young boys in the room identified that they were lonely. When we don't normalise help-seeking in young men, when we don't have frank conversations about wellbeing, we leave a vacuum for other negative influences to grow.

But I want to bring a message of hope to this place. Research has shown that parents are still the most influential people in boys' lives. When men and boys have a close and loving relationship with a father or father figure that they look up to, they are 57 per cent less likely to use violence in later life. Similarly, the Adolescent Man Box found that adolescent boys saw their parents as the strongest influence on their ideas about masculinity, with 59 per cent of boys saying their father or a male role model had a big influence on how they think boys should behave, 48 per cent saying the same for their mother and only 22 per cent identifying social media and online influencers as having the biggest influence.

So here is our message of hope: despite all the noise coming from online spaces, parents are the most important and influential people in a child's life. When these views are developed during childhood; when healthy relationships are modelled and in the home, visible to our young ones; when fathers are engaged, supportive and loving, it is the bedrock of societal change. And I'm keen—so keen—as is my friend the member for Hunter, to work with dads and men in our boys' lives to help with this critical role. It's the ripple that turns into a wave.

A man recently came up to me at one of our Healthy Men's forums and he said—a bit tongue in cheek, but I understood what he was saying—that men need their radical uprising against the patriarchy just like the feminists had in the sixties and seventies. As a staunch feminist myself, I thought about it for a minute, but then I loved it. Empathy is probably the most crucial thing that needs to be shown. It got me thinking about the brilliant Gloria Steinem quote that 'Empathy is the most radical of human emotions;' it can be the most radical expression of our joint commitment to ending gender based violence in this country. It is how we honour and stand in solidarity with victim-survivors, those whose lives have been lost and those whose lives have been forever changed by the ripple effects of violence.

We as a government have invested more than any other government in this critical issue. We have been in government for four years, and that ripple cannot stop. We are committed to continuing the remarkable efforts that our government is making to stop what is an absolute scourge on this country.

I rise to speak to the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner's 2026 report to parliament. This report details the shocking realities of domestic, family and sexual violence that is ongoing in Australia. At least 35 women have been killed by violence so far this year, according to Counting Dead Women. Recently in Queensland, four women were killed in domestic violence related incidents in a 45-day period. At least 39,758 women were sexually assaulted in Australia last year. Women living with disability are still three times more likely to experience domestic, family and sexual violence. First Nations women are still 27 times more likely to be hospitalised as a result of assault. We owe it to all those women and children to act urgently. We owe it to all the victim-survivors and experts who contributed to numerous inquiries, reliving their trauma in the hope that their experience would shape reforms and would actually get action. Responsibility means properly funding the long, slow, hard work of changing attitudes and behaviour and the workforce needed to do that work.

Housing and economic security are women's safety issues. If women and children can't afford to leave and have nowhere to go, they cannot escape violence. Every year, nearly 12,000 women and children are turned away from short-term accommodation. For those who can get into crisis accommodation, 60 per cent have not been able to find stable housing by the time they leave. That often means returning to a violent perpetrator. It would cost around $4.6 billion to build public housing for the 12,000 women and children currently missing out. Giving them a place to go means giving them an opportunity to escape violence and to rebuild their lives. If Labor are serious in their commitment to end violence, they really need to get serious about funding housing.

We also know that too many women and children are left in poverty because of financial abuse from current or former partners. I welcome reforms to prevent the weaponisation of the child support system and moves today to allow limited debts to be excused. This is a good first step. It's just a first step though; much more is needed—waivers for all debts accrued through financial abuse, penalties for financial advisers complicit in that abuse and funding for specialist financial abuse support services. To meet these challenges, investment in prevention and early intervention programs is absolutely essential.

But prevention funding must not come at the expense of funding crisis responses. Every week, 225 women and children are turned away from crisis accommodation. Women's legal services are turning away 52,000 people a year, because they just can't keep up with demand. Funding for 1800RESPECT, while welcome, just creates more referrals to specialist sexual violence services, which are already too full. Women are being forced to wait months for expert sexual violence support, at a time when women need support the most.

Every barrier and delay is traumatic and makes women less safe. We don't even know the exact scale of the unmet need, because the work to gather that data is just still not done. But we know the crisis response sector is absolutely at breaking point, and the government must step up. Of course, we should be working towards a future free from violence, but, in the meantime, we just cannot let women and children experiencing violence right now fall through these wide cracks. It takes long-term, secure funding, and unless the government provides secure funding and holds state governments to account, things are just not going to get better.

I would first like to acknowledge the leadership of our Prime Minister, Minister Plibersek and Assistant Minister Kearney for the work that they're doing in the prevention of family, domestic and sexual violence. I thought the speeches that were given to the House of Representatives yesterday by Minister Plibersek and today by the assistant minister were brilliant in both outlining the problem and also demonstrating our commitment to addressing violence in our country and to doing that in a bipartisan, cross-party way.

It is a significant challenge, a societal challenge, that confronts all of us, and I'd like to recognise and pay my respect to the stories of victim-survivors, thank them for their bravery and acknowledge that, for the many women and, in some cases, children whom I've met who've shared their stories, it can be incredibly retraumatising and incredibly hard, but it's really powerful and it does make a difference and it is affecting change. So thank you.

I would also like to acknowledge the tabling of the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner's annual report and to thank Commissioner Cronin for her leadership as Australia's inaugural domestic, family and sexual violence commissioner. The commissioner's annual report is an important accountability mechanism under the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children. It reminds us of the scale of the challenge before us and of the shared responsibility across governments, services and communities to prevent violence, support victims-survivors and improve safety. Domestic, family and sexual violence is not confined to one portfolio, one system or one part of our society. It has deep and lasting impacts on physical health, mental health, wellbeing, social participation and economic security.

For many victims-survivors, the health system is the first place where they seek help. For some, it may be the only place where their experience of violence is seen, heard or safely disclosed. The health system cannot end violence on its own, but it does have a vital role to play alongside justice, housing, social services and specialist family, domestic and sexual violence services. We need health services that can identify violence early, respond in a trauma informed way, assess risk, support long-term recovery and connect people to the right services at the right time.

