MINISTERIAL STATEMENTS

Ms KEARNEY (Cooper—Assistant Minister for Social Services and Assistant Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence) (11:23): I'd like to start by acknowledging all victims-survivors of family, domestic and sexual violence. They are and always must be at the centre of all our efforts to end the scourge of gender based violence. I want to remember the women and children who aren't here with us today, who have lost their lives because of violence that remains all pervasive in this country.

The ripple effects of violence are significant, and I think of all the families and communities who are without their loved ones as I speak today. I hold the victims-survivors who are living with trauma with me today and every day, many of whom have shared their lived experiences and trusted me to use it to help guide the work of our government and who are demanding a better future.

I also want to acknowledge the frontline workers, the advocates, the organisations and the day in, day out work to make our country safer. I welcome the tabling of the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission's yearly report and acknowledge the tireless work of Commissioner Micaela Cronin and her whole team. It reminds us that, while we've made significant strides, there is so much more that needs to be done and there is no acceptable level of gender based violence.

This could be could not be more apparent than for sexual violence. Recent allegations of sexual violence have been harrowing. For women and girls, they are not new.

They have simply made the headlines. Rates in sexual violence are trending in the wrong direction. Most concerningly, the fastest growing rates are being perpetrated by teenage boys.

For the first time in history, teenage boys have overtaken adult men as the most likely perpetrators of sexual violence. It's the people on the ground, our highly skilled and capable frontline workers, our teachers, who encounter the scale of this harm every day. The sexual violence sector is full of some of the most remarkable people I've met in my life.

I think of Karen Bevan, CEO of Full Stop in New South Wales, which was established in the early 1970s by a group of feminist trailblazers who banded together to support women and girls who were being harmed at the hands of violent men, all at a time when violence was a 'private issue' behind closed doors, something to be worked out as a family. I think of Nicci Lambert, Chair of NASASV and CEO of Allambee in WA and all the work she's leading in communities to address harmful sexual behaviours amongst children and working in multidisciplinary ways across health, housing, education, employment and financial services, because that is what victims-survivors need.

I think of Karen Iles leading her own legal practice in New South Wales for victims-survivors of sexual violence. Karen has turned the most horrific gang rape she experienced as a child across multiple jurisdictions into a lifelong ambition to help other women and girls, many of whom are First Nations women. I think about a junior doctor I recently met with who was drugged and sexually assaulted by a senior doctor sharing her story now to highlight workplace safety, reporting pathways, power imbalances and the barriers that victims-survivors face when seeking justice.

And I think about a mother who recently wrote to me about her daughter being drink-spiked at a pub, beaten and sexually assaulted. This woman told me she doesn't feel hopeless. She is hopeful that, by sharing her daughter's story, she can help to prevent sexual harm against others.

What courage that takes. I intend to honour the courage of victims-survivors and will always centre the lived experience of victims-survivors in everything that I do in this place. That is why we need to confront the scale of sexual violence harm from every angle.

With the rise of social media algorithms perpetrating harmful gender stereotypes and views about women, focusing on evolving online harms is a critical part of a multipronged approach. While the internet didn't invent misogyny, it is most certainly cultivating it. Thanks to the leadership of the member for Sydney, Minister Plibersek; Senator Gallagher; the member for Greenway, Minister Rowland; and the member for Lilley, Minister Wells, we have put the global tech companies on notice through our digital duty of care legislation.

This is on top of our already concrete steps through our investment of $4.4 billion to end gender based violence. We've reformed the family courts, child support, tax and superannuation systems and social security so that government systems can't be weaponised against victims-survivors. We've made the leaving violence payment permanent—$5,000 upfront to assist women and children to leave a violent situation.

We've invested more than ever before in crisis and transitional housing—$1.2 billion so that women and girls have somewhere to go when they need to leave. We've boosted funding for frontline workers through our 500 workers program. We've launched the first ever dedicated plan to end violence against First Nations women and children—$218.3 million for 'Our Ways—Strong Ways—Our Voices', recognising the high and disproportionate rates of violence against First Nations women.

I don't share this investment with you because I'm saying it's enough. It never will be when a single woman or child experiences family, domestic and sexual violence. More work lies ahead.

While we continue to focus on supporting victim-survivors to navigate systems designed to work for them, especially through our consultation on the Second Action Plan for the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children, there is another truth that we need to hold at the same time: we need to work with men and boys. I want to be clear: this is not in place of accountability.

It is not 'instead of' supporting victim-survivors to heal and recover. It's about supporting men and boys to be the best versions of themselves. That's why the member for Hunter and I joined forces to embark on the Healthy Men Community Conversations project.

We've been around the country, hearing about the experiences of men and boys and the perceptions, pressures and stereotypes they are exposed to—restrictive masculine norms that research shows, when young boys internalise, makes them more likely to hold harmful attitudes and engage in abusive behaviours. Only last week we sat down with a group of young men who talked about the increasing pressures they experience to be a man.

What struck me most was that 100 per cent of the young boys in the room identified that they were lonely. When we don't normalise help-seeking in young men, when we don't have frank conversations about wellbeing, we leave a vacuum for other negative influences to grow. But I want to bring a message of hope to this place.

Research has shown that parents are still the most influential people in boys' lives. When men and boys have a close and loving relationship with a father or father figure that they look up to, they are 57 per cent less likely to use violence in later life. Similarly, the Adolescent Man Box found that adolescent boys saw their parents as the strongest influence on their ideas about masculinity, with 59 per cent of boys saying their father or a male role model had a big influence on how they think boys should behave, 48 per cent saying the same for their mother and only 22 per cent identifying social media and online influencers as having the biggest influence.

So here is our message of hope: despite all the noise coming from online spaces, parents are the most important and influential people in a child's life. When these views are developed during childhood; when healthy relationships are modelled and in the home, visible to our young ones; when fathers are engaged, supportive and loving, it is the bedrock of societal change.

And I'm keen—so keen—as is my friend the member for Hunter, to work with dads and men in our boys' lives to help with this critical role. It's the ripple that turns into a wave. A man recently came up to me at one of our Healthy Men's forums and he said—a bit tongue in cheek, but I understood what he was saying—that men need their radical uprising against the patriarchy just like the feminists had in the sixties and seventies.

As a staunch feminist myself, I thought about it for a minute, but then I loved it. Empathy is probably the most crucial thing that needs to be shown. It got me thinking about the brilliant Gloria Steinem quote that 'Empathy is the most radical of human emotions;' it can be the most radical expression of our joint commitment to ending gender based violence in this country.

It is how we honour and stand in solidarity with victim-survivors, those whose lives have been lost and those whose lives have been forever changed by the ripple effects of violence. We as a government have invested more than any other government in this critical issue. We have been in government for four years, and that ripple cannot stop.

We are committed to continuing the remarkable efforts that our government is making to stop what is an absolute scourge on this country.