Multicultural Unity for Domestic Violence Immunity

The Hon. J.S. LEE (15:35): Today it is my privilege to speak about an event called Multicultural Unity for Domestic Violence Immunity (for the purposes of the Hansard I will call it MUDVI). I was very honoured to be invited as a guest speaker by the organiser, Sarika Young, to give the opening speech at the inaugural event on Friday 16 May 2014.

The Multicultural Unity for Domestic Violence Immunity event is the first of its kind in support of White Ribbon, and I would like to congratulate Sarika Young on her amazing effort in putting together a multicultural fashion and entertainment charity function. The purpose of MUDVI was to raise funds for White Ribbon so that it can increase awareness and provide further support in preventing abuse and domestic violence against women and children, and my heartfelt congratulations and special thanks go to Sarika for putting her heart and soul into organising a successful and meaningful event. I would also like to thank all the sponsors, performers, volunteers and participants who donated their time, talent and resources to support the event.

As the shadow parliamentary secretary for multicultural affairs and a strong advocate for women in our community, I was moved by Sarika's vision to organise an event that featured performers and catwalk models from multicultural backgrounds. For instance, the multitalented event organiser, Sarika Young—who is also an actor, model, dancer and trainer—has an Italian/Indian heritage, while the MC was the talented singer Barry Southgate from the X Factor, who is of African/English/German and Indonesian descent. Other artists, including African Soul, the Bollywood dance group Fusion Beats, South Australian young rappers Street Assassins, an incredible singer, Nez Erok, with her rich Turkish culture, and fashion designer Chantra Hem, with Cambodian/Chinese heritage, are the multicultural faces who contributed beautifully to the MUDVI event.

Sarika chose to create a fashion and entertainment theme to involve a young and diverse audience to tackle a very important issue in our society; that is, domestic violence. Last November police commissioner Gary Burns revealed that police attended more than 10,000 domestic incidents in the 2012-13 financial year—an average of 27 a day—and issued almost 3,000 interim intervention orders since the measure was introduced.

I would like to highlight the introductory statement of a federal parliamentary report called 'Domestic violence in Australia: An overview of the issues', which stated:

Each culture has its sayings and songs about the importance of home, and the comfort and security to be found there. Yet for many women, home is a place of pain and humiliation…Violence against women by their male partners is common, widespread and far reaching in its impact. For too long hidden behind closed doors and avoided in public discourse, such violence can no longer be denied as part of everyday life for millions of women.

The above statement serves as a reminder of how important it is for all of us to take strong action and have zero tolerance for domestic violence.

I was incredibly upset to see the news on the front page of the Sunday Mail on 17 May about the horrible death of Graziella Dailler at Encounter Bay. The heartbroken family of the mother who was murdered by her violent partner revealed that Graziella had repeatedly sought help to leave her abuser but was failed by the system. The Liberals are serious about having a zero tolerance domestic violence law as an election policy. Under our policy violent spouses face a zero tolerance approach, including making it harder to escape murder convictions.

Domestic violence also impacts heavily on the welfare and safety of children. The state Liberals have this week introduced legislation to create a commissioner for children and young people with full investigative powers to provide greater protection for children at risk in South Australia. I would like to congratulate the Hon. Stephen Wade on this important legislation.

Violence has a profound and damaging impact on its victims and on the community as a whole. I would like to acknowledge a number of organisations for their prevention campaigns and support in preventing violence against women and these include the Coalition of Women's Domestic Violence Service of South Australia, Centacare and White Ribbon Australia. I know there are already many White Ribbon ambassadors in parliament and I would like to congratulate them for all their work.