Our government is investing in health initiatives to support health workforces to identify and respond safely to violence, including the Supporting the Primary Care Sector Response to Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence Primary Health Network pilot. The pilot is giving primary care workers the training, knowledge and practical tools they need to identify and respond to family, domestic and sexual violence and to connect people with the appropriate support. It also supports primary care workers through system integrators, who provide information and guidance to clinicians and help victims-survivors with case coordination and referrals to local specialist services. This matters because, when violence is identified in a health setting or when a disclosure is made, the response needs to be safe, timely and informed. It needs to support the person in front of the clinician while also recognising the broader risks that may exist for children, families and households.

The pilot is being delivered through 12 primary health networks across Australia, and early results indicate it is strengthening capability in primary care. Between July 2022 and April 2025, more than 721 training sessions were conducted, reaching 3,750 participants. Uptake was highest amongst GPs and practice nurses. The training increased awareness, knowledge and confidence amongst primary care staff to recognise and respond to gendered violence. System integrators or family, domestic and sexual violence linkers recorded almost 8,500 meaningful interactions with primary care practices. These interactions help staff recognise and respond to violence and help to bridge the gap between primary care and specialist family, domestic and sexual violence services. More than 1,500 direct referrals of clients were made from primary care providers, with almost all relating to family and domestic violence. These are practical steps that can make a real difference, helping health professionals ask the right questions, respond safely and connect people to support. The government has invested $71.4 million in the pilot program to June 2028. This investment reflects our commitment to building a health system that is better equipped to identify violence, support victims-survivors and work in partnership with specialist services.

The commission's annual report reinforces the importance of sustained, coordinated national action. It also reminds us that progress depends on the systems people encounter every day being ready to recognise, respond and support recovery. The supporting primary care pilot shows what is possible when health professionals are supported with the right training, tools and local connections. It is one part of a much broader national effort, but it is an important one. We know there is more to do, but we also know that every safe conversation, every informed response and every effective referral can help change the path for someone experiencing violence. The government will continue working with states and territories, the commission, the health sector and specialist services to strengthen prevention, improve responses and support the safety, dignity and recovery of victims-survivors across Australia.

I rise in support of the ministerial statement delivered by Minister Tanya Plibersek on the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission's yearly report to parliament. I want to begin by acknowledging the victims-survivors—

The Federation Chamber is suspended until the chair is resumed, as soon as this quorum in the House of Representatives is dealt with.

Sitting suspended from 11:46 to 11:49

I begin by acknowledging the victims-survivors of family, domestic and sexual violence. I acknowledge those who have spoken publicly about their experiences, those who have shared them quietly with family and friends and those who may be living with violence today. I also remember the women and children whose lives have been taken by violence too often at the hands of someone who claimed to love them. Behind every statistic we discuss in this place is a person—a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a colleague or a neighbour—whose life mattered and who deserved to be safe.

Ending family, domestic and sexual violence is a national priority of the Albanese Labor government, and every single one of us has a role to play. One in four Australian women has experienced violence by an intimate partner since the age of 15, along with one in 14 men. I honestly believe those figures are conservative, as many people don't report out of fear of judgement or fear that they won't be believed, but those numbers, as they stand, should stop us in our tracks. This is not something happening somewhere else to somebody else; it is happening in every part of our country and in communities like mine in Petrie.

I recently attended the vigil to honour the life of Djuarn Baker-Adams—or DJ, to her family and friends. DJ was a beloved member of our community and a mentor and role model to the young people that came after her at the Redcliffe Area Youth Space. Djuarn's life was stolen through a heinous act of violence. I thank the hundreds of community members who showed up in solidarity at the Redcliffe Jetty. To her family and friends: your words that evening did not fall on deaf ears.

The Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission's yearly report gave us an assessment of how we are tracking as a nation and provided advice to make sure that the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children delivers on its commitments. This year, the commission made eight recommendations spanning our response to sexual violence, early intervention, safety and recovery, and stronger accountability. At the heart of the report is Commissioner Cronin's vision of an Australia where family, domestic and sexual violence is rare, brief and non-recurring. Violence should be rare because we prevent it before it happens. It should be brief because, when someone is in danger, we recognise the warning signs and act quickly. And it should be non-recurring because victims-survivors receive the support they need, while those who use violence are held accountable.

The Albanese Labor government has invested more than $4.4 billion to take action to end family, domestic and sexual violence. That funding is supporting around 1,400 organisations and has directly helped almost half a million Australians experiencing violence. But we are nowhere near finished. Too many women and children continue to be killed and too many people continue to live with violence and fear every day. One of the most important things our government has done is make the leaving violence payment permanent, providing up to $5,000 in financial assistance as well as safety-planning support for women leaving violence. Leaving violence is not always as simple as packing a bag and walking out. Financial abuse can mean someone who has no control over the family bank account, no savings, nowhere else to stay or children they need to support. Nobody should have to choose between financial security and physical safety.

We are also investing $1.2 billion in emergency and transitional accommodation to help women reach safety. Funding for the 500 Workers program has been boosted by more than 70 per cent, and funding for 1800RESPECT has increased by 40 per cent to help keep pace with demand. Let me just say that again: to keep pace with demand. This is an issue we need to wholeheartedly address, and that is what we are doing. These frontline workers are there at some of the most frightening points in someone's life, answering calls, finding safe accommodation and helping victims-survivors rebuild their lives.

We have also invested a record $3.9 billion in legal services, including an additional $800 million for family violence legal services. We have reformed the family law system and invested $183 million to make the child support system safer and to help children receive the support they are owed.

Systems that are supposed to help Australians should never be capable of being weaponised by an abuser. That is why our government has legislated to ensure that the social security system cannot be weaponised by perpetrators of abuse. We have legislated 10 days of paid domestic violence leave and made it illegal to fire someone because of their experience of domestic and family violence. Escaping violence can involve police, lawyers, courts, doctors, support services and housing providers. Paid leave gives people financial security when they need it most.

