I rise to speak on the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission's yearly report to this parliament, and in support of Minister Plibersek's response to the report. I also acknowledge victim-survivors and those we have lost—133 lives taken in 2025 as a result of domestic and family violence. An estimated 42 women and 17 children have been lost in 2026 alone—women and children killed, too often by men who claimed to love them. We remember them and we owe it to them to do everything we can to end violence.

The report is actually a really devastating read because, despite record funding by this government and many efforts by previous governments, more than $4.4 billion from this government to end family and domestic and sexual violence, there's still a lot of progress to be done in many areas. Overall, progress is too slow. Reports of sexual violence are now at their highest levels since national recording began 30 years ago. One in four women and one in 14 men have experienced violence by an intimate partner. Too many women and children are killed, and too many live with violence every day. We are also seeing a significant increase in sexual assaults occurring outside of family and intimate partner relationships. We know the rise in access to online pornography has distorted what our young people see as a healthy relationship, with increased reporting of strangulation at our hospitals.

What our young people consume online is truly horrific. The rise of the manosphere is promoting hostile attitudes towards women, framing society as for women and against men and selling control and aggression as self-defence rather than harm. Teachers tell us that manosphere content is a problem in their classrooms and that there's been an uptick of gendered violence in our schools. This is not a fringe problem. Misogyny is now one of the strongest predictors of a young person's willingness to use violence.

It's obvious that governments can only do so much. We cannot legislate our way through this. We need our parents, communities, families, schools and all education settings, workplaces, sporting clubs and, in particular, our men to step up and demand safety and respect. We all need to be dramatically more proactive in tackling domestic and family violence. I agree with Commissioner Cronin's vision for the future. We all need to be working towards a future where family, domestic and sexual violence is rare, brief and non-reoccurring—rare because we prevent it before it happens; brief because, when someone is in danger, we recognise it early and act immediately; and non-recurring because victims-survivors get the support to heal and perpetrators are held to account so they cannot keep harming people.

The next phase of the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children to 2032 must shift our response to the environments that allow misogyny, control and violence to take root. We must recognise the signs early, intervene early, get family support before they are in crisis, invest in behaviour change, hold perpetrators accountable and focus on sexual violence. We've invested more than $4.4 billion since coming to government in pursuit of these goals including funding the 1,400 organisations that have directly helped almost half a million Australians experiencing violence.

We've made the $5,000 leaving violence payment permanent. We've launched the first standalone First Nations plan to address domestic and sexual violence, with $218 million in funding. We've boosted funding for 1800RESPECT by 40 per cent and increased funding to the 500 workers program by more than 70 per cent. We are building more safe homes for women and children leaving violence, with $1.2 billion for more crisis accommodation and social and affordable homes. We recently held consultations to shape the next phase of the national plan, with 163 roundtables, 1,300 survey responses and 535 submissions. We are not shying away from the new frontiers of this violence.

Online harm is changing the real world faster than our systems can keep pace with. That is why we introduced the social media age restriction for under-16s. It's not a perfect fix, but it's a lifeline for parents fighting an unequal battle against the infinite scroll. It is why we are bringing in age assurance for pornography. It is why we've just released our digital duty of care legislation, which will force social media companies to embed safety by design and finally consider the wellbeing of the children and young people that use their platforms.

I have sat with many women in my electorate of Dickson—and I am sure every member in this place has done the very same—who have, through tears, described the violence, trauma and terror in their homes and the hard and long road of trying to get out, often with nothing but their kids, trying to survive and rebuild. It is haunting. In just the past three days, three women have contacted my office in Dickson with heartbreakingly similar stories. These women and their kids deserve to have everything thrown at this crisis, and this government is determined to deliver.

We also see hope—stories demonstrating that some of our investment is working. I received a letter from 47-year-old Marie, who moved to my electorate of Dickson with her primary school age daughter after leaving a violent relationship. To escape her controlling and violent partner, Marie was forced to move interstate to a place she had never heard of and never been to and where she knew no-one—to be safe, to seek refuge. She was offered a new home, a new life, as a direct result of our Housing Australia Future Fund and Bric Housing in my electorate of Dickson. Marie said she and her daughter now, for the first time in over a decade, feel safe, at peace and stable. She said her daughter is now thriving at school, a student leader with aspirations to study at university.

Ending gender based violence is a national priority for the government so that women like Marie and her daughter are safe and supported and can rebuild. It is a priority that we get to a place beyond reactionary measures, to a place where violence is rare, brief and non-recurring. Every one of us in this place and everyone outside of this place has a role to play in preventing and reducing family, domestic and sexual violence.

I rise to speak on the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission's yearly report to parliament. I acknowledge Commissioner Micaela Cronin and the 12 members of the Lived Experience Advisory Council for their important work in developing this report. People with lived and living experience must be meaningfully involved in this work. Their insights strengthen our understanding of violence and help governments design policies and services that are safer and more effective. I also want to take a moment to remember those whose lives have, tragically, been taken by people who were supposed to love them. And I acknowledge the victims-survivors, who carry trauma that can last a lifetime.

Domestic, family and sexual violence remains one of the most serious issues facing Australia. In 2024-25, on average, one woman was killed every 11 days and one man every 26 days by an intimate partner. This violence occurs right across Australia, but some people face intersecting disadvantages that increase both their risk of violence and their barriers to seeking help. In Victoria, the 26 local government areas with the highest rates of family violence are all regional and rural. Some are in my electorate of Indi, including one ranked in the top five. Hospitalisation rates for gender based violence are also higher in areas of socioeconomic disadvantage that are more remote and for First Nations people.

