Senate debates

Thursday, 4 July 2019

Motions

Violence Against Women

12:37 pm

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

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) since the start of 2019, there have been 25 women killed by violence in Australia as reported by Counting Dead Women Australia from Destroy The Joint,

(ii) today there have been reports of a further violent death of a woman in Queensland – her death is under investigation and raises the toll to 26,

(iii) there is no national government reporting program to record the ongoing toll of women killed by violence in real time – this work is currently left to researchers at not-for-profit organisations like Destroy the Joint,

(iv) on average, one woman a week is murdered by her current or former partner,

(v) 1 in 3 Australian women have experienced physical violence since the age of 15,

(vi) 1 in 5 Australian women has experienced sexual violence,

(vii) 1 in 6 Australian women has experienced physical or sexual violence by a current or former partner,

(viii) 1 in 4 Australian women has experienced emotional abuse by a current or former partner,

(ix) Australian women are nearly three times more likely than men to experience violence from an intimate partner,

(x) there is growing evidence that women with disabilities are more likely to experience violence,

(xi) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women report experiencing violence in the previous 12 months at 3.1 times the rate of non-Indigenous women, and

(xii) in 2014-15, Indigenous women were 32 times as likely to be hospitalised due to family violence as non-Indigenous women; and

(b) calls on the Federal Government to:

(i) recognise domestic violence against women as a national security crisis,

(ii) adequately fund frontline domestic violence and crisis housing services to ensure that all women seeking safety can access these services when and where they need them,

(iii) legislate for 10 days paid domestic violence leave so that women don't have to choose between paying the bills and seeking safety,

(iv) implement all 25 recommendations contained in the report of the Finance and Public Administration References Committee on domestic violence in Australia, tabled on 20 August 2015, and

(v) much like the national road toll, maintain and publish an official real-time national toll of women killed by violence in Australia.

12:38 pm

Photo of Anne RustonAnne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Photo of Scott RyanScott Ryan (President) Share this | | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

Photo of Anne RustonAnne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | | Hansard source

The Morrison government has taken action against the scourge of violence against Australian women. The government is making the single biggest ever investment of $328 million to the next national plan to reduce violence against women and children, which is focused on prevention, frontline services and emergency accommodation.

Question agreed to.