Ms BADGER (Lyons) – Honourable Speaker, across Australia this year alone, 86 women that we know of have been killed by an intimate partner. If we were to observe a minute’s silence now, that would not be enough for a second for each of those women to reflect on their lives.
One in four women and one in eight men in Australia have experienced violence by an intimate partner or family member. One in five women and one in 16 men have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15. Some women are at heightened risk of experiencing violence. The Department of Premier and Cabinet’s safety and justice information highlights that 90% of Australian women with an intellectual disability have been subject to sexual abuse, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are five times more likely to experience physical violence. It is not good enough and it must stop. We all deserve to be safe wherever we go, not least in our own homes.
This year in May, the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, declared domestic violence in Australia a national crisis. This action followed rallies around the country attended by tens of thousands of people bravely sharing their stories and standing united to eliminate violence against women. No matter who we are, where we come from, where we live, we can be subject to family, domestic or sexual violence.
Ending violence against women in a generation, as the Prime Minister pledged, will take all levels of government, every single person in this state, indeed, around the world, to create societal change, legislative and systemic reform. That is why today’s recommitment is important in creating a safer, equal Tasmanian community. Today, like in 2014, this motion is being proactive. It is us standing up and saying that enough is enough and that we will do all we can, not being reactive to something in the media or the like.
Thank you to the Premier, Mr Rockliff, for leading by example for all Tasmanian men today, by standing here tabling this motion to show all Tasmanians that family, domestic and sexual violence have no place in a modern, equal society. Also, thank you to minister Palmer and her staff for preparing the motion collaboratively.
A lot has changed in Tasmania and socially to people around the world in the decades since the original White Ribbon motion was discussed. I acknowledge, as others have done, the members who tabled the 2014 pledge: then premier Will Hodgman, Bryan Green, and Kim Booth. Propping up these male leaders were three extraordinary women who organised the motion: Cassy O’Connor, Lara Giddings, and Jacquie Petrusma, who was the person who spoke with me at the start of the year and inspired bringing this motion back for a recommitment.
As Minister Palmer state this morning, today’s recommitment is a reminder of our roles across each and every one of our portfolios, our shadow portfolios or ministries. This is a revision to ensure Tasmania addresses new challenges that we face and admits when we have not done enough in the past.
In the past decade, Tasmania has led the nation on various programs, such as the award‑winning Safe at Home program. We have seen our family violence legislation broadened to include non-fatal strangulations, the persistence of family violence, and pets, into the Family Violence Act. Thank you, Mr O’Byrne.
We welcome ongoing measures such as Tasmania Police undergoing training to help them do the best job that they can in heated, brutal and complex situations. Tasmania is also well on the way to establishing a family violence peak body, as per one of the commission of inquiry’s recommendations. In the past decade, we have come to better understand more complex forms of emotional abuse and coercive control.
As technology has advanced, sadly, so has its weaponisation in family violence. Monday’s results released from the Social Research Centre highlighted the silent menace of tech-based control: digitally tracking a partner’s whereabouts, sharing and controlling their passwords, and the like. The study showed that one in 10 Australians consider tracking their partner’s location as reasonable behaviour, and that men are far more likely to view tech-based monitoring as acceptable.
The eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said:
For too long, the gravity of technology-facilitated gender-based violence has been downplayed.
Social media now facilitates an instant means of sharing hate – and indeed, as Ms White noted yesterday, words such as those by Trump that glorify assault on women. These new challenges emphasise why today’s renewed commitment is timely.
What has stayed the same in the past decade is the collective collaboration from all MPs to stand against domestic, family and sexual violence in Tasmania. This is sector-celebrated and something that all MPs should be proud of.
However, collaboration alone is not something to rest upon. We have an obligation to upscale our present work to make Tasmania safe, to ensure Tasmanian women and children can flee unsafe situations, and that they will receive the care that they need to recover and get back on their feet, and live their lives without fear in our beautiful state. It is crucial that we upscale educating Tasmanian children, at home and in schools, about respectful relationships, consent, and how they will be the ones who create the most caring, kind and harmonious Tasmania, as Mrs Pentland’s motion called on last week.