Another major focus of the commission's report is earlier intervention. The Albanese Labor government has conducted major consultation to shape the second action plan under the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032. We cannot build a system that reacts only after violence has escalated. We need to get better at recognising risk and intervening earlier. I think it's important to get into the prevention space, because we can only keep putting so many bulletproof vests on women, when we could be removing the rounds from the guns that are being fired. We need to ensure that the warning signs are recognised by GPs, nurses, police officers, teachers and social workers while strengthening the information sharing between those services.

It also means working with people who use violence before their behaviour becomes entrenched while ensuring dangerous and repeat perpetrators are held to account. Our government has invested $82 million in new approaches to identify high-risk perpetrators and share information across systems and state boundaries.

More than 186 round tables have been held with more than 1,100 people, along with almost 1,300 survey responses and 535 submissions from organisations. Australians sent a clear message: they want far fewer people to be experiencing violence and they want better responses when harm occurs. That is why priorities for the second action plan include helping victim-survivors to leave violence safely and to recover, intervening earlier, supporting children and young people, responding to sexual violence and online harms, and holding perpetrators to account.

Children and young people must be central to this work. Children are not simply witnesses to family violence; they experience it. The fear, the instability and the trauma can follow them for years. I lived through domestic violence as a child, and I still live with it. Our government has invested $81 million to support children who have experienced violence, including through child-specific counselling.

We also have a responsibility to teach young people what healthy, respectful relationships look like. The online world has made that challenge far more difficult. Technology has created new ways to control, monitor, threaten and abuse others. Young people can also be exposed to violent pornography, misogynistic material and deeply unhealthy ideas about women, consent and relationships. We're seeing an increase in the damage being caused by choking and strangulation during sex. Let me be clear: there is no safe level of strangulation—there is no safe level. It is a precursor to further violence being committed. There is no safe level of strangulation during sex.

Our government has taken world-leading action on online harms, including the social media ban, restrictions on predatory technologies such as nudify applications and undetectable stalking tools, and a digital duty of care to protect under-18s from harmful content. But laws and regulations are only part of the prevention. The conversations around the kitchen tables, classrooms, sporting fields and parliaments and between friends matter too. We need to teach boys and young men that strength is not about controlling someone else. Real strength is supporting the people around you. Young people need to understand that respect is foundational to every healthy relationship and that another person's boundaries must be respected.

I rise to speak on the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission yearly report tabled in the parliament by Minister Plibersek. A lot of work is being done. There are numbers we can bandy about. There's the $1.2 billion in emergency transitional accommodation to ensure women can reach safety. There's the additional $3.9 billion in legal services, the $280 million for First Nations women and boosting over 500 frontline workers across Australia. But one of the things that I keep coming back to is that we need more men in this space. I know you, Deputy Speaker Wilkie, put forward an MPI on this yesterday that was very well received. The member for Groom and I have had extensive conversations about what we as men can do to help tackle this scourge, and my friend the member for Menzies will speak on this later today.

What is the price that the community is paying because good men can't stand up, because good men don't have the techniques or the tools to help another man stay away from this path? There has never been in the history of the world a three-year old who wants to grow up to be a domestic violence perpetrator. It just doesn't happen. Children do not grow up wanting to be victims. It is not a choice they make. It is a series of things that is thrust upon them. In how we deliver that support and action, we must always be there for women experiencing domestic and family violence. We must always have the supports, because it does happen. We know it happens. As was outlined, what we would like to see is for it to be rare, brief and nonrecurring. Should we achieve those aims we will still need those supports. We will still need transition housing. We will still need places for women to go.

But, as the member for Petrie rightly pointed out, we should stop trying to shield women and start dealing with the root cause. Unfortunately, the root cause so many times is men. While domestic and family violence is not exclusively perpetrated upon females, statistically it far outweighs what happens with men. I think it happens to one in four women and one in 14 men. So men have responsibility in this space. It starts by showing up, and it starts by being heard—'reclaim the night' rallies, domestic violence forums, speaking to other men and being available. The world is promoting role models at the moment that should not exist and that have never existed before. They're taking a bastardised version of what masculinity would look like if left in the hands of a 12-year-old and promoting it out to the world. That is not what good men look like. Good men are strong. They are gentle. They want to see the best for themselves, their families, their communities and the people around them. Weak men take. Weak men use violence.

For too long, strong men have not been able to have these conversations. This is where I talk about the tools. What does this look like? Is it our sporting clubs? Is it our schools? Is it the provision of male role models who are showing what masculinity looks like? Masculinity has so many different versions these days. You can be the tattooed, tough tradie, the athlete, the teacher, the academic, the scientist or whatever it is. But it all comes down to that kindness, that gentleness. Kindness is a strength. That's something that I really believe. Who are you on your worst day? Can you still be kind? Can you still be affectionate? Can you still want the best for those around you?

I spoke to a young man who was visiting my electorate to visit family, and he was excited to be a father for the first time. The male role models in his life had been almost nonexistent, and he was excited to have a daughter. We were having a conversation. I have daughters. I'm very proud of them. He didn't know how to be a dad. He had no idea. He was like: 'Can I change a nappy? Can I hug her? How do I interact with my baby? How do I interact with my little girl?' And that's absolutely heartbreaking, because all of the interactions he'd had had been so bad, and he was desperately searching, seeking to find a way to break that cycle so that his daughter would grow up better than he had, so he could be the male role model that he'd missed out on. But he wasn't sure how to do it. It was one of the most heartbreaking conversations I've ever had.

We got him in touch with some people and some men's groups, and we walked him through a couple of things and showed him how to put a nappy on. But he wanted to be better, and he wanted to be better because of what had happened to him. That is the strength that I'm talking about. That is a good man. That is such a good man. That is a man who should be a role model. But he'll go back to community, and he'll do his best, and sometimes that's enough. One of the things I found most courageous about him was he had the courage to ask the question: 'How do I be a dad? How do I be that good man that people talk about? How do I break this cycle so that I'm not perpetuating it on my daughter and that, when it's time for her to choose a husband or wife or a partner, she doesn't find herself exposed to the same horrors that I was exposed to?'