Family violence remains the leading cause of homelessness for women and children. Equally concerning is that reports of sexual violence are now at their highest level since reporting began 30 years ago. These figures are truly shocking, yet they still do not capture the full scale of gender based family and sexual violence, because we know there are significant barriers to reporting. For someone who is experiencing violence in a regional community, services can be limited, and long distances can separate people from the support they need. Concerns about privacy can be acute. You may know the receptionist at the local GP clinic, the police officer taking your report or staff at the local health service. Reaching out for help can be overwhelming, and these factors make it even harder.

In my electorate, organisations like the Centre Against Violence, Mungabareena Aboriginal Corporation, Women's Health Goulburn North East, VACCA, Upper Murray Family Care, and Gateway Health do vital work every day in this space. They provide specialist support, deliver prevention and education programs, undertake research and bring together other health, social and legal support services to support our region.

The report makes eight recommendations to meaningfully reduce gender based violence within a generation. This is an important goal of this government and one I deeply support. While all recommendations warrant careful consideration, I want to speak to two in particular: early intervention and improving the coordination of evidence. The commissioner made clear that new investment must be targeted towards early intervention while continuing to invest in the services that support people leaving violent relationships. Addressing the drivers of violence at its source and reducing the risks is the way to end the cycle of crisis. Research from No to Violence estimates 3.6 per cent of government funding goes to early intervention compared with 55.9 per cent going to response after violence has occurred. Crisis response must not be weakened. It remains vital to safety and recovery, but I welcome the recommendation to invest new funds in early intervention.

The report also calls for stronger coordination of evidence, research and data. In August, I joined the member for Wentworth and other crossbench colleagues in writing to the Prime Minister about this very issue, because Australia has no shortage of evidence about what works but, after a decade of inquiries, reports and evaluation, that knowledge remains fragmented. A national evidence collaboration would connect this data and enable governments to direct resources more effectively. I really urge the government to get on with that recommendation.

This report is a sobering account of the work still ahead but it also provides a practical path forward. The way to truly honour the lives lost, the survivors and to protect people in the future requires shared responsibility, sustained leadership and action at a huge scale and pace to address this crisis. I'm willing to work with anyone in this parliament, and I urge the government to continue its leadership and respond swiftly to the commissioner's recommendations.

I rise to speak on the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission's yearly report to parliament, and I want to begin with a number of the drivers of violence outlined on page 34 of the report. The first is the condoning of violence against women. The second is men's control of decision-making and the limits placed on women's independence in public and private life. The third is rigid gender stereotyping and dominant forms of masculinity. And the fourth is the male peer relations and cultures of masculinity that emphasise aggression, dominance and control. Now, Deputy Speaker Sharkie, I ask you to keep these drivers in mind as I read a tweet posted by Senator Ralph Babet on 4 September, which said:

Women are on average more susceptible to prevailing cultural trends. That trait can be valuable in raising children and maintaining group cohesion, but destructive when a culture itself becomes diseased.

The deeper failure however lies with men who have abandoned their evolutionary, biblical and biological duty to lead.

Women are the instruments of the West's decline, but the rot begins with weak low testosterone men not fulfilling their masculine responsibilities.

And before some idiot says "not all women" obviously not all. We're talking about broad patterns, not every individual.

On my count, this tweet displays pretty much a lot of those gendered drivers of violence, and we wonder why young men consuming this content are displaying more and more hatred towards women. This hyped up, angry and violent view of what it means to be a man does not have to be the only model available to young men.

I think of my uncle Thiru. He raised me. He was kind of like my mum and dad. He bought me my first period products, he taught me how to change the washer on a tap and he made me very safe in the community that I was raised in. He placed the utmost importance on education so that I can learn to advocate for myself and now for others. He was strong, he was kind and he showed me that strength is not diminished by care, patience or tenderness. He's exactly the kind of man that all men should aspire to be.

Too often when we raise the issue of violence against women in places like this, the conversation descends into all-out gender wars like the one invited by the tweet I quoted. I want to emphasise this is not about fighting. It is about stopping violence. It is about helping sons and brothers become the best fathers and grandfathers they can be, because we need you. We need good men in our lives, in our families and in our communities. I want to recognise some of those men from our local community: Mark Stead, Stephen So, Paul Dunstan, Dr Ashish Diwan, Robert Naumoski, Tony Baddour, Geremy Crithary, Joel Joselin, Garry Lockwood, Craig Epton, Dr George Foster, Mark Lever, Louay Moustapha, John Nour and Ken Dunlop. There are so many more community leaders who help our hospitals, our schools, our churches and our community groups function and who serve the St George area with kindness, intelligence and strength. These are the people our young men should look up to, not those chasing influence in the manosphere.

