Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

As a servant to the women, the men and the children of Queensland and Australia, I say violence is never okay. The absence of mutual respect creates space for all forms of violence to appear. At every turn, in our families, in our workplaces and in society, we can all be champions for mutual respect and self-respect, looking out for others and doing to others as we would want them to do to us. An approach that singles out only one aspect of the problem of violence will, firstly, never fix the problem and, secondly, make the work to remedy the problem divisive. There's always just a perpetrator and a victim, rather than recognising the problem is much more complex than that. These are critical relationships and the people involved need support to find a better way of doing things.

I reject Senator Rice's attempt to link gendered violence and sexual harassment to the call for an independent inquiry into the Attorney-General. Both issues must be dealt with separately. It's a desperate effort from Senator Rice to address violence by latching on to the current media furore, hoping that somehow that's the way to fix the problem of violence and harassment in our community. It's clutching at straws and greatly diminishes the genuine issues around violence, be it in the workplace, in our community or at home. We need reminding that parliament makes the laws, police enforce the laws and judges adjudicate on the law. Parliament therefore has no legitimate position to establish an independent inquiry into whether the Attorney-General ought to hold that position. That's the scope of the police, not parliamentarians.

One Nation rejects violence in any form in relationships, in families and in the workplace. We need a realistic, intelligent, determined and firm approach to addressing the violence we all know exists. We will, though, never keep the women and children safe by focusing just on them and the transgressions against them. They will become safe when we have the courage and the intelligence to deal with the whole package and all the players. These are often intimate relationships. There's much more than the violence at stake here. We will never keep the men safe, either, just by focusing on them and the abuse they suffer. We need even more courage to look beyond our biases and the stereotypes of the nurturing roles we give to women and to be honest because one in three men also suffers abuse and violence. They too deserve protection. It's a fact that we will never keep the men safe by vilifying the women and we will never keep the women safe by vilifying only the men.

It's not just up to the government to address the violence in our family units and workplaces. It's up to all of us to take responsibility for the violence and unacceptable behaviours around us. How we as parents model respectful relationships to our children is the starting point. From there, are we doing what we can when our friends are being ill-treated in relationships? In the workplace, are we standing up against those we work with when they have gone too far? How are we supporting those colleagues who have been the recipient of bad behaviour? And for those who behave badly, while it is totally unacceptable, they need support to be better versions of themselves. When we alienate the person because of their unacceptable behaviour, we give up any real opportunity to remediate the situation and we run the risk of entrenching the violence and harassment. Expecting the Prime Minister or government to fix gendered violence and sexual harassment by latching on to the current media furore is an abdication of responsibility that we all have towards each other. It's a cheap and ineffective way to address the gravely serious issue of family and workplace violence and makes things worse.