That's the role for people like you, Deputy Speaker Wilkie, people like me and people like the member for Groom. It's to be that man and to be that role model. More often than not, it takes just one man to stand up in the comments section of Facebook, just one man at a footy club to go, 'Come on, guys. That's not really what we joke about here,' just one man to stand up to that intergenerational cycle. If we could all be that one man, then Australia would be in a much better space, and then maybe we wouldn't have to have these conversations in this House. Maybe we would just talk about it in the past tense. Maybe we would know that the children and the women of Australia would go to sleep at night feeling safe from the men that they love. I want to be worthy of the love of my fiancee and of my daughters, and I want the men of Australia to be worthy of the women in their lives as well. Together, if we take action, we can put this behind us, but it's only going to be a concerted effort, and it can only come with the assistance of men.

I want to thank the member for Boothby for allowing me to just jump in very quickly. I want to acknowledge the work and the leadership of the member for Leichhardt on this issue and the bipartisan way he has reached out. He is very generous in his comments, but he is a leader in this place on this issue, as there are many others, and I've been very proud to see a bipartisan approach. There's a long history of that since I've been here. Working together is an important thing that we can do to show young men and young boys a way forward.

I'm going to quickly acknowledge that, like far too many of us, I've stood at a vigil—most recently, for Jana Armstrong in my electorate—and asked the same question we all ask: why the hell are we here? It's one of the most confronting things we can possibly do. It draws you to ask the question of yourself as a man and as a leader: what steps can I take to prevent this from happening again? I do want to quickly acknowledge in my electorate a gentleman by the name of Adair Donaldson, a dear friend of mine who has been a strong advocate of having these conversations with young men, much like the member for Leichhardt, pointing out and showing what being a man actually is and being willing to step up and have those difficult conversations in difficult times.

I'd also like to start by thanking the member for Leichhardt and the member for Groom for their really thoughtful and caring contributions. It is really important that, when we think about family, domestic and sexual violence, we don't think of it as a women's issue specifically. It is also a men's issue. It's a whole-of-community issue. And, as the member for Groom has said, it is a bipartisan issue. I don't think there is anyone in this place who does not deeply care about what we hear in our communities and what we hear in our media on an ongoing basis, and I think there is a constant sense of frustration that there isn't more we can do directly to stopping it—and stopping it straight away. So I thank both of those gentlemen for their really thoughtful contributions.

One-hundred and thirty-three—according to ABS data, that's how many Australians were murdered in 2025 that police recorded as being family and domestic violence related. That's 133 lives cut short, dreams ended and futures curtailed. It's 31 per cent of all murders. If there was any other identifiable cause that you could say contributed to that many deaths in our community and that percentage of murders, surely we would be acting. So far in 2026, the number is estimated at 42 women and 17 children, and, sadly, this is only the tip of the iceberg.

In addition to these deaths, there are countless women, children, men and families living in fear, living in violence and living under coercive control. Sexual violence has in the last year reduced by around one per cent, but it still represents almost 40,000 Australians who are victims of sexual assault. The majority are women. And then there are the other deaths.

The Social Policy and Legal Affairs Committee is undertaking an inquiry into suicides in the context of family, domestic and sexual violence. We've received around 230 submissions from people with lived experience, their families and friends, support services, academics and government agencies. The evidence we've read and heard has been shocking. One of the most profound things we've heard, particularly from lived-experience witnesses, is the impact of coercive control—of feeling trapped and desperate. We've heard from some of the academics that suicide in the context of family and domestic and sexual violence may account for anywhere between 20 per cent and 56 per cent of suicide deaths in women. People experiencing family, domestic and sexual violence are four times more likely to die by suicide than the general population.

Family, domestic and sexual violence is a scourge in our society, and, despite increasing efforts across many decades, it remains seemingly intractable. And now we see a new generation learning hateful, misogynistic attitudes and behaviours from online sources—violence, sexual violence, gender stereotyping.

This government continues to do a lot to tackle the family, domestic and sexual violence. We've made the Leaving Violence payment permanent. That's $5,000 in financial help as well as safety planning support for women leaving violence. We've taken world-leading action to address the impact of online harms, and we're continuing to do that. I'm very hopeful that we will be able to make a digital duty of care that will actually make a significant difference. We've launched 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. We've boosted funding for the 500 Workers Initiative by more than 70 per cent and boosted funding for 1800RESPECT by 40 per cent—sadly, to keep pace with demand.

We have $183 million to make the child support system safer and to help more children get the support they are owed. We've legislated to make our social security system so that it can't be weaponised by perpetrators of abuse. And we've funded programs that intervene earlier with men who want to change their behaviours. We've invested a record $3.9 billion in legal services, with an extra $800 million for family violence legal services, and reformed the family law system so it's safer, simpler and more accessible.

We've supported the recovery of children who've experienced violence, investing $81 million for services like child-specific counselling. And we've invested $82 million to deliver innovative new approaches to better identify high-risk perpetrators and share information about them across systems and state boundaries.

Perhaps I'll mention one of the legislative approaches in my state of South Australia, which is called Clare's Law, where somebody who feels that they're in a relationship with someone who may be a perpetrator can inquire of the police whether that person has a history, not just in terms of convictions but in terms of reports and knowledge. They are given that information while sitting with a counsellor to help them understand what it is they're seeing and make decisions about their lives. We've legislated 10 days of paid domestic violence leave so that workplaces support women to stay financially secure and connected and so that those who are trying to escape violence can actually get the legal, financial, housing and health support that they need without the perpetrator necessarily knowing what they're doing. We've made it illegal to fire somebody because of their experience of domestic or family violence and we've implemented all of the recommendations of Respect@Work.

As I started, I said that this needs to be more than just the women's sector tackling this. It is also housing. We have put more than $1.2 billion in emergency and transitional housing to ensure women can reach safety. Sadly, my experience in that sector is we probably still need more. It's also the health sector, which is frequently a first stop for someone who's feeling suicidal, self-harming or injured as a result of family and domestic sexual violence. And it's also, as I've mentioned, big tech through the algorithm that feeds harmful misogynistic content to young people. Both boys and girls learn misogynistic gender stereotypes from the sorts of information that's put through.

