HANSARD EXTRACT
| Statements by
Members: Violence Against Women |
| 30 November 2005 |
Mr HAYES
(Werriwa) (9.30 a.m.)—It
is a great honour for me to be one of the United Nations ambassadors
for this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence
against Women. Domestic violence, and violence against women
generally, is certainly a serious matter and should not be tolerated
now or ever. Gender based violence damages our society as a whole,
and I was proud to stand up with other prominent Australian men to
make it clear that violence against women and children is simply
unacceptable.
Sadly,
Australia is not immune from violence against women, and the
statistics tell a sorry tale of the prevalence of the problem. One
in three women has experienced some form of physical violence in
their lifetime, and one in five has experienced sexual violence.
Worse still, an international survey recently found that 57 per cent
of the Australian women surveyed had experienced some form of
physical violence in their lifetime. An Access Economics report
released last year estimated the economic cost of domestic violence
to be in the order of $8.1 billion per annum, while the Institute of
Criminology found that domestic violence accounted for 27 per cent
of all homicides in Australia between the years 1989 and 1996. These
are chilling statistics, and it is clear that the time for inaction
has passed.
As a UNIFEM White Ribbon Day ambassador, I
choose to wear a white ribbon to demonstrate my opposition to
violence against women and children and to demonstrate my commitment
to equality between men and women. It is a personal pledge that
means that I do not condone violence against women. I am committed
to supporting community groups such as the Green Valley Domestic
Violence Service, which is left to pick up the pieces of the
shattered lives of victims of domestic violence and gender based
violence.
Every single one of us, whether we are in
politics, government or business or whether we are general members
of the community, has a responsibility to stop violence against
women. The government needs to make a real commitment to this issue
and to treat it with the seriousness it deserves. The government
should provide proper funding and support for initiatives that help
women to escape violence. It is simply no longer acceptable that
domestic violence support services be funded by volunteers so as to
assist women to escape this form of violence. It is no longer
acceptable for community workers and community groups to support the
victims of these crimes without the support of government. I call on
the government to make a real and serious commitment to the proper
and adequate funding of support services that help to treat and
shelter women who are fleeing any sort of gender based violence.
(Time expired)
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