QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Ms PLIBERSEK (Sydney—Minister for Social Services) (14:11): Thank you so much, Mr Speaker, and thank you for meeting Conor Pall yesterday. He is a unique young man, as the Prime Minister said. Thank you also to the member for Boothby for her question and for her advocacy on this issue.
As someone who worked on the front line of homelessness, she knows the impact of family, domestic and sexual violence on our community. Ending gender based violence is a priority for our government. As the Prime Minister said, yesterday was another devastating reminder of why this is so important.
As we sat yesterday and listened to those frontline service delivery organisations talk about what we need to do in the next phase of our work on violence against women and children, I think we heard some really important and some really consistent insights. We heard that we have to do more and better for children. Children tell us that they are not just witnessing domestic violence; they are experiencing it, and they need the services to support them.
We know that escalating rates of sexual violence, particularly amongst young people, are a huge concern that we need to address. Almost 40 per cent of victims of sexual assault are between the ages of 10 and 17. And we know that online harms are spilling into real-life harm.
As the Prime Minister said, sexual strangulation is becoming commonplace because children are seeing violent and degrading pornography before they've had their first kiss. It's where they're getting their sex education from. Tech facilitated abuse is exploding.
Just as we deal with one thing, like undetectable stalking apps or nudify apps, the next challenge emerges, as the Attorney-General spoke about yesterday—with those AI glasses that can record people even without their knowledge. And, of course, we need to work with people who use violence—help those who are willing to change. And, for those who aren't willing to change, who go on and harm one woman after another—throw them in jail, actually deal with them.
Of course, we're not waiting for the second action plan to take action. You heard from the Minister for Housing yesterday about her $308 million to deliver safe, secure homes for women and children escaping family and domestic violence, which will help 22,000 people. Our government's $4.4 billion investment has helped 1,400 organisations help close to half-a-million people.
But, while one woman or one child is frightened at home at night, while one person fears sexual assault, while one person is ground down by coercive control, we won't rest; we won't stop. Every one of us here, every level of government, every community organisation, every school and every family has a role to play in our aim of ending violence against women and children.