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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
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Violence Against Women

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (12:05): I move:

That this house—

(a) acknowledges that 25 November was the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women;

(b) acknowledges that the prevalence of violence against women in our community is utterly unacceptable;

(c) commits to doing whatever it can to prevent and end violence;

(d) notes that gender inequality underpins disrespect and violence against women;

(e) notes that prevention must be funded if we are able to end the terrible scourge of violence against women;

(f) notes that the Liberal government has failed to provide any funding for domestic violence prevention; and

(g) notes that cuts to the Domestic Violence Court Assistance Service and to funding for the Equal Opportunity Commissioner by the Liberal government demonstrate a lack of commitment to addressing harassment, disrespect and violence against women.

I rise, as I did earlier today, to speak about domestic violence, and I do so with some degree of sorrow and also with determination to do whatever we can in this place and in our community as community leaders, together with our communities, to make a difference on this issue and finally to put an end to this terrible scourge.

On 18 January this year, women, including a number of parliamentarians from both sides of this house, including I think the member for Elder, the Hon. Irene Pnevmatikos, the Hon. Emily Bourke and others from this place, as well as others who have dedicated much of their lives to advocating and acting for the eradication of violence against women, gathered right here on the steps of Parliament House for the Pay Our Respects rally, organised by generous long-term domestic violence prevention campaigners, Stacey Nelan and Gillian Lewis.

Together, on 18 January we each held up a number between one and 61. As we held those numbers aloft, the rally's organisers helped us pay our respects to the 61 women across our country who died last year because of domestic violence. For each of those 61, where appropriate we heard the name of that woman, her age, the community from which she came, sometimes something about her children or her family, then we had a moment's silence to honour that woman.

It was a deeply sad day, it was deeply emotional and I think it brought up many feelings for everybody who was present. It was also, though, a moment when we were connected in our determination to do better. One woman's death due to violence is an absolute tragedy; 61 is utterly unacceptable and it just has to stop. As I said at the rally, and I say again to the families and loved ones of those women killed last year: our love and our prayers are with you, and our community's collective arms are tightly wrapped around you as you grieve your sisters, your aunts, your nieces, your friends, your daughters and granddaughters.

As I also said at the rally, to the many children who will never again be held in their mother's arms: we see you, we see your pain and we are here for you. I also said at the rally, and I say again in this place, that we must never stop speaking up, acting and fighting to end this horrendous cycle of violence against women. There is no excuse for violence against women, none whatsoever, ever.

Violence against women is without boundaries: it occurs in every suburb, across every social group, in every culture and to women of every age group, but our response is also without boundaries. We can all play our active part in preventing and ending it. We can all do whatever is within our power and within our sphere of influence to make a difference.

Today, in moving this motion I again raise my voice in sorrow but also with deep unabating and relentless anger—anger that women continue to be killed and assaulted; anger that, despite just commemorating 125 years since our state become the first place in Australia where women successfully fought for the right to vote and to stand for parliament, we still have such a terribly long way to go. This is something we know because we as women do not always assume that we are safe when we walk to our cars, through a park, to a pub or wherever else we choose to go.

Tragically, so many women cannot assume they are safe at home, a place that should be their sanctuary. We are still questioned about why we happened to be at a particular place at a particular time, why we wore a particular style of clothing, why we acted in a particular way and with whom we chose to associate.

Just last year, two former AFL so-called stars chose to use a radio podcast to 'joke'—and I use that word very lightly, but it is what they called it—about sexually assaulting women by sneaking up behind them when they were drunk and vomiting on the ground. The gender inequality that is a root cause of domestic violence relentlessly persists.

Today, as we consider this motion, let us commit to continuing to speak up and out to doing more, to saying more, to acting more for as long as it takes until not one more woman is violently killed, until we no longer have to stand out the front of this place with signs in our hands, and until our hands are joined in a community where love, peace and respect—rather than violence—reign in the home and everywhere else.

Together we can create a different future, a future where we shift the way women and men are perceived; a future where no-one thinks it is okay to control someone through violence; a future where violence is never an option; a future where we have true gender equality, where every woman feels and is safe wherever she goes; and a future where no child is ever forced to mourn their mother.

