E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Subjects: 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, Pauline Hanson.
GED KEARNEY, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES AND THE PREVENTION OF FAMILY VIOLENCE: Good morning, my name is Ged Kearney, I’m the Assistant Minister for the Prevention of Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence and I’m here today with all my wonderful colleagues, because today is the International Day for the Prevention of Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence. It’s also the first day of the UN’s Global 16 Day’s of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.
It’s an incredibly important beginning to an important period of the year. We know that one in five women will experience violence at the hands of an intimate partner from the age of 15, and we know that one in four women will experience – sorry – one in four women will experience violence at the hands of an intimate partner, and one in five women will experience sexual violence. These statistics are alarming, and they are unacceptable.
I’m very pleased to say that the Australian Government takes this very, very seriously. We today acknowledge all of the victims of family, domestic and sexual violence, the victim-survivors. We also acknowledge, sadly, all of those women and children who have lost their lives at the hands of perpetrators of family, domestic and sexual violence.
It’s also a day where we acknowledge the incredible hard work of all the frontline workers who care day in and day out, tirelessly with compassion and care for the victim-survivors of family, domestic and sexual violence, and we also acknowledge those incredible advocates who come and see us on a daily basis, on a weekly basis, who never give up advocating for their families, for their friends, for their clients and the people that they care for who have been victim-survivors of this terrible scourge.
The Albanese Labor Government has invested more than $4 billion in fighting this scourge. We have made the leaving domestic violence payment permanent. This is an incredibly important announcement for women and children fleeing family and domestic violence, because we often know that by finance or having the funds and the resources to leave a violent relationship is one of the key barriers to that happening. So, we’re very proud of that.
And something that I’m very proud of from my union days, we have made Paid Family and Domestic Violence Permanent and a part of the National Employment Standards. These are the types of initiatives that reduce the barriers to women and children leaving violent relationships. It’s incredibly important.
These are the types of initiatives that reduce the barriers to women and children leaving violent relationships. It’s incredibly important.
I’d also like to acknowledge today that the Minister has announced a 40% increase to the 1800 Respect line. It’s over $40 million. The 1800 Respect lines success was since initiated have increased exponentially, and we are really pleased to provide that service to women.
It means that more and more women and children are aware of the service. They’re accessing that service, and they’re making sure that they have support that they need to leave a violent situation. The Albanese Labor Government is absolutely committed to helping women flee intimate family violence and caring for women who experience sexual violence.
We’re also very committed to prevention of family, domestic and sexual violence. This is an incredibly important part of the equation. While it’s important to care for women and children in crisis, it’s also incredibly important for us to make sure we do everything we can to prevent this in the first place, and have early intervention mechanisms that make sure we recognise those at risk and that we can move in and help them flee that situation or prevent it in the first place.
So, I’m very pleased to have with us today, my good friend who is the Special Envoy for Men’s Health. He and I will be working hard in the coming years to make sure that we grow healthy young men, healthy in body and healthy in mind.
Everything that we can do to invest in what we term healthy masculinities will go a long way to making sure that we can actually eliminate sexual violence and family, domestic in a generation, which, of course, is our aim.
We have invested in many programs to help adolescent boys, to help young men and to help all men actually recognise what domestic and family violence is, what sexual violence is, and to deal with those influences every day that we think do not help, in any way, shape or form, prevent this scourge among our society.
I would also like to say, I think it’s ironic that today, the first day for 16 Days of Activism Against Violence Against Women and Children that we had a scene in the Senate yesterday where Senator Hanson did that outrageous display. And all that will do is make life even harder for Muslim women in society, who already experience violence against them simply because a) they are women, and b) because they choose to show their faith externally.
That sort of behaviour is absolutely apparent, and we say to all women, all Muslim women out there, who because of their intersectionality, because of their faith, because women experience violence, we know in many more ways that other women – that we are behind you and we are absolutely condemning that act.