In a previous role, I ran homelessness services—specifically women's homelessness services—and more than 60 per cent of women seeking emergency accommodation came from a domestic violence background. But it wasn't just women escaping violence. Now some of these women had an experience of violent relationship even decades earlier, and some had grown up in a violent home. And we know that homelessness in children and teenagers is almost always associated with violence at home. I think we need to recognise that this has an enormous impact on our community. It is not just the deaths, tragic as they are and unnecessary as they are, or the impact that has on families and friends, but also the impact of the survivors and the trauma that they live with, the trauma that makes it hard for them to maintain relationships, even friendships, have collegial relationships, hold down a job, make good financial decisions—the sorts of impacts that trauma has on people cannot be underestimated.

And it has a long tail. We know that in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the average time for somebody to first disclose that they had been sexually abused in that context was 23 years for women and 25 years for men. There was one man who turned up who was probably in his late 80s who had been abused as an 11-year-old and was disclosing for the first time to the royal commission. He got his son to drive him there and he made his son sit outside because he didn't want him to hear what had happened to him. When we're looking at the impact of trauma, it is lifelong. Family, domestic and sexual violence is certainly a major cause of trauma in our community.

That is, in part, why this is such an important report and why it's an important thing that we continue to pay attention to and continue to measure and discuss. As with all things in social services, the job's never done. There's always something else we can do, and I look forward to our next steps forward.

Today we have tabled the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner's yearly report to parliament regarding domestic, family and sexual violence. Before coming to this place, I spent decades working as a nurse and midwife. As a remote area nurse particularly, I've seen the consequences of violence. I have seen women come through our health system not knowing how to escape their situation and often not having the structures in place for them to do that. I've seen the fear, the uncertainty and the enormous courage it can take for a woman to make the decision to leave a violent relationship, particularly when children, pets, finances and housing are involved. The question, of course, should never be: why didn't she leave? It should be: where will she go? It's our job to put those structures in place.

Ending gender based violence requires more than just words. It requires leadership, action and investment. Just recently, National Cabinet affirmed its commitment to ending gender based violence and agreed to accelerate efforts to keep women and girls safe. Since National Cabinet met on this issue in 2024, the government has progressed more than $700 million in matched state funding for frontline family, domestic and sexual violence services. Less than a month ago, the Albanese Labor government announced a further $308 million for emergency and transitional housing and backed Australia's first standalone plan for addressing family, domestic and sexual violence against First Nations women and children with another $218 million. Importantly, National Cabinet have now agreed to establish a new national family and domestic violence risk assessment framework. This means working towards a system where, whether the woman reaches out to her GP, presents at a hospital, speaks to police or comes into contact with another service, the warning signs of violence can be recognised and acted upon by all frontline workers in a standardised way.

A few weeks ago, I joined Assistant Minister Patrick Gorman at the Salvation Army's The Beacon in Perth to announce another important investment. The Beacon is a place that provides transitional and emergency housing for people. The Albanese Labor government is investing $22 million in WA for an additional 20 homes across three project crisis and transitional dwellings, supporting women and families escaping domestic and family violence as well as young people experiencing homelessness. We know that one of the most dangerous moments for someone experiencing violence can be when they decide to leave, and nobody should ever have to choose between staying in a violent home and having no home at all.

A few weeks ago, my office received an email from a new resident who had just moved into a newly built social and affordable home in my electorate, and I'd like to read from that email right now. It reads: 'I would like to express my deepest gratitude for our new home. I am a single mother to 2 young children, a victim-survivor of family and domestic violence and 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 4 times in the last 2 years. Thanks to you and the Australian government, we are able to build a life of dignity and freedom.' This letter shows why what we do in this place is so important. Every Australian deserves a safe place to call home, and we're committed to delivering this.

You may recollect there was a recent by-election in Secret Harbour in Western Australia, and I was particularly disturbed by the comments of the One Nation candidate and now parliamentarian Luke Herdegen. He said, regarding domestic violence, 'it's just not really an issue down here.' I'm so glad that my colleagues in this House across the aisle acknowledge that this is a problem and that silence does not mean that violence does not exist. The candidate, now parliamentarian, of course, for One Nation is also reiterated by his leader's response, who described domestic violence as a two way street. I find those statements absolutely deplorable and unbelievable, quite frankly.

Domestic and family violence does not disappear just because somebody has not raised it with their local political candidate, and, in fact, the very nature of family and domestic violence means that much of it happens behind closed doors. People experiencing violence may be frightened to speak. They may fear retaliation against themselves, their children or their pets, and they may be worried about where they're going to sleep that night because it's connected to their housing, literally the roof over their head. It is one of the reasons we need to work harder here to make sure that people know that they will be believed and supported when they do come forward. As political leaders, we have a responsibility to take this issue seriously. We have experts telling us about the extent of the problem. We have a responsibility to listen, even when the stories are difficult. We have a responsibility to make sure that someone experiencing violence knows where they can turn to. As a nurse, a midwife, a woman and the federal member for Bullwinkel, this issue is deeply important to me.

Our electorate, my electorate, carries the name of Lieutenant Colonel Vivian Bullwinkel, a nurse remembered for her extraordinary courage, service and resilience. Vivian Bullwinkel's story also reminds us of the devastating history of wartime violence against women. In 1942, after the sinking of the Vyner Brooke ship, Vivian Bullwinkel and 21 of her fellow Australian Army nurses—unarmed Australian nurses—were massacred by Japanese soldiers on Radji Beach on Bangka Island. These 22 nurses were assaulted and then ordered into the sea and shot, and Vivian was the only survivor. If she hadn't have survived, we wouldn't have known about the incident. She later testified at the war crimes tribunal in Tokyo. Silence is not evidence that violence does not exist. Their murder was not only a wartime atrocity but an example of women being targeted with violence because of their vulnerability as unarmed personnel. Her willingness to testify at the war crimes tribunal showed her immense courage, and her courage continues to inspire us today.

