Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Families and Social Services, Senator Ruston. How is the Morrison government ensuring vulnerable women and children experiencing or at risk of all forms of violence are supported during the coronavirus pandemic?

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Senator Hughes, for a question on this particularly important matter. The federal government continues to work with the sector and with individuals to make sure that women and their children are supported and have the necessary avenues should they need to be assisted as a response to family and domestic violence. Over the past few months, during the coronavirus pandemic, my colleague the Minister for Women, Senator Payne, and I have been working very closely with the state and territory ministers to make sure that our response is appropriate and that we have made sure we have all the safety measures in place, particularly recognising that it's actually the states and territories who have the primary responsibility for the delivery of frontline services to women who find themselves in a situation of needing help.

In addition to that, the Morrison government has made available $150 million on top of the existing money that we've put into the National plan to reduce violence against women and their children. As part of that $150 million, $20 million has been invested to increase the capacity of national initiatives that were already included in the plan to make sure that they are supercharged, because we didn't know at the start of this pandemic and we are still unsure of what kind of support women are going to need. But as restrictions are starting to be lifted we need to make sure that we are in a position where we have all the support services in place so that, if women need our support, they are able to get it. This could include such things as counselling support for families or at-risk people. It could also include men's behaviour change programs to make sure that we're providing not just short-term but medium- and longer-term responses to support men during this time. There is 1800RESPECT and making sure that there are sufficient resources to make sure that any woman who needs to access help is able to get it in a very timely manner. (Time expired)

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Hughes, a supplementary question?

Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How has the government ensured all Australians have access to information about domestic, family and sexual violence and the importance for those affected to seek help?

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

During the COVID pandemic, it has been very challenging to make sure that all women and children—and men, for that matter—have access to timely and appropriate information to make sure that they can get the support that they need should they find themselves in a situation of domestic violence. A number of initiatives have been put in place, but one of the most critical information campaigns that we launched during this time is the Help is Here campaign. The critical message of the Help is Here campaign is, firstly, to make sure that people know where they are able to get access to the support they need should they find themselves in a situation of needing that but also to reinforce the message that tough times do not excuse tough times at home. The Help is Here campaign has used a number of different types of media and traditional media, but particularly we wanted to use more innovative ways. I'd like to thank the supermarkets—Woolies, Coles, ALDI and Metcash—for making sure that they made available the information in women's restrooms and the like so that women could get it. (Time expired)

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Hughes, a final supplementary question?

Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can the minister highlight the importance of an appropriately executed parliamentary inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violence?

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is very important that the inquiry that was referred by me and the Minister for Women, Minister Payne, recently to the Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs was clearly around two things. One was to make sure that we didn't miss the opportunity to learn through this particularly intense pandemic the impacts of the kind of crisis this is on women and their children as it related to domestic violence. The second aspect of this that we thought was very important was, as we are coming up to the conclusion of the fourth action plan for the protection of women and their children, we thought it was time we needed to have a look at what was working and what wasn't working. We needed to listen to the experience of the sector and learn how various governments service the community and listen to what they had to say and what they thought we should take into the next plan. Most particularly, we wanted to make sure that we have a platform to make sure all Australians understand that we all have responsibility if we're really going to make a difference.

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

After that great answer, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.