As I said earlier in this place, 48 women have been killed this year as a result of domestic violence. Also, as I said earlier today, on day 6 of the 16 days of activism that started on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, three women were reported as killed due to domestic violence in one single day. This is appalling and has renewed the commitment of many in our community to doing whatever is within their power to prevent and end domestic violence. I do not intend to dwell on what I introduced this morning, but I look forward to working together with others in this place to progress that important reform.

I thank the many who are doing what they can during this 16 days of activism and who relentlessly do what they can day in and day out to stop this terrible scourge and to support those who experience violence. I thank the many workers who undertake extraordinary work in domestic violence organisations, all at Women's Safety Services South Australia who make a deep difference in women's lives, who walk with them, who help them to build a new life and who empower them to live with strength and free from violence.

In speaking about the extraordinary workers at Women's Safety Services South Australia, I note that this year they dealt with the horror of the death of a woman who was in contact with their organisation, a woman who was a member of our Morphett Vale community in the electorate of Reynella. I was very saddened but also very proud that our community got together virtually to pay our respects to this woman and to her family. Our community in the south and many at Women's Safety Services remain incredibly saddened and affected by the violent death of this woman.

As I said, women in domestic violence organisations do extraordinary work strengthening and empowering women to live their lives free of violence. Also, day in and day out they are at the forefront, confronting the issues that we in this place touch only briefly on. They hear about and see those things and their impact every single day. I absolutely pay tribute to them.

For many years I had the privilege of representing those workers as the assistant secretary and organiser at the Australian Services Union. I distinctly remember visiting their workplace and talking with those women about why they do the work they do. It certainly was not because of the pay. We worked very hard to achieve equal pay in that sector, but it certainly was not because of the pay.

Every single time, as a union representative, that I visited organisations like the Women's Safety Services and their predecessor organisations and any other organisation in the community sector that confronted issues associated with domestic violence, and I asked them why they did what they did, every single one of them—100 per cent of the time—said that they did the work they did because they really cared about women, they wanted to work with them, they wanted to work for them and they wanted to make a difference in their lives. I think that is extraordinary commitment, particularly when so many of those workers have spent literally decades of their lives in dedicated service to those women and also to trying to work with others to prevent and to end domestic violence.

So many of us in this place, so many people in our community, as I have spoken about, are incredibly frustrated about the lack of progress, and I know they work and deal with those issues every single day with enormous hearts and with such compassion, but it must be incredibly difficult. Again, I absolutely pay tribute to every single one of those women and to my friend Maria Hagias, who is the CEO of Women's Safety Services. She is such an incredibly positive woman, such a driven woman who just works relentlessly to make a difference on domestic violence, and I say thank you to her in particular. I also say thank you to all who work at the Women's Legal Service; Our Watch; Zahra; the YWCA; AWAVA; journalists, like Lauren Novak, who write about it; White Ribbon Australia; and so many others.

At a local community level, I pay tribute in my own community to a number of people who work relentlessly towards our collective goal of preventing and ending domestic violence. I pay tribute to the Southern Domestic Violence Action Group, who for more than two decades have brought together people and workers in our community to really create the conversations we need to have at a community level if we are to shift understanding and awareness about domestic violence, if we are to make sure we are shining a light on every single circumstance where it exists and to make sure we are shining a light on the gender inequality that absolutely lies as its root cause.

Can I also say thank you to the many members of the local southern community who have joined our Southern Women Matter campaign and City of Onkaparinga, who are now formally supporting that campaign. There are so many women who come to my office and approach others in our community about their experience of domestic violence.

The problem is that when one of those women approaches me or somebody else in the community when they are absolutely in a crisis situation, where we can send them to get crisis accommodation, support and support from the police is really clear, but when a woman comes to me and is disclosing the early signs of escalating abuse and violence we have no place to send her for prevention services, for counselling, for therapy. We do not have a dedicated resource in the south to do that, and neither do a number of other communities right around South Australia.

One of the things I drew attention to in estimates is that the government has spoken a lot about the domestic violence prevention hubs but, as we discovered in estimates, there is no ongoing sustainable funding for those hubs, and those workers I spoke about before are already stretched and already doing what they can with limited resources. We need funded prevention hubs if we are really to make a difference and stop violence before it starts.

