International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. I. Pnevmatikos:

That this council—

1. Notes that Sunday 25 November marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women;

2. Notes the unacceptable, shocking and persistent prevalence of violence against women across the globe; and

3. Commits to do all that it can to address gender inequality, to empower women and girls and to prevent violence against women.

(Continued from 28 November 2018.)

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL (22:45): I rise to support this motion and to congratulate the Hon. Irene Pnevmatikos for putting it on our Notice Paper. I note that it has been on the Notice Paper for a little while and, in fact, a second International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women has rolled around since this was first put on the agenda. But it is still a topical motion.

What I want to do very briefly is to put on the record some information about the White Ribbon movement because it has received a fair bit of publicity, some of it adverse, but I think there are some positive signs as well. The reason I mention that is that, whilst the official day is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, it is often referred to as White Ribbon Day, not that White Ribbon is the only charity that works in this space, it is just one that has attracted a lot of attention and a lot of support.

Back in October, those of us who are White Ribbon Ambassadors or supporters or advocates received a media release that told us that the White Ribbon Australia organisation had gone into receivership. I think it was a classic case of a well-meaning charity overreaching. There were some issues with their financial governance and, as a result, they basically ran out of money.

I think the point to note is a point that is made by Grant Pearson, who is the White Ribbon South Australia State Committee chairperson, and also made by Gillian Lewis and Cintra Amos, who are the indefatigable organisers of the Adelaide White Ribbon breakfast committee. They point out that the South Australian breakfast committee was organising White Ribbon breakfasts long before White Ribbon Australia even existed. So it was a grassroots campaign that predated the formation of the national organisation. The White Ribbon breakfast is now in its 12^th year and it has grown to become the largest White Ribbon breakfast in the world.

Interestingly, because of the media that was around the financial difficulties of White Ribbon Australia, a number of people assumed that that meant it was all over and that the breakfast would not happen anymore, programs would be cancelled, but nothing could be further from the truth. This year's breakfast was as good as ever. Over 1,000 people attended, many members of parliament as usual, with a very inspiring panel discussion with leaders from various sporting codes explaining what they are doing within their codes to address the issue of violence against women and other gender issues.

The liquidators of White Ribbon Australia, Worrells Solvency and Forensic Accountants, put out a statement a week ago saying that they were pleased to announce that they had entered into an agreement so that White Ribbon Australia will be taken over by Communicare Inc. I had not heard of Communicare Inc. It is a Western Australian-based organisation. It started in 1977. It was an initiative of local churches in Western Australia and since then they have gone on to become a major provider of family and domestic violence services in Western Australia for more than 20 years.

Just the other day, in fact on Monday, in the online journal Pro Bono News—I do not know if anyone else subscribes to it but it is a very useful publication—they pointed out that the transfer of White Ribbon's assets to Communicare happened the day before White Ribbon Day. It shows that there is in fact a great future for this particular organisation that focuses on men taking a leadership role in combatting violence against women. I will quote a couple of sentences from Communicare CEO, Melissa Perry, who said:

White Ribbon Australia aligns with our values and reflects our long­standing commitment to eliminating violence against women…

As a White Ribbon accredited organisation and school, we've seen first­hand how accreditation provides tools to strengthen a culture of respect, accountability and gender equality at all levels of the organisation.

According to Pro Bono News:

Communicare has operated for over 20 years in the family and domestic violence space and pioneered the first residential men’s behaviour change program in the southern hemisphere, offering an alternative to removing women and children from their family home.

I, for one, am quite excited that this organisation still has a very bright future, as it is, under new management. The CEO concludes with:

We need to be engaging boys and men in this conversation...we need more men and boys talking about this to other men and boys.

That has been at the heart of the White Ribbon message. I am delighted that White Ribbon lives to continue its important campaign work. I congratulate the Hon. Irene Pnevmatikos for putting this issue on the agenda. I believe that all of us in state parliament need to commit, as the motion says, to do what we can to address gender inequality, to empower women and girls, and to prevent violence against women.

The Hon. C. BONAROS (22:51): I rise to speak in support of this motion acknowledging the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, which fell on Monday. Australia has an absolutely shocking track record with violence against women. The statistics are tragic, unbearable, alarming, and in most circumstances, should have been preventable.

It is a national crisis and a national shame that one Australian woman is murdered each week by her current or her former partner, and the responsibility to end violence rests with all of us. This year, 48 women have been killed by violence in Australia, as reported by the Counting Dead Women Australia project from Destroy the Joint. It is not decreasing and we need action against that.