I now turn to some of the local organisations that will be essential to helping our government implement the national plan's findings and commitments. At Alawa Aboriginal Corporation, Shaylee Matthews and Sharlene Mackenzie are strong women doing frontline work to support vulnerable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in my community and beyond. St George Family Support Services, based in Carlton, was established in 1987 in response to the needs of local families and children. The St George Police Area Command and specialist domestic violence support services also play a very critical role in responding to people in crisis and connecting them with ongoing assistance. St Vincent de Paul, Vinnies, provides support for women and children experiencing domestic and family violence across the homelessness and housing space. Its services include a rapid and responsive domestic violence response enhancement service, crisis and medium-term housing pathways and support to sustain tenancies. This breadth of services and infrastructure allows for targeted and flexible responses to women and children facing an existing or emerging crisis. There's Salvation Army in Hurstville and Earlwood providing another important point of support for people experiencing hardship and crisis in the local community.

We must properly fund and support these grassroots services so that they can serve communities like mine. Barton is home to many diaspora communities, and reaching women who are isolated from established support networks can be particularly difficult. Barton is extraordinarily diverse and home to people of many cultures, languages and faiths. Members of diaspora communities can experience profound isolation, particularly when they are still learning English or do not have established support networks. That isolation can leave women without the relationships they need to seek help, solidarity or safety. That isolation can also leave women vulnerable to specific forms of abuse.

The national plan identifies migration related abuse, dowry abuse, forced marriage, female genital mutilation and trafficking. These are among the most horrific abuses that can be inflicted on a person. They reduce women to financial pawns or to the sum of their reproductive capabilities. Moreover, the report finds that women from culturally and linguistically diverse communities face a greater risk of online abuse. This can range from vile race based comments that appear on my own comment sections to stalking, surveillance, tracking, threats, harassment and the nonconsensual sharing of intimate images. Then, when these women try to access support, the legal system itself can be difficult to navigate. Its forms, processes and family law structures can appear hostile and foreign, particularly to someone confronting language barriers, financial insecurity or uncertainty about their visa status. Children who suffer this abuse are also too often overlooked or insidiously used as pawns in the family law system itself. That is why it's so important that the national plan includes dedicated sections on culturally and linguistically diverse communities while also elevating the voices of children and young people as victims-survivors in their own right.

As the report says, we must build the capacity of both services and communities to identify and support women and children at heightened risk of gender based violence and intervene before violence escalates. We need safe housing for women and children escaping abuse. We need culturally appropriate and accessible services. We need a justice system that people can navigate and trust.

I hope that during my time in this place I can help advance this work. As I said in my first speech, I see my duty as one of service. Serving the women, men and children of Barton and helping deliver the safety, security and support every family deserves is an obligation I carry with me every single day. I will continue to listen to survivors, work alongside local services and advocate for the resources that you need.

I rise to speak on the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission's yearly report to parliament for 2026. This is the commission's third yearly report, and it shows some progress but not at the scale or pace needed to change the trajectory for people affected and to save lives. Commissioner Micaela Cronin has built this year's report around our national commitment that domestic, family and sexual violence should be rare, brief and non-recurring. Her point is that this is a goal we can measure ourselves against and is achievable. I agree with her.

With crossbench colleagues, I met with the commissioner this week to discuss the report. Today, I'll briefly outline its recommendations then focus on one of the two areas where the commission says Australians continue to experience unacceptable harm: our justice and family law systems. I also want to ask a question that's been bothering me for some time: what happens to good recommendations after they're tabled in this place?

This report makes eight recommendations. The first six describe what a mature national response looks like. New money should go to early intervention, including working with men before violence escalates, not only to crisis services. Housing, financial security and legal help should be treated as the basics of recovery. The report proposes a national evidence collaboration so governments can learn faster about what works. The sixth is about accountability, and I'll come back to that. The last two recommendations deal with problems the commission has raised before that still haven't been fixed. The eighth recommendation says sexual violence needs to be a distinct, funded priority. Reports of sexual violence are at their highest level since national recording began in 1993. The seventh recommendation is about the justice and family law systems, and I'll start there because it shows very clearly what is at stake. I'll finish with the sixth recommendation because it goes to whether any of this actually gets done.

The commission finds that the justice and family law systems are continuing to cause harm for people and families experiencing violence. People with lived experience told the commission that these systems drag harm out rather than resolve it. One participant described the culture of our courts as 'untouchable and unaccountable'. The commissioner told us earlier this week that family courts are now, in practice, where the cases involving violence end up.

Being in the family court system is in itself a risk factor for violence, but we haven't designed the system around that reality. So the commission recommends the family law courts be recognised and enabled to act as a family violence court. It asks the Attorney-General's Department to lead a time-bound program with the states and territories, with measurable actions. One of these actions is to identify and reduce the use of legal and administrative systems to continue abuse. This is often called systems abuse or the weaponization of the courts, and it's hard to see from the outside because each step on its own looks legitimate—a new application, an appeal, a request for documents, a move to a different tribunal. Any one of these is just someone using their legal rights, but, put together over years, they can become a way of keeping control over someone long after the relationship is over.

I'd like to tell the chamber what this looks like for one woman in my electorate. She's asked me to share her experience, and I'll do that without identifying her. She experienced years of coercive control, psychological abuse and intimidation. In 2020, she reported it to the police. She's needed their protection several times since, and she has had family violence restraining orders in place against her former husband. She's also spent years in the family court. Her former partner lost his most recent application and was ordered to pay her costs. He hasn't paid. If she wants that money, she has to fund another application to enforce an order the court has already made.

Meanwhile, he's taken a child-support matter to the Administrative Review Tribunal. That's another forum requiring another response and more money she doesn't have. She is exhausted, and exhausting her is how this kind of abuse works. This is exactly what recommendation 7 describes—legal and administrative systems used to prolong control and wear down a person's resources. The family courts, child support and the tribunal are all Commonwealth responsibilities. This is our problem to fix.

