STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator WATERS (Queensland—Leader of the Australian Greens) (13:34): In the past week, another woman has been killed by a former partner in Queensland. In New South Wales, three private school boys have been charged with raping a 14-year-old girl. In Victoria, AFL players are being investigated for an alleged sexual assault.

In the same week, an average of 225 women and children have been turned away from crisis accommodation. Hundreds of calls to support services have not been answered, because staff cannot keep up with demand. Sexual assault survivors have been told that it will be months before they can see a specialist counsellor.

The government is preparing a second action plan to end violence against women and their children after years of consultations and inquiries and advisory groups. Professor Kate Fitz-Gibbon sums it up: Our conclusion from these efforts is straightforward: the greatest barrier to effectively addressing violence against women and children is the failure to implement—and adequately fund—the solutions already identified.

The Greens strongly support this plea to government from the coalition of women's safety services in this building today: We call on all governments to urgently and drastically scale up their investment in action to address gender-based violence across all four pillars of the National Plan—prevention, early intervention, response, and healing and recovery—and increase investment in self-determined and grassroots solutions for First Nations women through the Our Ways, Strong Ways, Our Voices Plan.

That means a major, long-term increase to resourcing for specialist, accessible, community-led and culturally-safe services—so that every woman impacted by domestic, family, or sexual violence can access the specialist support she needs—where she needs it, and when she needs it. Frontline services are doing the hard work every day. Their calls for support cannot be ignored.

Fund them now.