There is much work ahead of us, and we need governments at every level working together. We need every parliamentarian showing leadership on this issue, and it was heartening to hear the opposition's speech earlier. Acknowledging the problem is the first step. Domestic and family violence is an issue. It's an issue in Australia, in our suburbs and in our regional and remote communities. While I have the privilege of serving in this parliament, I will never dismiss the experiences of victims-survivors simply because their voices have not been loud enough for somebody else to hear. The Albanese Labor government will continue listening, continue investing and continue to work towards the goal that every Australian woman deserves to be safe in their own home.

One woman was killed every 11 days in the past year as a result of family or sexual violence in Australia. This is a damning statistic, and it is why the Albanese government is acting. Since coming to government we have put in place a series of measures to help prevent this trend. But there is always more to do to change attitudes, to reduce the negative impacts of social media, to enact our reforms and to support victims-survivors. My thoughts—and the thoughts of every MP in this place—are with families and friends of domestic and family violence victims, and I hope that together in a bipartisan approach we can put in place reforms that ensure that we reduce the level of family violence in our communities across our nation.

The Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission's yearly report does provide an important assessment of the progress we are making to end violence against women and children and the work that remains ahead of us. It's a reminder that, while there has been progress, too many women and children continue to experience violence, and too many families continue to navigate systems that aren't always working as they should. That is why the work of government matters. It is about raising awareness of family violence. It is about prevention, crisis support and reforming the systems that allow family and domestic violence to perpetuate and, at times, go unpunished.

The report makes clear that participants consistently identified justice systems, particularly family law, as places where people often experience further trauma rather than protection. Common concerns included poor recognition of family violence risk, limited weight given to children's experiences, inadequate accountability for decision-makers, fragmented information sharing and legal processes that prolong exposure to harm.

I want to acknowledge the Minister for Social Services and the Assistant Minister for Social Services for their leadership in this work and for the effort they are putting into the next phase of the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children. This is an area where government action matters. For too long, too many women experiencing violence have had to navigate systems that are fragmented, difficult to access and often only respond once a crisis has occurred. The role of government is to change that, which means investing in the services that women and children rely on when they are at their most vulnerable. It means improving coordination between services and governments and often at a very grassroots level. It means supporting frontline workers who are seeing the consequences of family and domestic violence every day. It means changing our approach so that we are not simply responding to violence after it occurs but doing more to prevent it in the first place.

That is an important and incredibly challenging task, but it is one that this government, the Albanese government, is committed to. The next phase of the national plan provides an important opportunity to build on the work already underway and to make sure government investment is delivering practical improvements in people's lives at a grassroots level. I know both Minister Plibersek and Assistant Minister Kearney are doing so much work with victims-survivors, frontline workers and advocates around the country. Both Minister Plibersek and Assistant Minister Kearney have visited my electorate and we have focused on this issue. I will continue to work with them to ensure that we support people not just across Corangamite, my electorate, but across our nation. This engagement is important because the people who use these services understand better than anyone where the system is working and where it is not. Their lived experience through these consultations shouldn't sit on the sidelines of policymaking. Through the consultation, we learn and we act. It should help to determine what our government does next.

We also know that government actions need to extend beyond immediate responses to violence. If we are serious about prevention, we need to support families before they reach crisis. We need children experiencing violence to be identified and supported early. We need effective interventions for people who use violence so that abusive behaviour is challenged rather than allowed to become entrenched.

We need to address the growing influence of online misogyny. It's abusive and harmful and it particularly impacts young people. This is an area where government has a particular responsibility, and our digital duty of care legislation will play such a key role in combating misogyny online. Parents and teachers cannot be expected to manage the influence of billion-dollar technology platforms on their own. Those platforms need to take responsibility and take a role in keeping Australians safe, and that's what our legislation is all about.

Government has a role in setting appropriate standards, regulating where necessary and making sure the online environment is safer for children and young people. But government action is also about the practical supports that make it possible for a woman to leave violence and remain safe. A woman cannot simply be told to leave if she has nowhere safe to live, no financial security and no access to services or support for her children. That's why housing, financial security, health services, legal assistance and specialist family and domestic violence services are all part of the prevention and response system.

When I was mayor of the Surf Coast Shire many years ago, we introduced the reform for 10 days paid family violence leave. It was the first in the country. I'm really proud of that. We acknowledged that, without having the opportunity to keep a wage when you have to leave a violent situation, perhaps with your children and your dog in tow, you need that time to get to safety but you also need to have an income, because there is power in having an income. I'm very pleased that our federal government has now adopted that policy. It is a brilliant outcome—just a small step.

I want to acknowledge the progress that has already been made. Many of us in this place grew up in an Australia where domestic violence was often regarded as a private matter, a private family matter. Today we recognise that violence against women and children is a matter of public responsibility and the governments have an absolute responsibility to act. That change did not happen by accident. It happened because survivors had the guts to speak out. They were brave. Advocates kept pushing and frontline workers kept doing the work. Governments listened and began changing laws, investing in services and changing the way we respond.

In closing, we know there is more to do, but the Albanese government isn't approaching this challenge as something that can be solved with a single announcement or a single program. We all have a role to play. We all have to call it out. We all have to act. We all have to make sure that women and children are supported through what is a horrific process. Families and communities have to step up and take on the responsibility that this is a national problem. It is a crisis situation. It's not right that every 11 days a woman dies as a result of family violence. It's just not acceptable. Turning this around requires sustained investment, better coordination, stronger prevention and a willingness for all of us to be better. Most importantly, it requires us to keep the women and children behind the statistics at the centre of our work, and the Albanese government is absolutely committed to doing so.

For too long, family and sexual violence have been endemic in Australia. Yesterday, the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission released its annual report. The report makes clear that, despite progress in some areas, we are not seeing the change that we need. The impact of family violence continues to be felt across our communities. Persistent homelessness among women and children affected by family violence is now at its highest level since reporting began in 2018.

The report also highlights the disproportionate impact of family violence on First Nations communities, with the rate of hospitalisations for First Nations children due to family violence assault continuing to rise since 2022-23 reaching its highest recorded level. Similarly, hospitalisations of First Nations women due to family violence assaults have continued to increase since 2021-22. Reports of sexual violence are at their highest levels in 33 years, with reported incidents increasing by 64 per cent over the past 15 years.

