MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Dr SCAMPS (Mackellar) (15:47): I thank the member for Clark for the opportunity to speak on the urgent need for this parliament to address the ongoing national crisis we are facing, and that is domestic and sexual violence against women. I want to start by saying that this is definitely not a rant against men and boys. I'm the proud mum of two wonderful young men.
In this role, I meet so many men, young and old, doing incredible things for our community. These are the role models our young people need to see. However, we also need to face up to what is in front of our eyes.
Sexual violence against women is at a record high. Recent weeks have once again been devastating for our nation, as we heard the shocking allegations of extreme sexual violence by groups of school aged boys, each time against a girl on her own. And this is just what we hear about; so much is not reported in the media.
National data shows that over one in five women have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15. ABS crime data released just last week shows that of the nearly 40,000 victims of sexual assault recorded last year, 54 per cent of victims were under the age of 18. We also know reporting rates to police remains extremely low.
During a recent conversation with the Acting Assistant Commissioner for NSW Police, I was absolutely shocked to hear her say that around 80 per cent of their workload was domestic violence related. Quite simply, we are not winning when it comes to reducing violence against women in Australia. Violence against women grows in the attitudes we tolerate and the culture we foster.
It is clear that foreign owned social media platforms are having an outsized harmful influence on the culture and attitudes towards women and girls in Australia. Researchers at Dublin City University created social media accounts mimicking 16- to 18-year-old boys who were interested in ordinary things like sports, gaming and the gym. In this study, every male identified account was fed toxic content within just 23 minutes, even if it had not been sought out.
After only two to three hours, 76 per cent of TikTok recommendations and 78 per cent of YouTube shorts recommendations were classified as toxic, with much of it manosphere and misogynistic content. Then there are the alarming findings of the recent University of Melbourne study that nearly 25 per cent of adolescent boys in Australia believe that feminism is damaging to our society and should be resisted with violence if necessary.
Social media algorithms are force-feeding our boys and young men a diet of toxic content to elicit a strong emotional response that keeps them doomscrolling and addicted. Manosphere influencers are turning the vulnerabilities of young men into hatred for women and profit for themselves. Let's be clear about this.
This culture of disrespect for women is being cultivated on purpose in order to drive profits for influencers and the big-tech bros. That's why I've been advocating so strongly, with the crossbench, for Chanel Contos's and Teach Us Consent's Fix Our Feeds policy, and why I backed the government in with their digital duty of care announcement yesterday that will give people choice and control about the types of content they see on their own social media feeds.
This step is absolutely critical to interrupting the rise in toxic attitudes being cultivated amongst our young men. Any argument that this somehow restricts people's freedom of expression is utter nonsense and is coming from an opposition that has no solutions. It is in fact the exact opposite.
It's about placing choice, control and power back in the hands of the individual. No longer will Australians have to be the cannon fodder for overseas tech bros. I also want to put on the record that I believe the comments of the Leader of The Nationals blaming our female teachers for the rise in misogyny are disgraceful, ignorant and unhelpful.
On the other hand, I do want to do a shout-out to the principal of Joeys school in Sydney, Michael Blake, who said in an address to his students, 'I want women to be safer because of you—not just from you but because of you.' All I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you for your leadership, for not just pointing in the other direction, for not just saying 'not all men', for getting it and for acting decisively.
Thank you. None of this is easy, but it takes strong leaders to face up to it. (Time expired)