MINISTERIAL STATEMENTS

Ms COKER (Corangamite) (12:27): One woman was killed every 11 days in the past year as a result of family or sexual violence in Australia. This is a damning statistic, and it is why the Albanese government is acting. Since coming to government we have put in place a series of measures to help prevent this trend.

But there is always more to do to change attitudes, to reduce the negative impacts of social media, to enact our reforms and to support victims-survivors. My thoughts—and the thoughts of every MP in this place—are with families and friends of domestic and family violence victims, and I hope that together in a bipartisan approach we can put in place reforms that ensure that we reduce the level of family violence in our communities across our nation.

The Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission's yearly report does provide an important assessment of the progress we are making to end violence against women and children and the work that remains ahead of us. It's a reminder that, while there has been progress, too many women and children continue to experience violence, and too many families continue to navigate systems that aren't always working as they should.

That is why the work of government matters. It is about raising awareness of family violence. It is about prevention, crisis support and reforming the systems that allow family and domestic violence to perpetuate and, at times, go unpunished.

The report makes clear that participants consistently identified justice systems, particularly family law, as places where people often experience further trauma rather than protection. Common concerns included poor recognition of family violence risk, limited weight given to children's experiences, inadequate accountability for decision-makers, fragmented information sharing and legal processes that prolong exposure to harm.

I want to acknowledge the Minister for Social Services and the Assistant Minister for Social Services for their leadership in this work and for the effort they are putting into the next phase of the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children. This is an area where government action matters. For too long, too many women experiencing violence have had to navigate systems that are fragmented, difficult to access and often only respond once a crisis has occurred.

The role of government is to change that, which means investing in the services that women and children rely on when they are at their most vulnerable. It means improving coordination between services and governments and often at a very grassroots level. It means supporting frontline workers who are seeing the consequences of family and domestic violence every day.

It means changing our approach so that we are not simply responding to violence after it occurs but doing more to prevent it in the first place. That is an important and incredibly challenging task, but it is one that this government, the Albanese government, is committed to. The next phase of the national plan provides an important opportunity to build on the work already underway and to make sure government investment is delivering practical improvements in people's lives at a grassroots level.

I know both Minister Plibersek and Assistant Minister Kearney are doing so much work with victims-survivors, frontline workers and advocates around the country. Both Minister Plibersek and Assistant Minister Kearney have visited my electorate and we have focused on this issue. I will continue to work with them to ensure that we support people not just across Corangamite, my electorate, but across our nation.

This engagement is important because the people who use these services understand better than anyone where the system is working and where it is not. Their lived experience through these consultations shouldn't sit on the sidelines of policymaking. Through the consultation, we learn and we act.

It should help to determine what our government does next. We also know that government actions need to extend beyond immediate responses to violence. If we are serious about prevention, we need to support families before they reach crisis.

We need children experiencing violence to be identified and supported early. We need effective interventions for people who use violence so that abusive behaviour is challenged rather than allowed to become entrenched. We need to address the growing influence of online misogyny.

It's abusive and harmful and it particularly impacts young people. This is an area where government has a particular responsibility, and our digital duty of care legislation will play such a key role in combating misogyny online. Parents and teachers cannot be expected to manage the influence of billion-dollar technology platforms on their own.

Those platforms need to take responsibility and take a role in keeping Australians safe, and that's what our legislation is all about. Government has a role in setting appropriate standards, regulating where necessary and making sure the online environment is safer for children and young people. But government action is also about the practical supports that make it possible for a woman to leave violence and remain safe.

A woman cannot simply be told to leave if she has nowhere safe to live, no financial security and no access to services or support for her children. That's why housing, financial security, health services, legal assistance and specialist family and domestic violence services are all part of the prevention and response system. When I was mayor of the Surf Coast Shire many years ago, we introduced the reform for 10 days paid family violence leave.

It was the first in the country. I'm really proud of that. We acknowledged that, without having the opportunity to keep a wage when you have to leave a violent situation, perhaps with your children and your dog in tow, you need that time to get to safety but you also need to have an income, because there is power in having an income.

I'm very pleased that our federal government has now adopted that policy. It is a brilliant outcome—just a small step. I want to acknowledge the progress that has already been made.

Many of us in this place grew up in an Australia where domestic violence was often regarded as a private matter, a private family matter. Today we recognise that violence against women and children is a matter of public responsibility and the governments have an absolute responsibility to act. That change did not happen by accident.

It happened because survivors had the guts to speak out. They were brave. Advocates kept pushing and frontline workers kept doing the work.

Governments listened and began changing laws, investing in services and changing the way we respond. In closing, we know there is more to do, but the Albanese government isn't approaching this challenge as something that can be solved with a single announcement or a single program. We all have a role to play.

We all have to call it out. We all have to act. We all have to make sure that women and children are supported through what is a horrific process.

Families and communities have to step up and take on the responsibility that this is a national problem. It is a crisis situation. It's not right that every 11 days a woman dies as a result of family violence.

It's just not acceptable. Turning this around requires sustained investment, better coordination, stronger prevention and a willingness for all of us to be better. Most importantly, it requires us to keep the women and children behind the statistics at the centre of our work, and the Albanese government is absolutely committed to doing so.