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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-11-23 Daily Xml
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WOMEN'S SAFETY

The Hon. M.J. WRIGHT (Lee) (14:14): Can the Premier inform the house on the actions he will take to keep women safe in South Australia?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Minister for State Development) (14:14): Can I thank the honourable member for his important question, and ignore the trite interjections of those opposite, and say that the short answer to how we are going to keep women safe is to speak out against violence against women. After generations of change to recognise women's equality and give them the opportunities to explore their talents, and at a time when women hold some of the highest positions in our country, it is truly shocking to see how many women still suffer violence every day of their life.

Domestic and family violence affects one in three Australian women, and one in five women suffer from sexual violence. I find these statistics appalling. It is almost impossible to imagine the fear, the pain and the suffering that these statistics represent. These statistics are not just shocking, they are, indeed, unacceptable. We cannot hear them and choose to do nothing. We must do what is within our power to change this dreadful reality. We know that most of the violence is perpetrated by men, so it is up to us as men to make a difference to this situation.

This year is 20 years since the Centre for Women's Global Leadership called for global action against violence perpetrated against women across the globe. This campaign gave rise to the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, 25 November, also known as White Ribbon Day. I encourage every male person in this chamber on Friday to swear an oath, through the White Ribbon campaign, never to commit, excuse or remain silent about violence against women and to join me in wearing a white ribbon this Friday as evidence of our commitment.

The White Ribbon campaign is the largest global male-led movement to stop men's violence against women. I am proud to be an ambassador for it and to join all the other ambassadors, a number of whom sit in this parliament, to do what I can to ensure a safer world for women now and for future generations. Of course, as a government, we have an additional responsibility for women's safety in South Australia. We are currently revising our Women's Safety Strategy so that we can build on our previous work to make women safer in South Australia.

Since the first Women's Safety Strategy was released in 2005, we have worked to increase awareness of this issue, to better equip our police to act on domestic violence situations, to provide stronger support for victims and to increase our understanding of how we can prevent the worst from happening. Over the past 12 months, the Coalition for Men Supporting Non-Violence has used the $30,000 grant provided by our government to actively engage men and boys across South Australia in a conversation about violence against women.

I cannot emphasise enough how important it is for South Australian men to speak up against abuse of women. For too many years, men saw it as personal business and would look the other way when they saw it. But violence against women is not a women's issue: it is everybody's responsibility to say it is unacceptable and to prove the sincerity of our words by our actions.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

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