None of this will surprise anyone who works in this area. It didn't surprise me. In the last parliament, I was a member of the Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs' inquiry into family violence orders. We tabled our report in February 2025 with 11 recommendations drawn from public hearings and more than 90 submissions. Witnesses describe systems abuse as entrenched and endemic. We heard that perpetrators who represent themselves can use the court system to keep the abuse going and drive up costs for the other party.

Our recommendation 10 asked the government to lead a package of reforms to eliminate opportunities for systems abuse. That included a screening tool to pick up systems abuse and unmeritorious applications, and processes that let courts step in to protect victims-survivors in high-risk matters. It was a careful recommendation built on evidence and on what victims-survivors told us, often at a real cost to themselves. The government responded in September 2025. It agreed in principle to seven recommendations, agreed in part to three, including recommendation 10, and noted one.

There has been real reform, and I want to acknowledge it. We have harmful proceedings orders, and new protections for sensitive health and counselling records, and economic abuse is included in the definition of family violence. There has also been an audit of Commonwealth systems, including child support. These are all important, but much of the government's response describes work that was already underway, reviews that will consider our findings and matters for the states. The statutory reviews of our recent family law amendments don't start until 2027 and 2028. The national review of domestic violence order frameworks was due to report by June this year. I'd like to know what it found and what happens next. Now the commission is making many of the same points again. Its 2025 report made 30 recommendations. This year, it says that progress has been uneven, particularly on public visibility of implementation. On justice and family law, it notes these issues have come up in previous yearly reports and in inquiry after inquiry.

This is a design problem rather than a criticism of the people doing the work. We're good at inquiries in this country, but we're not good at following through. At the moment, a government response is usually where the process ends, but it should be where the real work starts.

A recommendation agreed to in principle does nothing for the woman in my electorate, so what would help? Here are a few practical suggestions. First, recommendation 6 of the commission's report asks governments to give timely, public responses to significant recommendations. That shouldn't be a big ask, but, earlier this year, my office found more than 50 government responses to parliamentary committee reports that were overdue, some by years. Many of those have since been answered, but only after we raised them. Recommendation 6 also asks for the commission to be given statutory independence and proper information-gathering powers. The 2024 Rapid review of prevention approaches recommended this, and the commission asked for it again last year. It's hard to hold anyone to account if you can't get the information.

Second, once a government accepts a recommendation, it should transparently publish updates on its progress implementing it. The commission calls for exactly this kind of transparency in recommendation 6 and 7. Third, and this is one for us here in parliament, committees should routinely go back to their reports and ask what happened.

My office is now working on the next, and arguably more important, phase of improving transparency around public inquiries: tracking whether governments actually implement the recommendations they accept. The family violence orders inquiry is on that list, but this shouldn't depend on a crossbench office keeping a spreadsheet.

Recommendation 7 asks for a time-bound program with measurable actions. I support that, and I'd ask the Attorney-General to publish that program and to fold in the unfinished parts of our committee's recommendation 10. In particular, it should recognise when litigation is being used to wear someone down and should make sure court orders are enforced without the victim having to pay again.

To the woman who wrote to me: I've shared your story directly with the commissioner and now with the parliament. I'll keep asking the questions and pushing for a system that better protects people like you. Rare, brief and non-recurring is the goal, but we won't reach it by writing the same recommendations again and again.

Domestic, family and sexual violence festers and erupts locally, but it happens everywhere around Australia. It is a dangerous pathology which affects every federal electorate, especially my own electorate of Lingiari, where remoteness and limited safety and support options can exacerbate the already dire impact. In my own life, I have firsthand experience of how this kind of violence tears individuals—usually women—and families apart. Alcohol, drugs and toxic social media can make bad problems worse.

State and territory governments are responsible for important frontline services such as police, sexual assault referral centres and child protection. The Commonwealth government funds a whole range of complementary critical non-government services, but domestic, family and sexual violence constitutes such a threat to our national wellbeing that the Commonwealth's role and responsibility necessarily extends well beyond just being a funder. An Australian government needs to be front and centre when it comes to working in collaboration with both government and non-government bodies throughout the country to develop effective protective strategies.

At the beginning of July 2022, one of the first things the Albanese government did was establish the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission. The commission is a national resource which undertakes research and shines a light into dark nooks and crannies, identifying issues and data which might otherwise remain unacknowledged. Its purpose is to promote and drive national solutions. The overarching framework for this is the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032.

As well as preparing and publishing reports on various specific topics, the commission publishes national annual reports. This year's annual report will be the third. The 2026 report touches on many things which were already depressingly familiar to some of us. Far too often, violence is experienced from a young age, and the combination of substance abuse, mental health issues and, in particular, poverty can create a vicious cycle which can be hard to escape from. For women and children in remote communities in the Northern Territory, there simply isn't the same amount of crisis accommodation or healthcare access as there is in cities and towns. This means that violence goes unreported for far too long, if it ever does get reported. An estimated 90 per cent of violence to First Nations women and children goes unreported altogether. We know Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are seven times more likely to be victims of intimate partner homicides and 27 times more likely than non-Indigenous women to be hospitalised due to family violence. This increases to 41 times more likely in regional and very remote communities.

