Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Over a year ago, I stood here and urged Labor to save Windsor Community Children's Centre. It's a beloved community-run early learning centre in my home city of Melbourne. After huge pressure from the centre, from the Greens and from the community, Labor promised to save it. They made an election commitment to work with the local council to buy the site from Swinburne University. But, six months on, Windsor is again on the brink. Eighty families and 30 educators could be out by the end of December. Yes, Swinburne needs to accept the offer, but Labor made the promise and must keep it. Labor need to step up, keep their word and stop forcing anxious families back into a fight that they should never have needed to restart. Labor, we are calling on you to work with Swinburne to deliver the solution that you promised. Our community cannot afford another broken commitment.

I rise to speak on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Violence against women and girls is not just a crisis; it is one of the most pervasive and devastating human rights violations in the world. Here, in Australia, the reality is devastating. One woman is killed every single week as a result of domestic and family violence. These aren't numbers; they are lives stolen, families shattered and communities grieving. They are a reminder of how far we still have to go.

Violence against women doesn't stop at our borders. It is global, it is entrenched and it is escalating. Members of the Hazara community in Melbourne tell me that in Afghanistan millions of women are living under a regime determined to erase them—their education denied, movement restricted and dignity stripped. Every day without freedom is another day of violence.

Today I met with members of the Sudanese community, who described the horrors unfolding in el-Fasher in the midst of a horrific humanitarian crisis and ongoing proxy war. We are hearing widespread reports of systematic sexual and gender based violence being perpetrated by the RSF. These are crimes against humanity committed in real time while the world looks away. The message is clear: the fight to eliminate violence against women isn't symbolic; it is urgent, it is global and it demands action, not words.

The Australian government must do more. As a first step, we must fully fund violence prevention and frontline services; deliver culturally safe and community led support for women; and centre the rights, safety and self-determination of women and girls in every international development program that we fund. We owe it to women here, and we owe it to every girl growing up in a world that still treats her safety as optional. We must work towards a world where no woman anywhere is silenced, subjugated or erased and where freedom from violence is not an aspiration but a guarantee.

Earlier this month, I spent time on beautiful Murujuga country in Karratha with Raelene Cooper and Aunty Esther. Murujuga is a place of staggering natural beauty. There are red cliff ledges cascading across the landscape with ancient stories etched into stone. It is a living gallery of the world's oldest rock art. Standing among engravings that have watched over this land for more than 40,000 years is indescribable. Every line carries culture, ceremony and identity—lores of a people who have cared for this country since time immemorial. Yet beyond that breathtaking landscape a very different story unfolds. The gas, fertiliser and chemical expansions of Woodside, Perdaman and Yara now loom over this sacred place. Their chimneys and flare stacks rise beyond the ancient art like a dystopian backdrop, a jarring contrast between the deep time of First Nations culture and the reckless greed of the fossil fuel industry.

The truth is devastating. Gas cartels are destroying sacred country, their toxic emissions are eroding the rock art. Their industrial footprint scars the land and poisons waterways that have sustained life and culture for tens of thousands of years. Their climate pollution hits First Nations communities first and hardest. We learn from Save our Songlines, whose extraordinary determination makes one thing clear: we need to stand with them, match their strength and build a movement powerful enough to protect Murujuga's survival. I want to thank Raelene and Aunty Esther. Your strength is extraordinary and we stand with you in your fight against the fossil fuel cartels.