Disappointingly, there is no national government real-time reporting program to record the ongoing toll of women killed by violence. That is just one area, in this most tragic of issues, in which we simply must do better. We know, on average, one woman is murdered every week by her current or former partner. I, like others in this chamber, struggle to absorb the extent of those tragedies. Every week in Australia, on average, a mother and father lose their daughter, a brother and sister lose their sibling, and a child loses their mother. I am afraid it gets worse. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics Personal Safety Survey of 2016:

more than 370,000 Australian women are subjected to violence from men each year;

one in three Australian women has experienced physical violence;

one in five Australian women has experienced sexual violence;

one in six Australian women has experienced physical or sexual violence by a current or former partner;

one in four Australian women has experienced emotional abuse by a current or former partner;

Australian women are nearly three times more likely than men to experience violence from an intimate partner; and

Australian women are 2.5 times more likely to be hospitalised for assault injuries arising from family and domestic violence than men, with hospitalisation rates rising by 23 per cent since 2014-15.

We know that, in 2017, young women aged between 15 and 34 accounted for more than half of reported sexual assaults. We know there is growing evidence that women with disabilities are more likely to experience violence. We know Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women report experiencing violence at 3.1 times the rate of non-lndigenous women. In 2016-17, Indigenous women were 32 times more likely to be hospitalised due to family violence as non-lndigenous women.

In support of the Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, an installation at Terrigal on the New South Wales Central Coast is telling the stories of women killed by men—often the men they loved—to try put a stop to the terrible epidemic across Australia.

So many people have been stopped in their tracks by these boxes which popped up in that area. This includes the stories of local women, such as Blair Dalton in Ettalong and Leonie Ivanoff in Umina, both killed in 2017. The big blue boxes, put together by the local councils and Destroy the Joint, tell the stories of every woman killed in Australia this year in the hope that this senseless violence stops.

In late September 2019, five women in Australia were violently killed in the space of one week. In Victoria, Helena Broadbent, aged 32, died after being flung from a moving car driven by her partner. She was airlifted to hospital but died that afternoon. She was five months' pregnant, and the mother of two other young children. Her unborn baby was delivered by caesarean section and later named after her mother. Helena was on a 000 call at the time of her death. The 000 operator heard an argument, screaming and then silence. Helena died from a catastrophic brain injury.

Trudy Dreyer, aged 49, was found alongside her partner, Tim Ogle, at their Hunter Valley home in New South Wales. A travel agent contacted police after the couple failed to board a plane for a holiday to South America. Police suspect that it was a murder-suicide and that Ogle killed Trudy—a mother of two teenage children—before turning the gun on himself.

Sudanese migrant and mother of two young children, Selma Adem Ibrahim, aged 24, was found in her home near Logan in Queensland with severe facial injuries. It is reported her six-year-old daughter called an ambulance. Police later charged her partner with murder. Mhelody Bruno of the Philippines, aged 25, was found injured and unresponsive by police and emergency services in Wagga Wagga. She died shortly after 10am on Sunday 22 September. A 31-year-old man was arrested and charged with manslaughter that same afternoon.

Kim Chau, aged 39, was found by police at her place of residence on Sturt Street, Adelaide. Police said she had been stabbed and her body was found in an upstairs living area. After an overnight search, police arrested a 21-year-old man, believed to be known to Chau, and charged him with murder. That is five women in Australia who were violently killed in the space of just one week.

All these women have names. They were all loved and had family members and friends. They deserve to still be with us but were killed by someone they loved, someone they knew and, worst of all, perhaps, someone they trusted. Many more lives have now been shattered by the horrific acts of their killers. I have to ask, like other honourable members, where does the damage end? It is hard to imagine that it ever will.

Only this week, a 29-year-old woman was stabbed in the face during an apparent domestic violence incident at Elizabeth Shopping Centre, in broad daylight, at 7.30am. The woman was taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, yet her trauma will continue for her life even though she may recover from her physical injuries. A 26-year-old man was arrested at a nearby train station.

According to Destroy the Joint, 48 women have been killed due to domestic violence in 2019. While we commemorate International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, it is absolutely imperative that this is an issue that Australians need to fight for every day. According to the Red Heart Campaign, which I have previously spoken about in this place, 64 women, 24 children and 153 men have been killed in 2019, with many of those deaths attributed to domestic violence.

These are stories that need to be told. We need to check in with loved ones and we need to say something if we see or suspect an act of domestic violence on the street, in our families or amongst our friends and colleagues. Tackling violence is everyone's responsibility. It is the responsibility of business, it is the responsibility of community groups, it is the responsibility of our neighbourhoods, it is the responsibility of individuals and it is the responsibility of government.

#MeToo, #TimesUp, #NotOneMore, and others, have put a spotlight on the issue of rape and violence against women and the response to it in recent times. Campaigns such as this are working to generate publicity and to draw attention to this issue that affects so many women in our community.