As the commissioner notes in her report, there is no day or data point which can tell you that violence is over. Indigenous women and families need special focus and strategies to try and achieve safer outcomes. The launch of the new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander domestic, family and sexual violence peak body, Our Ways Strong Together, is an important step on that journey. It was led by community and by survivors, and that is the only way we'll be able to make progress—making sure that those survivors have wraparound support in accommodation, with their finances and with their health, helping to stop people from falling through the cracks.

As regards health, a fundamental aspect of human health is brain health. In the period since handing down the landmark report by the Northern Territory coroner into the domestic violence homicide deaths of four First Nations women in the Northern Territory on 24 November 2024, the incidences of CTE in the brains of such women is becoming increasingly apparent, just as it is in the brains of deceased former footballers. I want to recognise the Menzies School of Health Research in the Northern Territory, in partnership with the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, the Alice Springs Hospital, and all of the dedicated nurses and doctors and the work that they are doing in this space to make sure that Aboriginal women presenting at the hospital are informed about the impacts of concussion. I look forward to working with ministers Butler and Plibersek and assistant ministers Kearney and White to make sure this program receives the support it deserves. I thank Assistant Minister White for her visit to Mparntwe Alice Springs earlier this year to meet with the team at Menzies School of Health Research and to talk about their program.

The report also shows that hospitalisation rates of First Nations children as a result of family violence assaults are up again and on the rise. This is devastating. The best way to make progress isn't just to increase support after violent episodes have been reported; it is to stop the violence before it happens. That means we have to do better in engaging with men and boys, both those who are at risk of using violence and those who are victims of violence. Recently, in a remote community in my electorate, a young woman aged 16 was murdered by her partner. It's a story that is too often unreported. There's a shock—there might be a little piece in the newspaper—and then the next day everyone forgets and walks away. We have to stop that. The attitudes of Indigenous men and boys are shaped and warped by algorithms and social media just as we're seeing with the attitudes of men and boys throughout the country. Young men in parts of my electorate need role models who can demonstrate respect for women and healthy relationships, and what we're seeing in social media is the complete opposite. The only people those young men can look at are their fathers and uncles that are in prison, and that is not a good thing.

I'm proud that our government is taking on those tech companies, and we're doing something about social media. Is it the solution? No, there's more work to do, and we have to continue to do that, because I think the futures of our young people, both women and men, depend on us making sure that we can make inroads. I worked in the health and community sector in the Northern Territory for years before I started my political career, and when we came to government in 2001 it was under the stewardship of Clare Martin, the first female chief minister in the Northern Territory, who actually made mandatory the reporting of domestic and family violence in our hospital systems and our clinics. It changed, but it seems to have fallen back a little bit. Both the Commonwealth and Northern Territory governments need to work together to try to deal with some of these things.

Housing options have to be looked at, and that's one of the things that was in the 2026 annual report. Housing options have to be looked at because housing is central to personal safety, and its role in policy responses must be considered across the continuum from prevention to recovery and healing. That came directly out of the report. Many Lingiari constituents fleeing domestic violence in Top End remote communities, particularly women, have found sanctuary in a well-operated facility in Darwin called YiSSA. I have to acknowledge the leadership of our Minister for Indigenous Australians for reaching a co-funding resolution with the Northern Territory government to secure that, because the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory was on the record saying that putting further funding into a facility that was housing vulnerable women and children was a waste of taxpayers' money. This is the same chief minister who doesn't mind putting millions of dollars towards the gas company and looking at those projects. It's just a bit of a disgrace.

So I want to give a shout-out to our Minister for Indigenous Australians, who has put funding on the table to try and look at securing better facilities for those vulnerable women and children so that they've got somewhere safe to stay and are not being put back into the environment that a lot of these women and children are running from. Because those perpetrators are there, and we shouldn't be putting those women and those children back into those circumstances they are coming out of. I commend our government and our ministers. We've got more work to do, but at least that has started. I certainly look forward to making sure that, over coming months and years, we can stop seeing the headlines of another woman losing her life or a child in these terrible circumstances.

The Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission's 2026 Yearly report to parliament makes one thing painfully clear: Australia does not lack recommendations or plans, but what we do lack is implementation, accountability and the basic ability to measure whether women and children are actually becoming safer in Australia. The evidence is devastating. In 2025, the police recorded 39,758 victims of sexual assault. Of course, that is only what is reported. Of those, 80 per cent were female, and more than half were under 18. Breaches of domestic and family violence orders have increased. Persistent homelessness amongst women and children affected by family violence remains deeply concerning, and the outcomes for First Nations women and children are particularly alarming. The intimate partner homicide rates for First Nations women have increased in both years since the national plan baseline.

The commission itself says governments have increased investment, but change is not happening with the impact or pace required. It identifies sexual violence and the family law and justice systems as persistent areas of harm and calls for stronger and earlier intervention, recovery support, evidence and accountability. That accountability gap is quite extraordinary. In its 2025 reporting, the commission found that the national plan had 131 performance measures, yet 89 of those—some 68 per cent—couldn't actually be measured. It's insane. More than half cannot even be measured, yet these are performance measures. How can governments credibly assess progress when most of the indicators still lack a usable data source?

