MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Ms SITOU (Reid) (15:42): I have appreciated the contributions of everyone who has spoken today on this really important issue. I agree with the member for Makin that our sporting codes and so many other parts of our community must do better when it comes to family and sexual violence. I've had an opportunity in this role to meet some of the most extraordinary people who are committed to their jobs and who deeply care about the people that they're trying to help, but the people who get me every time with their commitment and compassion are those who work directly with women and children fleeing domestic violence.
They are the most extraordinary people, who have the biggest hearts, and the they care so deeply about the people that they're trying to support. One of those individuals is a woman called Nicole Yade, the CEO of the Women & Girls' Emergency Centre, whom I have had the absolute privilege of meeting on a number of occasions. Each time, I am inspired by her work and her commitment to helping others.
She leads one of the country's largest frontline services supporting women and children fleeing abuse and homelessness, and through the centres that she oversees, every night around 200 women and children go to one of their centres to find safety and shelter. Nicole's ability to extend a deep well of compassion and gentleness to the women and children that she sees come through her door is extraordinary.
She sits down, patiently helping them work through a whole range of issues that they are going through, and I am incredibly grateful for her time in explaining to me the challenges that these families experience. What is extraordinary about Nicole is that she doesn't come at this at an arm's length. She's someone who experienced domestic violence when she was just 24 years old.
She had a five-month-old daughter at the time and was in a relationship that had been violent for a number of months. She describes how she kept trying to leave, and all the tactics that her partner used to bring her back. She knows the challenges that these women are going through and the fact that it's not just about whether you can build up the courage to leave your violent partner; it's about the fact that you are having to make a choice.
How are you going to pay for food for your children? How are you going to pay for rent? Do you have a safe place to go to?
These are the difficult trade-offs that we are asking women to make every day. I am inspired by the work that Nicole is doing now in a way that is deeply grounded in ensuring that these women are empowered and that they know that they can make these choices. There is no judgement.
They have a place to call home at WAGEC. Every woman deserves to feel safe. They deserve to feel safe at home, in the workplace and in our community.
The statistics are startling. The fact that one in four women have experienced violence by an intimate partner since the age of 15 is a scary and sad statistic—one that we should all be doing something to reduce. This is something that our government is deeply committed to.
We have invested now $4.4 billion to help end family and domestic violence. There is a story that Nicole told me about two young boys who came into her service. When they first got there, they themselves, because of the violence that they had witnessed, had become violent to others.
But within three weeks of being at that centre, they had become young children who could play and laugh and treat others with care and compassion. That's the story that I think really drives my motivation to make sure that we continue to do important work in this space.