It is important to acknowledge that the more we speak about eliminating family, domestic and sexual violence in Tasmania, and that the more services we can offer those fleeing unsafe situations, there will be more people who come forward. That is why it is not straightforward to see direct investment equate to a reduction in incidents.
This is why we need a holistic approach. We need to fund frontline services, legal services, and counselling services. We must also ensure outreach programs are funded, that there is ongoing education for Tasmania’s next generation, and that we not only have enough crisis shelter accommodation and transitional houses, but also safe, appropriate and affordable long-term housing available to women and children who have escaped family violence.
The lack of affordable housing in Tasmania is hitting women and children hardest and is resulting in women and children staying in unsafe situations. Shelter Tasmania’s recent report found that each year an estimated 933 Tasmanian women are returning to a violent partner or entering homelessness after experiencing family violence due to a lack of housing. Just one in 20 women experiencing family violence and identified as needing long-term housing actually received that long-term housing. The solution is to build more social housing that is fit for purpose, whole homes suitable for families. This crisis is even more acute in the north-west and we call on the government to do all it can to act on the findings of Anglicare’s recent report Unsafe Unhoused to prioritise the north-west region of Tasmania when allocating funding for supports to assist victim/survivors of domestic and family violence.
The fact that support and legal systems can be weaponised against women is widely acknowledged. The federal government’s own Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has noted the ways that social security and child support systems can be used by perpetrators to continue to exercise coercive control over their partners, as well as limiting women’s choices about leaving because of the sheer financial impossibility of doing so. We heard yesterday with Ms Johnston’s bill how the Tasmanian legal system can be misused in relation to FVOs. I thank the member for Clark for providing solutions.
To eliminate gendered violence we need to address the many drivers and influences, such as gambling and alcohol addiction, mental health and financial stress. Why would we not as a state, and indeed the country, upscale investment into broader social mitigation? The costs of not doing so are substantial, with great direct and indirect tangible and intangible costs to individuals, families and the broader community.
I am sure all members will concur that words of thanks are not enough to express the deep gratitude we all share for the extraordinary frontline and support services who save lives every day. They are organisations such as Women’s Legal Services, Laurel House, SASS, Relationships Australia and Warrawee Women’s Shelter, just to name a few of those extraordinary organisations.
I acknowledge all victim/survivors. Thank you to those who shared their stories and relived their trauma and advocacy to better our systems and to keep others safe. I am sorry to all who have been hurt by coming forward to seek help and safety by finding that our systems in place can be flawed and that one size does not fit all. Know that we will continue to commit to doing all we can to fix those and ensure they are as functional and safe as they can be.
Thank you also to the friends, families and the neighbours who stepped in and stepped up to seek those to help those seeking refuge and who called out other men when they made sexist or disrespectful comments or minimised violence.
We have a lot of work to do. We welcome reviewing the Family Violence Act to ensure that it is contemporary and again nation leading. Further focusing on coercive control is another important step, and broadening the definitional scope of family violence to go beyond intimate partnerships to children and parents is also a good start. Perhaps when parliamentary resources permit, Tasmania could lead the nation in establishing a joint standing committee on the prevention of domestic, family and sexual violence. Such a committee could report back to both places on the intersected matters that cause and prevent such violence, and whether we have the best possible measures in place to support women and children, to review overlapping legislation to ensure it is all fit for purpose and to ensure that we are doing all we can to make Tasmania a safe, equal and caring island.
After this motion today, we as elected representatives have significant responsibility and opportunity to lead by example, to set the standards of respectful language that we expect all Tasmanians to be using to each other, but particularly towards women, how we ask questions, how we respond to questions, the phrases we shout when interjecting and so on. Everything we say in this place is amplified and socialised throughout the state. In a generation’s time, may everyone be able to go home in Tasmania and feel safe. May women walk and run alone at night and may equality be the new norm, not just a goal.
We support the motion and the Greens commit to doing all we can to make Tasmania a safe place. We are proud to stand in a united parliament that rises above politics and condemns all forms a family, domestic and sexual violence and strives to foster a society that respects all women and children in Tasmania.
Members – Hear, hear.
