STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator WATERS (Queensland—Leader of the Australian Greens) (13:34): We've heard a lot about men's sexual violence against women lately. The Nationals leader wrongly suggested that a feminised curriculum pushes boys to the manosphere. But sexual violence is all about power, entitlement and a lack of consequences.

Too often, this is what happens when a woman speaks up. First, she's doubted. The principal, her boss, her coach or police question what really happened.

Is she sure? Maybe she just misunderstood. She calls 1800RESPECT and is referred to a sexual violence service that is too full to see her.

Her abuser threatens defamation action if she tells people what happened. She tries to go about her life, but every day she sees her abuser at school and hears the rumours that he's spread. Her grades drop, and she drops out.

She decides to press charges and becomes part of a system offering little hope of justice. She waits months for updates on her own case. She's traumatised by hours of invasive cross-examination.

The media makes the story about her, not about what he did to her. The comments thread quickly fills with hate. She seeks counselling, but wait times are six months.

When she gets in, she worries her counselling notes will be read out in court. She decides to settle, and a non-disclosure agreement stops her from talking about it, even with her friends. Institutions are failing women—police, education, workplaces, media, courts and this parliament.

We cannot expect women to report if we do not make it safe for them to do so. We need to make online spaces safer, support men's behaviour change programs and continue respectful relationships education. We urgently need more trauma informed officers, defamation and non-disclosure agreement reforms, protection for counselling records, all of the ALRC recommendations for the justice system and immediate funding for specialist frontline sexual violence services so that women are supported to report and to recover.