MINISTERIAL STATEMENTS

Senator O'SULLIVAN (Western Australia—Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) (17:53): The Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission's yearly report to parliament tabled today showed us again that our systems are failing Australian women and children. Prevention is too little and too late. Frontline services are struggling to keep up with demand, and the data is unclear on whether funding is making any real progress at all.

The commission's lived experience survey found that only eight per cent of respondents could access all the services they needed at the time that they needed them. That's disappointing. But, as disappointing as that figure is, sadly, for everyone here and those experiencing it, it doesn't come as a surprise.

Advocates, frontline workers and organisations have told us this time and time again. Women needing sexual assault support in Western Australia can face waits for up to 18 months. Women needing domestic violence refuge accommodation in New South Wales can wait for up to three months.

Women needing sexual assault counselling in Victoria can face waits of up to 12 months. And, in the ACT, domestic violence crisis services can only answer around half of the calls that they receive. At this point, I want to thank all those workers that do provide those services.

Any criticisms that I make are not of the frontline people that are doing the work—because I know the pressure that you are under—but, sadly, the system is overwhelmed. For some women, getting help is even more difficult. I think of the financially isolated woman, who does not know where her next meal is coming from and where she and her children will sleep if she flees; the socially isolated woman, who has no-one around her to notice that she is not okay; and the woman from a refugee or migrant background, who may not feel that she can communicate what is happening to her and may not know where to go for help.

As I said in my statement on Monday, remembrance without action is not enough. We must refuse to accept that violence is inevitable, and we cannot become so used to hearing these stories that it stops affecting us. Commissioner Cronin describes the reality that these women face; she writes: A recurring theme was that people are often required to become experts in navigating complex systems simply to access the support or information they need.

Well, that is not good enough. When you're in danger, you do not have the time nor the resources to become an expert before you escape, and you shouldn't have to be one. I echo the sentiments of my colleague in the other place Melissa McIntosh MP when I ask: where can they go?

We cannot measure progress by the number of funding announcements we make or the number of policy papers we produce. We need to know whether women and children are actually safer. We need to know whether a woman can leave a violent relationship without having to choose between her safety, putting food on the table and having somewhere to live.

We need to know that her children are safe too. We cannot forget them—the children who have learnt to work out how the night will go just by the rhythm of the footsteps coming through the door, the children who have seen the things that no child should see. No parent wants that life for their child.

But, for families where the worst nightmare has become their reality, we have a responsibility to make sure that there is a way out. And, for every family that is yet to come, we must build a culture that does not tolerate violence and does not allow violent relationships to form. We must make sure that the next generation knows that violence has no place in a healthy relationship.

We must teach our boys and our young men that real strength is about protecting people, not hurting or disrespecting them. We must teach our girls and our young women that being loved means being respected and supported, not controlled or isolated. And we need to build a system that actually works when women and children need it most.

The responsibility cannot be put on them to navigate that system on their own. That responsibility belongs to all of us.