Ms BADGER (Lyons) – Honourable Speaker, I thank the member, Mrs Pentland, for bringing on this motion today, a day when we have already taken great collaborative action on making Tasmania a safer place for women, children and families. I want to reiterate what Ms Ogilvie just said, that this is an issue that goes above politics. This collaborative approach is precisely what we need of all elected MPs working together to achieve the best possible outcomes. It is notable that putting politics aside, as Tasmanian MPs have done for the past decade on the prevention of family, domestic and sexual violence, is sector celebrated. That is something to be incredibly proud of and something that we must continue to do in this place.
Our state’s work in the past has genuinely been nation‑leading. In 2004, Tasmania was one of the first jurisdictions in Australia to develop an integrated whole‑of‑government criminal justice response to family violence. The Safe at Home program was recognised for its response to family violence and awarded gold in the community‑led category for the 2019 Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Awards.
Ever since the introduction of the Family Violence Act in 2004, Tasmania has continued to lead the way in recognising and responding to family violence, for example through the introduction of the crime of persistence in family violence in 2019. It was in 2015 that then Liberal Premier Will Hodgman promised to provide significant resources to tackle family violence. That came as a result of meeting with domestic violence campaigner, Australian of the Year Rosie Batty.
Everything that we have done that has genuinely been nation‑leading has been thanks to everybody across the Chamber working together. In particular, it was Mrs Petrusma, who has just left the room, who really led the way and was an incredible leader for everybody in the work that she did.
Next week – and I have already spoken about this today – will be the tenth anniversary of the 2014 White Ribbon motion that was presented by the then three male leaders of the three parties in this place – Nick McKim, Will Hodgman and David Bartlett. I hope on that tenth anniversary next week that the Premier will renew that motion and pledge to, again, upscale our state’s response, collectively, for all MPs in preventing family violence. We need to show Tasmanians our collective leadership and collective support in this time of need. That goes to point (3)(d): ‘to engage with community leaders’. The Premier is absolutely our community leader and what an incredibly strong message he would be sending to all Tasmanians.
According to ABS data of Personal Safety Australia 2022‑23, an estimated 30 per cent or over 70,000 women in Tasmania have experienced violence, emotional abuse or economic abuse by a cohabiting partner since the age of 15. These rates are some of the highest of any jurisdiction in Australia. Concerningly, young Tasmanian women between the ages of 18 and 19 years old are nearly three times more likely to experience physical violence in a relationship compared to other teens nationally. Reports on family violence to police in Tasmania have continued to increase since 2015‑16 from over 5000 to over 8000 in the past financial year.
We can and must do much more to prevent family, sexual and domestic violence in Australia, and indeed across the entire country. It is not an issue for states to mitigate alone, it is up to all levels of government. This motion is very important for highlighting the need for preventative measures in what it calls for – age‑appropriate education to enable Tasmania’s younger generations to know what is and what is not acceptable behaviour towards family members and intimate partners, and to better educate them on equality.
Our Watch, one of Australia’s leading organisations on the prevention of violence against women and children, says:
Internationally, research has demonstrated that school-based prevention initiatives can reduce the likelihood that students will go on to experience or perpetrate violence in the future. Evaluations have shown that respectful relationships education has the potential to shift the gendered drivers of violence.
One part of the 2014-15 plan that the Liberals brought forward to tackle the social epidemic of domestic violence was going into schools and talking to children, which included, as Will Hodgman said, ‘Young boys who would be part of a future generation that has more positive and respectful relationships and beliefs about females.’ That was a decade ago. We have made progress. We still have much further to go.
That is not without acknowledging that there are some actions underway, and Ms Ogilvie has already pointed to some of those. On paragraph (3)(c) – ‘supporting industry‑led initiatives in the workplace’ – the Deputy Premier spoke earlier about what has been done in the workplace for the public sector in terms of educating men in the workplace around coercive control. There are also going to be future measures that Tasmanian police are going to be undertaking through some interactive training provided by Small Steps 4 Hannah – and I want to thank them for all the work that they are doing.
That is around recognising coercive control. This is so important because it is something that we are really beginning to discuss as a society. The more that we talk about it, the more it is going to be recognised, and the more people are going to come forward for safety and help as they need it.
It is incredibly complex and it is an area that Tasmania can do much more. Talking comparatively, from 1 July this year, New South Wales has made coercive control an offence. In South Australia, there have been multiple different pieces of legislation that have been put forward in an attempt to make it an offence there.
Paragraph (1)(c) of this motion – ‘increasing investment in domestic and family violence initiatives has not resulted in a significant reduction in incidents’. Yes, but it is not quite so simple, as investment does not equal a reduction in incident reporting. As we have a greater understanding right across the state and indeed the nation of abuse in its various forms, and as there is a growing awareness of the support services that are available for more women and children, more people will be coming forward. More people will be talking about what they have suffered and what they have gone through, and more people are going to be seeking safety.
Of course, we need to do so much more, and there is much more that cannot be captured in a motion with a word limit. We have to have more rapid rehousing at an appropriate scale that families need if they have to leave their family home. We have to ensure that all of our frontline services are fully funded, that they are equipped to deal with the increased number of women and families seeking help, and that they can enact outreach programs such as some of those noted in Mrs Pentland’s motion.
We have to continue to support the Family Violence Alliance and all the organisations involved as they work toward establishing the formal peak body that they have so successfully now been funded for. Just a few months ago we heard from victim/survivors speaking about Tasmania being the only jurisdiction in Australia limiting the legal definition of family violence to abuse against a spouse or partner. That means that people who experience abuse by a relative, for example, an older person who might be abused or have coercive control used against them from their adult child, cannot have access to FVOs and other support services that they need.
There is also an enormous opportunity for Tasmania, if we wanted to take it, to genuinely be nation‑leading and futuristic in this parliament. If we were to establish a joint standing committee on the prevention of family, domestic and sexual violence, we would be the only jurisdiction in the country to have such a standalone joint standing committee, with members from both places coming together to show Tasmania that we are taking this matter absolutely seriously at all times, not just when it is in the headlines and in the media – not just being reactive to something but being proactive.
I really look forward to everything that we will be doing in the future. We need to do a lot more and it is a responsibility of every elected MP to take serious action on this matter. The Greens will support the motion.
