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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

Forty-six women were killed by violence in 2024. That's up from 34 in the previous year. Over the weekend, the numbers for 2025 so far rose to 39, with the murder of Rhukaya Lake by her partner. More than 40,000 sexual assaults were reported to police last year, the highest on record for 30 years. Given that many women still fear coming forward, we know that these numbers underestimate the scale of the problem. Women living with disability are still three times more likely to experience domestic, family and sexual violence. First Nations women are 33 times more likely to be hospitalised by assault. These numbers are absolutely shocking, or they should be shocking. But they've become so normalised that I fear that we're not shocked enough. The Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission's yearly report once again catalogues the ongoing scourge of gender based violence. I thank the commissioner, Micaela Cronin; her team; and the Lived Experience Advisory Council for their work in this traumatic space.

Since the first National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and Their Children began 15 years ago, there have been countless inquiries, reports, reviews and taskforces. There have been over 1,000 recommendations made, mostly saying the same things: we need early intervention; we need culturally appropriate responses; we need to prevent economic abuse, systems abuse and technology facilitated abuse; we need to target sexual violence; we need to support children impacted by family violence; and we need effective programs for men and boys about healthy masculinity.

There's no shortage of solutions, but there remains a shortage of action and a shortage of funding to let the services do the work that's needed. If the government really wants to turn these statistics around, it needs to stump up the money needed on the ground right now. The sector has repeatedly called for $1 billion per year to meet demand so that women aren't turned away from shelters or legal support services. I welcome the top-ups that this government has made, but it still falls short of what is needed so that everyone who seeks help can get it. Nationally, women's legal services are turning away 52,000 people a year because they don't have the funding they need to keep up with demand. And we must have more data on unmet need to guide funding decisions. I have been asking for more than eight years now how unmet need is measured. The pace has been absolutely glacial, and I acknowledge that the current pilot data collection framework exists and that the commission's planned work on a national funding map exists, but it is unbelievable that, after 15 years of national plans, we don't already have a clear picture of the funding gaps and then for how those gaps are to be fixed.

The commissioner's report is scathing about the fragmentation in funding and service delivery. Solutions are not delivered at scale or with the urgency needed to tackle the problem. We also need an investment in workforce development across specialist services. The national plan cannot succeed unless we support the sector for those folk on the front line of the work. We need to make sure that they can attract, support and fairly pay expert staff; provide culturally appropriate environments; and engage safely with perpetrators. We need to involve young people, people with lived experience of violence, people with disabilities and LGBTQIA+ people to ensure that services meet their varying needs. We need a standalone First Nations national plan. This is overdue. It needs to be implemented urgently with secure funding to Aboriginal organisations to deliver outcomes. We need to engage with men and boys in all communities about violence prevention strategies, healthy masculinity, consent and respect, and to build skills for better communication and healthy relationships.

But I cannot stress enough that involving more voices only helps if you actually listen. The government cannot keep asking the same questions while not acting on the answers. Some progress is being made, and we are fortunate to have a sector that is deeply committed to working across prevention, response and recovery to end gender based violence—and I really, deeply thank everyone who does this vital work, but thanks isn't enough. They need funding. To avoid next year's report being yet another catalogue of unmet need, the government must take the commission's recommendations seriously, listen to the sector and the survivors that they support, and take action.

Given it's Melbourne Cup today, I highlight the strong recommendations made by the government's rapid review task force last year to restrict alcohol sales and home deliveries, to ban gambling ads and to tackle online gambling, all of which are contributors to domestic, family and sexual violence. The government just keeps on stalling on these reforms, and women are suffering as a result. How many more inquiries and reports are we going to need before we listen to those people supporting women and their children fleeing violence that say they don't have enough money to help people that need their help? When you can waste billions of dollars on nuclear submarines but you cannot fund a women's shelter, something is going seriously wrong. You need to fix it.