In the report, the commissioner talked about a future where gendered violence is rare, brief and non-recurring. That is the future we are working towards. Through the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children, we as a government have committed to ending violence against women and children in a generation. There is no doubt that this is ambitious, but as long as there are women being killed, harmed or living in fear, as long as there are children for whom home is not a safe place, all members of parliament must treat the scourge of family and sexual violence with the urgency that it deserves.

As the Minister for Social Services said yesterday, this is a collective problem. It's a collective problem that requires a collective solution. It requires all members of society, from government to civil society, from sporting clubs to parents, to pull together to create a country where everyone can be free of violence and control. I want to acknowledge the Minister for Social Services for all the work she has done to elevate this national priority and continue this difficult national conversation. I acknowledge the Minister for Social Services for all the work she has done to elevate this national priority and continue this difficult national conversation. I also acknowledge the work of the Assistant Minister for Social Services and her leadership and engagement with communities right around the country, including my community.

All of us fortunate enough to be elected to this place come with issues that are close to our hearts—national problems that we want to solve. For me, family and sexual violence is one of them. Family and sexual violence is so prevalent that I'd be surprised if all of us don't know someone who has been deeply affected. As a volunteer in community legal centres, I saw that the vast majority of clients who walked through the door were impacted by domestic and family violence. The myriad issues they raised were around property law, intervention orders, criminal law and the family courts. Working in the courts, I saw the impacts of family and sexual violence on victims-survivors, and I also saw how the courts and the law often fail victims-survivors and are even weaponised to perpetrate systems abuse.

As a member of the Social Policy and Legal Affairs Committee—with the member for Mitchell, who's here in the Chamber today—I've been involved in the inquiry into domestic, family and sexual violence and suicide, which is ongoing. I acknowledge the state and federal government departments, frontline services experts and especially lived experience advocates for contributing to this inquiry.

Locally, in my community of Menzies, I convened a local consultation on the Second Action Plan under the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children. I thank our fantastic local services—Doncare, FVREE, Eastern Community Legal Centre, Alkira Disability Services, Access Health and Community, the Family Action Network and some of our local maternal child health services—for their attendance, and many of our other frontline services. I acknowledge their amazing contribution in this difficult space which can take a toll on the people that work in it.

Despite the different services that were involved in those consultations, these organisations raised very similar issues—ones that we see reflected in the commissioner's report and ones that I hear about regularly while speaking with our community: the need for more supports for both men and women during times of heightened stress and transition, like following the birth of a child; how critical coordinated case management and specialist violence workers are; an acknowledgement that healing from violence is not linear or short term; and an identification of how critical it is to have therapeutic support that sits alongside case management. These services do everything they can to help vulnerable people navigate complex and sometimes traumatic systems in the context of incredible demand and limited resources. It's because of this work that we know that progress is being made and that further progress is possible. The government is committed to supporting these frontline workers, and is supporting women and children to be safe, but also to enabling them to increase their capacity and improve integration and fully utilise their expertise.

In order to make family and sexual violence rare, as the commissioner calls for, we also need to change our culture. As men, it means taking responsibility for playing our part in creating that better culture. This isn't an attack on men and it doesn't mean that all men are the problem, but it does mean that all men can be part of the solution. I acknowledge my friend the member for Leichhardt, who spoke before and spoke very powerfully about what it means to be a good man—and he is definitely a good man who leads in this parliament, in this important area. I also welcome the comments of the member for Groom just before in this Chamber. It's important that we, as male parliamentarians, speak out on this issue. We need to call out bad behaviour and say violence is never okay. It's never okay to hit your wife and kids, and it's not strong to demean or control your partner. As fathers or as carers, we need to model what a good man and what a healthy relationship is. We need to have uncomfortable and difficult conversations with our sons.

Alarmingly, young men are more likely than older men to harbour dangerous attitudes towards women. A first-of-its-kind Australian study, released last month, exposed a startling reality. Among boys aged 13 to 17, it found that 24.7 per cent believe that feminism is damaging society and should be resisted with violence if necessary. Gen Z males are approximately four times more likely to agree that a husband is the head of the household and his wife should be obedient. Gen Z and millennial males are much more likely to agree that, within a marriage, men are entitled to sex with their wives. These are abhorrent attitudes.

As the commissioner has highlighted in her report, sexual violence is a persistent area of significant harm, particularly for Australian women. There are forces working at incredible speed against parents, communities and governments every day to make women and girls less safe and to communicate destructive ideas to men and boys, ideas that we know are associated with real harm.

Technology is evolving very quickly and increasingly becoming a weapon through which perpetrators can access victims. There are the 'nudify' apps, undetectable stalking tools, trackers and algorithms that target vulnerable people with harmful and violent content. We are taking action to combat these forces, particularly through our social media ban and recently announced digital duty of care. However, as the minister said, there are responsibilities that government carries to prevent harm but government cannot do it alone.

I look at my son and the young men in my community and I believe that nobody is born wanting to use violence or to abuse their partner. This is learned behaviour and it can be unlearned. We need to stop the spread of misogynistic, hateful content which makes men believe they are entitled to women's bodies.

For men or people who have used violence, we need to make sure that those who want to get help can get help. Thankfully, there are men who stand up and take action, like the member for Leichhardt, and are having conversations to create better outcomes for young fathers, husbands and families across the country.

I want to particularly shout-out my friend and the Special Envoy for Men's Health, the member for Hunter, for the work he does to champion the importance of being a good father and a good partner and having healthy relationships throughout all his conversations about men's physical and mental health. Healthy men have healthy relationships.

There are also incredible women in this space in parliament who are leading and speaking out on this issue, people like the Minister for Social Services, the Assistant Minister for Social Services and Assistant Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence, and my friend here, the member for Bonner. We need to recognise that, just as women are often constrained by traditional gender norms, men are also constrained by traditional gender norms and what they can and can't talk about, and we need to reach out for help when we need it.

