Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

At the request of Senator Rice, I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The urgent need for the Morrison Government to respect the thousands of Australians who marched in the Women's March 4 Justice yesterday, take urgent action to end gendered violence and sexual harassment, and establish an independent inquiry into the Attorney-General's fitness to hold that position.

I rise to speak on the matter of public urgency, which is the urgent need for the Morrison government to respect the thousands of Australians who marched in the Women's March 4 Justice yesterday to take urgent action to end gendered violence and sexual harassment and to establish an independent inquiry into the Attorney-General's fitness to hold that position.

It's been a rough few weeks in this place. It's been a rough few weeks for women right around the country. It's been a rough few centuries, frankly, but these matters have been brought to a head in this workplace with the rape of a staffer and with allegations of a historical rape of a young woman by the Attorney-General. Now, sadly, we know this happens far too much, far too often in many workplaces, in many homes and on the streets, but the nation's attention is now on this matter, and there is a building momentum for justice and for equality and safety for all women.

That was on display so powerfully yesterday. Like some of the people in this chamber, I went down to the Women's March 4 Justice. I was one of the 100,000 people across the country who did that. I felt rage, but I felt strength and I felt hope that so many people wanted action on this most crucial issue of women's safety and our rights to equality and to freedom from violence and abuse. I think every member of parliament should have been there yesterday, and I was extremely disappointed that the Prime Minister didn't make the effort to walk out of this building for a few minutes and do some listening. Women are hurting, and all we see is this government trying to silence us, trying to ignore us and trying to distract from the political attention with other announcements that it's so desperate to talk about because it doesn't want to talk about women and rapists in its own ranks.

Women are not going to be placated. We are angry and we are not going anywhere. It was a really stark contrast yesterday, with women hitting the streets. There were young women, old women, men who support women's rights for safety and equality—a whole spectrum of people, including lots of really strong women of colour on the speakers' podium, lots of survivors and lots of support. But in this place, in these halls of power, the patriarchy just wanted to protect itself. The status quo just wanted to protect itself. That was very disappointing.

We saw when the rape allegations of Ms Brittany Higgins were first made that the Prime Minister didn't know that rape was bad until he spoke to his wife and she had to say, 'What if this was our daughters?' To that I say women have value irrespective of our relationship to a man. The fact that the Prime Minister needed to be reminded of that and didn't intuitively know it was really the start of a national heartbreak that this guy is in charge and just doesn't get it—so deeply doesn't get it. It's just gotten worse since then, because he had a little chat with Minister Porter, took his word that it was all totes okay, didn't even bother to read the dossier from the woman who alleged that she was raped by Christian Porter as a teenager and who has now taken her own life. And now, of course, the police can't keep the investigation open, because she's not with us anymore and didn't sign her extensive statement prior to taking her own life. The system let her down, and now the system is protecting itself rather than delivering justice. For shame.

That's why women marched yesterday. I was proud to receive two petitions, and I will be moving a motion tomorrow giving voice to those petitions. They really articulate what women want right now. It's an inquiry not just into the rapes that have happened here in Parliament House but into rapes that happen everywhere. I want to remind people of the stark statistics, because often we hear from men: 'Why didn't she go to the police straightaway? She must be making it up, because she didn't go to the cops straightaway.' It shows absolutely no understanding of the psychology of rape and it particularly shows no understanding of the fact that the justice system lets women down at almost every turn. We know that only about 10 per cent of sexual assaults are reported, because women fear they won't be believed, they know they will be retraumatised and they will be discouraged from pursuing it. Of that 10 per cent, we know about 10 per cent, so one per cent of the total, actually progresses to a conviction. So one per cent of rapes and sexual assaults lead to a conviction. Is it any wonder that women don't seek justice more often? They know it's not going to be delivered.

We should be fixing that, but instead the Prime Minister is victim blaming and is taking the word of alleged perpetrators and not even giving victims and survivors the dignity of reading their words. He is trying to get off this issue as quickly as possible. It's not going away, Prime Minister. I'm so pleased that some of the members of the coalition attended yesterday's march. I'm really pleased that folk from many other parties attended as well. But the Prime Minister wasn't there and the Minister for Women wasn't there. They should have been there, because those speeches were incredibly powerful. They called for justice for sexual assault survivors. They called for action on those recommendations in the Respect@work report, which was tabled 14 months ago and has barely seen the light of day. I asked yesterday how many recommendations had been acted upon. I got told 'a number'. Today we hear it's three of 55 that some action has been exerted on. Well, fine. But do better. Three is not 55. Please action all of them.

I am pleased that there is now a particular report into sexual harassment and the culture of Parliament House that's been established and that the Sex Discrimination Commissioner will lead that and that it will cover every worker in this building, not just the staff members but the people who work in the press gallery, the people who look after the kids in the early childhood education centre and the people who make coffee at Aussie's. I think that culture review is going to be explosive. But what I want to see is a commitment from this government, or the next, that those recommendations will be acted upon, because the last ones have been tantamount to ignored and it's not good enough.

So women are hitting the streets. We are raising these issues. We won't accept a Prime Minister that ignores us, that doesn't get these issues and that just closes ranks and stands with his privileged white men to keep their power entrenched. It's not going to fly with the electorate. I know the Prime Minister doesn't want to listen to women, but maybe he will listen to Newspoll, and that's already showing that his support and support for his party is dropping. I suspect this is one of the reasons. Women vote, Prime Minister. If that's all you care about, at least you could reflect on that. We marched for justice yesterday. We will fight for justice every day. Women belong in this building. We deserve safety. We deserve safety no matter what place we are in. We stand united to deliver that outcome.