In Warringah, I've heard from frontline organisations including the Northern Beaches Women's Shelter, Mary's House Services, Women and Children First, the Women's Resilience Centre, Dalwood Spilstead, LocalKind and many, many others. They describe rising demand, inadequate crisis and transitional housing, complex legal and migration issues and services stretched well beyond capacity. Northern Beaches Women's Shelter told us demand had risen from about 12 women a day in 2020 to more than 70 a day now. In one year, it housed 273 women and children but had to turn away around 584 women. Now we have another stark example. Mary's House Services has been supporting women and children escaping violence in Sydney's north for more than a decade. In 2025, it recorded a 63 per cent increase in referrals. In 2025-26, it had to decline 176 refuge accommodation referrals because there was no vacancy.

Mary's House Services applied for federal funding to purchase and upgrade to a second refuge to increase their capacity and stop turning women away, and that application was unsuccessful. I met with the minister, and on technicalities—and, I would have to say, a deeply frustrating administrative process—it was rejected. So in the face of overwhelming need, a demand, a solution, a fit-for-purpose proposal, still it was not possible for the government and for the system to support that application. The organisation was able to proceed only because philanthropic donors stepped in to fund the property and establish that second refuge. That's unacceptable. Why is it that government can, at the drop of a hat, find billions for submarines, hundreds of millions of dollars for industries because they happen to be in an electorate that they are trying to preserve their vote, but, when organisations are trying to get funding for a proposal that makes sense, that addresses an immediate need, administratively, it just can't get over the line?

Even now, there is still no government funding committed to operate the second refuge for Mary's House despite all that overwhelming demand. Frontline services should not have to rely on whether there are generous donors and philanthropic support to fill gaps in an essential crisis accommodation. So respectfully to the government, it's not good enough what you're doing because the system is not delivering the funding when there are clear applications for it.

Governments point to increased investments, but funding announcements are not outcomes. The commission's investment mapping shows that around 68 per cent of Commonwealth investment is going to response, while just 11 per cent is directed to prevention and only nine per cent to intervention. If we're serious about ending violence, we must intervene earlier and fund the services that actually keep women and children safe when they are trying to leave. Services need secure, indexed, multiyear funding based on unmet demand. A woman escaping violence should not have to choose between returning to an abusive home or becoming homeless.

Governments must also recognise that economic safety is part of physical safety. Child support, family tax benefit, taxation, social security, migration, family law systems can all be weaponised after separation. Systems must protect victim-survivors, not create new avenues for coercive control. Children must also be treated as victim-survivors, with age-appropriate therapeutic support, stable housing, continuity at school and services designed around their own recovery.

We know prevention must start earlier. That means sustained consent and respectful relationship education, healthy masculinity programs and working with men and boys before violence escalates. This must include regulating environments that increase risk. Alcohol is one of those areas where the government is just turning a blind eye. They can act now. In fact, two years ago the rapid review called for stronger action on alcohol-related harm, including alcohol delivery hours. The government is aware of it. I know the minister and assistant minister are aware of it, but where is the reform? Two years on, still nothing.

South Australia has now introduced legislation that would restrict same-day alcohol delivery to between 10 am and 10 pm, and require a minimum two-hour pause between purchase and delivery. There is a direct link between access to alcohol and increased rates of domestic and family violence and police call-outs. The South Australian government has explicitly linked those changes to recommendations from its Royal Commission into Domestic Family and Sexual Violence. That's a practical prevention reform other jurisdictions need to urgently get on to. Governments have ample evidence about the connection between alcohol-related harm and violence in the home.

We need stronger accountability for people who use violence. Achieving this will require better enforcement of domestic violence orders, stronger information-sharing across jurisdictions, more effective monitoring of high-risk offenders. Why do we still not have a national domestic violence offender register so that serious offending does not simply disappear when someone crosses a state border? How is it that offenders still have access to dating apps where no true proper identification verification is required in accessing those platforms, which make them directly dangerous?

Sexual violence also needs its own properly resourced implementation stream. The Australian Law Reform Commission has already made 64 recommendations to improve justice responses to sexual violence. Those recommendations need a clear implementation pathway, deadlines and public reporting. The same applies to this government's rapid review. Every outstanding recommendation should have a responsible minister, an identified funding pathway, a deadline for implementation and a public measure of success.

The Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission itself needs stronger powers. It should be able to obtain the information it needs, monitor implementation across governments and publicly report on whether commitments have actually been delivered. That is why so many are calling for a royal commission. Only a royal commission will actually shine a light on the lack of implementation and action by governments. We hear announcements of money allocated; we never hear the actual implementation of other specific measures. We don't actually get that accountability.

Domestic and family violence can't be treated as a social services issue alone. It cuts across housing, justice, health, education, communications, migration, taxation, social security and the economy. When that responsibility is fragmented, the accountability disappears. Gaps between departments become gaps in safety. If governments continue to fail to implement the recommendations already before them, then there is no other option than a royal commission to actually shine a light on government inaction. A royal commission can compel evidence across agencies and jurisdictions, examine where services are failing and establish who is responsible when known risks are not acted upon. We know that works when it comes to terrorism and other actions. It is time women's and children's safety is given the same level of urgency.

I approach this discussion about the issue of domestic, family and sexual violence with very mixed feelings because I know we've made changes that improve the lives of women and children escaping violence and that we're taking actions to rein in the digital harms that are pervading society and impacting this current generation of adolescents and children. But I also know that all of us are still not doing enough to protect children and women from violence in a multitude of forms.