This year's report from the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission contains a pretty confronting message. Despite important progress, we are not yet delivering the scale or pace needed to alter the trajectory of violence and actually save lives. I want to acknowledge Commissioner Micaela Cronin and her team and the more than 1,000 individuals, services, researchers and advocates whose contributions informed this report. In particular, I want to acknowledge the victims-survivors who shared their experiences, including what happens when the very systems they turn to for safety fail them. Their experience must not simply be heard; they must shape what we do next.

The report identifies two areas requiring sustained national attention: sexual violence and our family law and justice systems. Reports of sexual violence have increased by 64 per cent over the past 15 years. In 2024, they reached the highest level since national recording began 33 years ago. We have now seen the first national decrease in 15 years, but it was less than one per cent.

That is exactly why the Albanese Labor government has made tackling sexual violence a priority under the second action plan under the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children. We have implemented every recommendation of the Respect@Work report, introduced a positive duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment and established a new national higher education codeto prevent and respond to gender based violence. But this report is clear that we need to go further, particularly when it comes to prevention.

In 2024, 56 per cent of recorded sexual assault victims were under the age of 18. Young people are being exposed to violent pornography, misogyny and harmful ideas online about women and relationships. Teachers are reporting that kids as young as six are using language drawn from the 'manosphere'. Labor are acting on online harms through our world-leading social media minimum age laws and the proposed digital duty of care. If technology companies are profiting from Australians using their platforms, they must accept responsibility for keeping Australians safe.

The report is also direct about our family law and justice systems. For too many victims-survivors, the systems they turn to for protection are weaponised to continue coercive control as well as controlling behaviour, compound trauma and prolonged recovery. I saw this firsthand, as a domestic violence and family lawyer. I've worked with women who were repeatedly failed by our systems, women whose experiences of coercive control were not properly understood by the courts and our systems, women who have faced repeated legal proceedings designed to exhaust and intimidate them, and women whose children were removed from their care and placed with dangerous perpetrators who continued to use those children and our courts as instruments of abuse and control. For too many victims-survivors, the systems that should provide safety instead become another place where the abuse continues.

The commission calls for the family law courts to be recognised and enabled to act as family violence courts capable of identifying risk early, protecting adults and children, and providing access to confidential therapeutic support. It also makes an important distinction about children. Children must be recognised as victims-survivors in their own right, not merely as witnesses to violence experienced by a parent. That distinction matters. When we recognise children as victims-survivors, we assess their risk differently. We listen to their views. We design our systems and processes around their particular needs. We support their safety, recovery and healing.

Labor have already undertaken significant reform in this space. We have invested $3.9 billion through the National Access to Justice Partnership, including an additional $800 million for legal assistance services. However, we have also invested significantly in the child support system, with $183 million to prevent it from being used as a tool of financial abuse. These reforms recognise a fundamental truth: leaving a relationship must also mean being able to leave the control behind. But, while women and children continue to be failed, there is absolutely more work to do. We cannot stop until every woman and child is safe.

The report makes eight recommendations for the next stage of our national response. Together, they call for a mature system that intervenes earlier, learns from evidence, listens to lived experience and accepts responsibility across every part of government. Violence cannot be treated as the responsibility of one minister, one department or one level of government. Decisions about housing, immigration, taxation, social security, child support, health, education, employment and justice can either strengthen safety or unintentionally create new risks. Every part of government must understand its responsibility.

The report also calls for policies and services to be co-designed with those who face the greatest barriers to safety. That includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children, women and children with disability, culturally and linguistically diverse communities, LGBTQIA+ communities, migrants and refugees, older women and people living in regional and remote communities. Lived experience cannot be a story added to the end of a policy process or just simply a box to be ticked. It is expertise. It is essential knowledge that could help us define the problem and design the solution.

The report also makes clear that crisis response alone will not end violence. Of the $4.52 billion mapped across 147 Commonwealth initiatives, 68.2 per cent is directed towards response, while 9.4 per cent is being directed towards early intervention. Crisis and frontline services, of course, are essential and must continue to be properly funded. When a woman is in danger, help must be available immediately—but we must also intervene earlier. We must work with boys and young men to build healthy understandings of masculinity, relationships and consent. We must intervene with men who are using, or are at risk of using, violence before their behaviours escalate. We must use the places where people already seek help, including schools, health services, men's programs and community organisations, to deliver those programs.

Prevention starts long before a woman reaches a courtroom, refuge or emergency department. It starts with what we teach young people about respect and consent, with the behaviours we model and with the relationships that we present as normal. That is why initiatives such as the Great Mate Awards, facilitated by Beyond DV, a grassroots DV organisation in my community of Bonner, are so important. These national awards recognise men who are standing up, speaking out and helping to build safer communities. I had the opportunity this week at parliament to congratulate Queensland's winner, Tim, whom I've known for more than 10 years. I first met Tim after his sister-in-law was murdered. Tim has turned his absolute grief into action. For more than a decade, he's advocated for change, contributed to parliamentary inquiries and pushed for systems that better protect victim-survivors. Men like Tim demonstrate the role men can play in challenging violence and changing the culture that allows it to continue.

The report also recognises that safety means more than escaping an immediate act of violence. Lasting safety requires secure housing, financial security, legal assistance, health care, counselling and practical support. Almost one in four specialist homelessness service clients experiencing family and domestic violence still has unmet need for accommodation. Persistent homelessness among women and children affected by family violence has increased since the national plan began and is now at its highest level in the period reported. A woman should never be forced to choose between violence and homelessness, and she should never have to calculate whether she can afford to keep herself and her children safe.

The report also calls for stronger evidence, monitoring and accountability. We know what is working for women, for whom it is working and where people are still falling through the cracks. Significant data gaps and reporting delays remain. Only five of the nine measures currently reported against in the national plan targets have post-baseline data. We cannot properly measure progress without timely, consistent and meaningful information.

Labor will keep investing, reforming and pushing for change, because women and children deserve more than promises of progress. They deserve progress that they can see, they deserve systems that protect them and, above all, they deserve to be safe.

Debate adjourned.