QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Mr ALBANESE (Grayndler—Prime Minister) (14:48): I thank the member for Warringah for her question and for her engagement on these issues. In every single case of violence, my thoughts are with the women involved. That includes the cases of sexual violence that, tragically, we have heard about again in the media this week and that are referred to by the member for Warringah.

Every woman and every girl has the right to feel safe and must be safe at all times—in our workplaces, in our schools, in our sporting clubs, in our homes and in our communities. And there must be zero tolerance for sexual violence in Australia. Yesterday, sexual consent advocate Chanel Contos sat in this chamber.

As she has said, sexual assault occurs when the perpetrator's sense of entitlement to another's body outweighs their empathy towards that person. Rates of sexual violence in Australia reported to police rose by more than 70 per cent between 2010 and 2024. Too often—and we're hearing it more frequently—both the victim and the perpetrator are under the age of 18, and young people aged between 10 and 17 years old make up 39 per cent of victims of sexual assault.

These events must end. Many members of this parliament have been involved in the consultation process on the second National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children, and last week I attended a roundtable with the Minister for Social Services; the Minister for Women, Katy Gallagher; and Ged Kearney, who has particular responsibility on family violence issues as an assistant minister.

What I heard there were horrific stories from people on the frontline who are assisting people in times of crisis and trauma and who are just crying out for this violence to stop. Next week I'll convene National Cabinet again—I think it's on Wednesday, but it's in the middle of the week, in Sydney. One of the issues I've put on the agenda there is the response to and progress on the issues that have been raised by the special National Cabinet that I convened on these issues a couple of years ago, and making sure that—because state governments have primary responsibility in areas such as community services ministers—in those services, the 500 additional workers that we have funded, as part of a commitment I took to the 2022 election, are making a difference on the ground, though that took longer than we would like, frankly, to be rolled out.

We are seeing, tragically, as well—and I want to hold governments to account—that, sometimes, when the Commonwealth provides additional money, that's seen as an excuse to withdraw funding. We heard that last week. I will raise that very directly with the premiers.

That will form the next critical step towards the second national plan. This will be absolutely critical, and I encourage the member, and, indeed, all members—this is something that's not a party political issue; this is a human issue, and, particularly, an issue affecting women and children. And so I thank the member for her question.

I encourage her to engage with the ministers on the development of the second national plan. I know that Minister Plibersek has responsibility primarily for driving this agenda. I really see it as one of the big things that we will concentrate on.

I was asked yesterday: 'Now that a whole lot of legislation has been passed, what are you going to do for this?' I see this as one of the big things, and I would encourage you, and other members as well, to engage and participate; if you've got constructive ideas, do so. All of us, of course, have a responsibility as well. Not just members of parliament but, in particular, men have a responsibility to engage with our fellow men on these issues.