I know too many stories of strong, capable women like Jacquie and Linda who, in their 40s and 60s, found themselves victims of violence that they would never have anticipated at the hands of a man they loved. I know too many stories of women who have recognised that what they thought was love was actually coercive control. I also know that there are many who have not yet recognised that or are still to find their way out. And we all know too many stories of women who have suffered sexually at the hands of men, because we read about their deaths and their injuries in the papers far too frequently.

I want to acknowledge all the women who have shared their personal stories with me. They know that they can't change what they experienced themselves, but they want to try and prevent others from the same experiences by improving the legal and administrative systems that are meant to punish the perpetrators and support the victims but don't always do so.

We all have the responsibility at this level of government, at other levels of government and across the community to ensure that we make the changes that are needed. To that end, I want to acknowledge the groups in my electorate who are working in this space. There are many of them, from the Blue Mountains Women's Health and Resource Centre and their youth led domestic violence prevention project, EViE 'Ending Violence, improving Equality'; organisations like DV West and Platform Youth Services, who provide safe places for women; to the Penrith Women's Health Centre, which is a domestic and family violence support service that supports my Hawkesbury, Blue Mountains and Nepean communities. There is the Rotary Club of Windsor's 'STOPDV' campaign, which is part of a broader move by Rotary to really tackle the issue of violence against women and children. They have raised funds, but, more importantly, raised awareness. It includes Rotary clubs like Windsor.

I particularly want to commend the 'Love Bites' program of the Women's Cottage in Richmond. The program which has been piloted at Richmond High School. This is a program that contributes to strengthening young people's understanding, attitudes and behaviours related to safe and respectful relationships and has reached already more than 500 students across years 7 to 11 at Richmond High School. It is very generously supported by Bendigo Bank.

There are several key findings from just that one pilot program. It led to strong improvements in attitudes and awareness of violence. It gave students the ability to have a more-nuanced understanding of violence, including recognising coercive control, understanding how gender stereotypes drive violence, and recognising how pornography can influence expectations about sex and relationships. It also showed increased behavioural and interpersonal skills, so people were more likely to seek help and to support peers who were experiencing disrespect or harm and in communicating consent and boundaries.

All of these groups working on the ground in Macquarie are part of making a difference. But ending gender based violence is a national priority for us that goes beyond just one level of government, and I thank those community groups who have realised that every one of us has a role to play. The Albanese Labor government has invested more than any Australian government ever in tackling this issue: $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 who are experiencing violence. Of course we're seeing progress, but too many women and children continue to be killed, and too many people continue to live with violence every day. We know that one in four women and one in 14 men have experienced violence by an intimate partner since the age of 15.

That's why our government recently conducted a major consultation to shape the next phase of the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children, which will be our second action plan, and that's what I'll refer to it as. That will guide our collective efforts over the next five years. That includes agreement nationally that the second action plan needs to focus on improving support to victims-survivors so they can leave violence safely and recover. It includes intervening earlier to stop violence across health, education and community services, because that is where people will most likely reach out for help sooner. I commend the GPs in Macquarie who are part of programs to help identify violence and help women find a pathway. Finally, the plan includes enhancing supports for children and young people who've experienced violence.

These are some of the priorities. But that doesn't mean we haven't done things already, and I want to turn to some of the things that we know are making a difference and give us hope that there are things we can do that will save women's lives. One of those is the Leaving Violence payment, and making that payment permanent. That $5,000 in financial help, as well as safety planning for women, saves lives. We've taken world-leading action to address the impact of online harms, including our social media ban for under-16s and restricting access to predatory technologies like 'nudify' apps and undetectable stalking tools.

And there is our recently announced Digital Duty of Care, which will protect our under-18s from harmful content that promotes shocking ideas about women, gender equality and pornography. I think people will look back at this moment, at this government, and recognise how important it was that we led the world in many of these steps we're taking to rein in what has been unfettered access for young people to some terrifying content.

The government has also launched Australia's first ever standalone plan to address family, domestic and sexual violence for First Nations women and children, backed by an additional $218 million. We've boosted funding for the 500 Workers program by more than 70 per cent, to support essential frontline services that support women every day. In Macquarie that means there are more workers on the ground every day. We've boosted funding for 1800RESPECT by 40 per cent to keep pace with the demand. We've spent $183 million to make the child support system safer and to help more children get the child support that they are owed.

We've legislated to make sure our social security can't be weaponised by perpetrators of abuse, and we will always look to identify any way in which that is happening and make further changes. We've funded programs that intervene earlier with men who want to change their behaviours. We've provided a record $3.9 billion in legal services, with an extra $800 million for family violence legal services, which is often the pathway for women to re-establish themselves. We've reformed the family law system so it's safer, simpler and more accessible, but I don't for a minute think that there won't be more changes needed going forward. 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. We've legislated 10 days of domestic violence leave so women can keep their jobs while they find safety.

These are just some of dozens of steps we've taken. We agree though that there is more to do. We must lead and the community needs to come with us, as does every other level of government, so we can tackle this terrible situation.

I rise to speak on the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission's yearly report. I want to begin by acknowledging victims-survivors of family and domestic and sexual violence, remembering especially the women and children whose lives have been so tragically taken by senseless acts of violence. I also acknowledge Commissioner Cronin and the commission team and the advocates and organisations who work tirelessly to support victims-survivors and prevent violence.

This report is an important reminder that ending violence against women and children is not a task that can be completed with one law, one program or one announcement. It requires sustained effort and it requires governments to work together. It requires cultural change, and it requires us to listen to the people and organisations who see the reality of this violence every single day.

