Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Smith for the question and for the work that she has done in the last term and this term to support Australian women and make sure they get a better deal. Violence against women and children is never acceptable, and today the Minister for Social Services and the assistant minister, Minister Kearney, and I have announced that we are providing an additional $41.8 million for 1800RESPECT, to make sure that everyone who seeks help can get it. We know, and many senators in this place know, that 1800RESPECT is a critical service supporting families experiencing domestic and family violence to have the trauma-informed and more easily accessible support that they need. This will include on-demand video, counselling and SMS capability, so that victims-survivors can access support by the medium that best suits their needs.

In addition to this, of course, this government has proudly made important and significant investments into ensuring that we are doing everything we can to end violence against women and children, including making the Leaving Violence Program permanent and introducing legislation to make sure our social security system can't be weaponised by perpetrators of abuse. We've invested into emergency and transitional housing, to ensure that women can reach safety when they need it. We are investing in legal services, including women's legal services; legislating 10 days paid domestic violence leave; and launching an inquiry into domestic, family and sexual violence related suicide. We've established the National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence in universities, implemented all of the 55 Respect@Work recommendations and legislated a positive duty for employers to protect staff and customers from sexual harassment and abuse. And we know that there is more work to do.