Regrettably, violence against women and girls is one of the most persistent and devastating human rights violations in the world today and it remains largely unreported due to the silence, stigma and shame surrounding it. As a nation, we really need to confront domestic and family violence. The effort to end violence against women rests with all of us in this place.

The statistics that I mentioned really suggest a national crisis. At the very least, they are a national shame. We must teach our sons to respect women and teach our daughters the signs to look out for in men who are controlling and coercive, who limit their freedom, who limit their access to funds, who isolate them from their friends and who explode to a rage after being told 'no'. We must teach them to run and support them to never, ever go back. With those words, I thank and commend the honourable member for bringing this motion before the chamber.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (23:00): Given the hour, I will not move the amendment but speak as briefly as possible to this motion, which I think has a global perspective on violence against women. As the previous speaker, the Hon. Connie Bonaros, has outlined what the shocking statistics are in Australia, I will not repeat them. However, I do wish to make a few remarks.

Since 1981, 25 November has been marked as a day against violence towards women. This came from the brutal assassination in 1960 of the three Mirabal sisters, who were political activists in the Dominican Republic. In December 1993, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and, in 1999, the United Nations General Assembly designated 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and invited governments, international organisations and NGOs to organise on that day activities designed to raise public awareness of the issue.

The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (IDEVAW) represents the start of the 16 days of activism addressing violence against women and their children, which concludes on Human Rights Day on 10 December. In Australia, IDEVAW has been the day on which White Ribbon Day is celebrated. As the Hon. Mark Parnell noted, the White Ribbon breakfast was held on Friday. I fully endorse all his comments in relation to the ongoing support from politicians for that movement, notwithstanding that the national organisation has had some financial issues and has now been taken over by Communicare. It is certainly very helpful for men to shine a light on this matter, take initiatives and call out sexist behaviour.

Internationally, statistics from the United Nations report on progress towards the sustainable development goals, which is data from 2005 to 2018 for 87 countries, show that:

On average, women spend triple the amount of time that men do each day in unpaid care and domestic work.

18 per cent of women and girls aged 15 to 49 years have experienced physical or sexual violence by a current or former intimate partner in the 12 months prior to the survey.

Female genital mutilation is a harmful practice experienced by about one in three girls in 30 countries, with representative data on the practice, and is an issue for women and girls in Australia.

Women's representation in national parliaments ranges from 0 per cent to 61.3 per cent in a range of nations.

It is important that we take a global perspective on these issues. Particularly in this year in which we are celebrating 125 years of women having the right to stand and the right to vote, it is important that we look back and see the advances that have taken place in Australia. Clearly, we have a long way to go in many ways. We will continue to work in a multipartisan way on a range of these issues, both in our own country and abroad.

It was great to celebrate recently Zonta's 100^th year of operating globally. The organisation has played a significant role as it has clubs around the world working to advance the rights of women and girls internationally. I endorse the motion to the council.

The Hon. I. PNEVMATIKOS (23:04): I thank honourable members for their support and contributions on this motion. Unfortunately, due to the impunity, silence, stigma and shame surrounding it, violence against women continues to be one of the most widespread, persistent and devastating human rights violations. I raised this motion last year with the intention of encouraging efforts between all members in this place to build further momentum and engagement with a tireless activist for women's rights in our state. Why? Because we can create meaningful opportunities and secure a commitment to end violence against women.

Research by the Australian Bureau of Statistics found that one in six women had experienced violence by a partner since the age of 15 and one in four had experienced emotional abuse by a partner. It concluded that women in Australia are almost three times more likely to have experienced partner violence than men are and eight times more likely to experience sexual violence. We know that legal frameworks regarding female equality in the workplace and the eradication of harmful practices targeted at women is crucial to ending the gender-based discrimination prevalent in many countries around the world, and it is why it is a part of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

Unfortunately, it struck me recently that we had an opportunity to address a component of this and let it go. Let me elaborate. This parliament was recently presented with an opportunity to afford industrial health and safety protections to a group of workers who are predominantly women. These women have been ultimately left in a vulnerable position due to the allowance of religiously motivated concepts of morality assuming ascendancy. They are attacked, harassed and assaulted, and due to the nature of the industry they work in they do not feel safe to seek assistance from police.

It was a deeply regretful outcome for an issue fought long and hard to improve the health and safety of vulnerable women in our state. They will continue to be vulnerable until we take action on the matter, and we must. This cannot continue to be ignored. Too many women suffer from violence in our community, and for it to end we must end the stigma and make it everybody's business. All women in our state should be able to live free from the fear and suffering that violence can inflict.

In closing, I again thank all members for their contributions and encourage this council to do all it can to address gender inequality, to empower women and girls and to prevent violence against women. Thank you.

Motion carried.