That is particularly important to me as the member for Newcastle, because, while we rightly talk about national statistics and national policy—that is our role—the impact of family and domestic and sexual violence is felt keenly in communities like mine. It's felt by women who need somewhere safe to go, it's felt by children who are witnessing violence at home, it's felt by frontline workers supporting people through some of the most difficult times of their lives and it's felt by families trying to navigate systems that can sometimes be difficult to understand and even harder to access.

That is why I was pleased to host a Newcastle roundtable to end violence against women and children with the assistant minister, Ged Kearney, last week. The roundtable brought together a group of extraordinary women and organisations from across the region. We were joined by Nova for Women and Children, Family Support Newcastle, Hunter New England and Central Coast Primary Health Network, Got Your Back Sista, the Centre for Women's Health Research, the Centre of Excellence for Equity in Higher Education, Relationships Australia, the Hunter Domestic and Family Violence Consortium, Hunter Women's Centre, Hunter Community Legal Centre, Jenny's Place and the Victims of Crime Assistance League. These organisations work across different parts of the system, but they share a common goal: keeping women and children safe. Bringing them together was an important opportunity to hear directly about what's happening on the ground.

One of the strongest messages was that prevention cannot sit in its own little separate box. It has to be part of everything we do. Prevention means helping families before they reach crisis point. It means giving children the opportunity to learn what respectful relationships look like. It means challenging attitudes that excuse controlling or abusive behaviour. It means working with people who use violence to change their behaviours. It means making sure that people know where to turn when something doesn't feel right.

Prevention doesn't mean taking our eye off the services that people already need when they are experiencing violence today. It's not about excusing people for their behaviours either. For someone experiencing violence, a policy that might make a difference five years from now doesn't help them tonight. They need somewhere safe to go. They need someone to believe in them. They need legal advice, health care, financial support, housing or counselling and they need the services to be able to work together. That was a very clear message from our Newcastle roundtable. When someone is experiencing family, domestic or sexual violence, their life does not fit neatly into government portfolios. Their housing situation is generally connected to their financial circumstances. Their financial circumstances will affect their ability to leave. Their health might be affected by the violence. Their children might require support. They might need legal support at the same time. Yet too often our systems are structured around individual services rather than the whole person.

We need to make it easier for people to move between these services. A victim-survivor should not have to become an expert at navigating government systems simply to get help, and they should not have to tell their story repeatedly because agencies are not communicating with each other. That's where the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission's work is so valuable. It provides an opportunity to look beyond individual programs and ask whether the system is actually keeping people safe. The government has made significant investments in this area including the permanent Leaving Violence Program, the support for crisis accommodation and housing and the increased support for frontline services. The national risk assessment framework is another important step. When somebody presents to a GP, a police officer, a social worker or another service, we need to make sure that warning signs are recognised and that the response does not depend on which door they happen to walk through first. We need to look upstream. We need to ask why violence is occurring in the first place and what we can do to stop it.

That means challenging gender inequality and attitudes that normalise disrespect. It means teaching young people about consent and healthy relationships. Increasingly, it means confronting what young people are seeing and learning online. Technology has changed the environment in which our children are growing up. Young people can encounter misogyny, violent pornography and degrading material with just a few taps on their phone. Parents and teachers are doing their best, but they cannot be expected to carry that responsibility alone. Technology companies also have a great responsibility for the very environments that they are creating. Government has a responsibility to make sure that those companies meet safety standards, and all of us have a responsibility to have conversations with young people about respect, consent and what a healthy relationship actually looks like. As a government, we're already meeting that with our world-leading social media ban and the incoming digital duty of care laws. They are really important new measures, and I am very proud that this government has taken on those big battles.

Importantly, prevention has to begin early, and we cannot wait for a young person to already be using violence before we decide intervention is necessary. We need to reach boys early. We need to give them positive role models of masculinity. We need to teach them that strength does not mean control, that consent is fundamental and that respectful boundaries are non-negotiable. We need to make sure that prevention efforts reach all our communities. That includes listening to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and supporting approaches that reflect experiences and strengths. It means recognising there's no single pathway into violence and no single solution. It means that we make sure that regional communities like Newcastle have access to the same quality of support as the people that live in our capital cities.

There is much work to be done on this front. Governments, of course, play a critical role. We're funding the services. We're making laws. We regulate systems. We're bringing governments and organisations together. But we cannot be in every home, in every classroom, in every workplace, in every sporting club, at every minute. That's where the rest of us all come in. We can challenge a joke that isn't funny. We can take a disclosure seriously. We can teach our children that love is never an excuse for control. We can model respectful relationships. We can speak up when we see behaviour that crosses a line. We can make sure that the people around us know that asking for help is not a sign of weakness. These may seem like small things, but social change is always small, slow and incremental in Australia. It happens because people decide that something which was once tolerated is no longer acceptable.

We have seen change in Australia before. Family and domestic violence was once routinely dismissed as a private matter never to be discussed in public forums like a parliament. Today we've got a much stronger understanding about what violence means. It is a matter of public responsibility and a matter of justice. We have to take every step we can to curb this scourge. Newcastle organisations that I met with last week are already doing this important work. They are up to the task. They are leading important ways in which we connect these services. There are great models that the rest of the nation can learn from too.

Debate adjourned.