So I commend everybody—every individual, every organisation—who has got involved in our Southern Women Matter campaign and the thousands of people who have already signed petitions and pledged to continue to be active until that is funded. Just in my last moment I wanted to very much thank the Zonta Club of Noarlunga Southern Vales, which has worked to turn literally everything in the south orange.

They have got CJ's Bakery and The ESPY Bakehouse to make orange doughnuts. They have orange flags and orange posters everywhere, right down Beach Road and in businesses at Colonnades as well, as a way of building awareness about the scourge of domestic violence. I thank Lesley Sweetman, Jane Morrison and all the members of that club I am very proud to be a member of.

Finally, in the last 10 seconds, really importantly, can I please pay tribute to and thank the courageous women who speak up about their experience of domestic violence and the courageous young people who speak about their experiences of witnessing domestic violence. I say to each and every one of them that their voices are heard and that they are respected. I know that everyone on this side of the house and many on the other side of the house are committed to doing what we can to make sure that we make change and that we finally prevent and end domestic violence.

Mrs POWER (Elder) (12:20): I move to amend the motion as follows:

Delete paragraphs (f) and (g), and delete paragraph (e) and substitute the following:

(e) recognises the significant investment of the Marshall Liberal government in addressing domestic, family and sexual violence.

So the motion now reads:

That this house—

(a) acknowledges that 25 November was the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women;

(b) acknowledges that the prevalence of violence against women in our community is utterly unacceptable;

(c) commits to doing whatever it can to prevent and end violence;

(d) notes that gender inequality underpins disrespect and violence against women; and

(e) recognises the significant investment of the Marshall Liberal government in addressing domestic, family and sexual violence.

Very sadly, there is no doubt that International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women continues to be necessary in our society and societies around the world. I thank the member for Reynell for moving this motion because it takes all members and all genders of all sides of politics to stand together against gender-based violence, to lead our communities in creating change.

Sadly, the member for Reynell makes out that we on this side are not absolutely committed to combating violence against women, which is a bit disappointing. Certainly, as the state's first ever Assistant Minister for Domestic and Family Violence Prevention I can tell you that this is a huge priority area for our government. Our Premier certainly would not have made this state's first appointment if that were not so.

International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women does not stand alone. It begins the 16 days of activism that conclude on 10 December, which is international Human Rights Day. The 16 days are an annual campaign around the world calling for the end of violence against women and children. In Australia, women continue to face violence at a horrific rate and the member for Reynell shared the event that we went to; unfortunately, it was not held this year due to COVID restrictions. At last year's event, there was a graphic depiction of those rates of violence.

Violence against women takes a profound and long-term toll on women's health and wellbeing and on families, communities and society as a whole. In my role as assistant minister, I have attended many rallies and events calling for an end to the violence. I continue to be inspired by the strength of the women who have experienced it and the passion of those who work tirelessly to prevent it. Violence against women is unacceptable, it is unjust and we will stand to tell everyone that it will never be okay.

The member for Reynell makes the incorrect assertion in her motion that the government has failed to provide funding towards prevention. This is, in fact, a critical part of the Committed To Safety policy framework released last year, and I share this, as I trust it will come as good news and reassurance. This 40-page framework provides a clear and considered plan for action in South Australia in preventing domestic, family and sexual violence, with a focus on specific population groups.

A working group of non-government organisations has also now been established to focus specifically on primary prevention at a community level. We are also working with the national government to prevent violence. South Australia is committed to 17 initiatives under the current Fourth Action Plan of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children, where primary prevention is a key priority area.

To support the national plan, our Marshall Liberal government has committed nearly $1.9 million over three years to new national sexual violence prevention initiatives, and the continuation of the Stop it at the Start campaign. We are also providing financial contribution to Our Watch. Our Watch are an incredible organisation formed by incredible people. They are a national leader in the primary prevention of violence against women and their children in Australia, and they provide great insight, research, data and advice about how we can go about preventing domestic and family violence.

The Marshall Liberal government has also invested $11.9 million over four years in the 2018-19 budget for a suite of measures to support women and children at risk and deliver on the government's commitments. I do not necessarily share this to say, 'Look at all that we're doing,' but more to share it as reassurance to the member for Reynell, given the motion she has brought before the house, and to all those in our community who have been impacted by domestic and family violence so that they know they have a government that is 100 per cent behind them.

We have delivered and we are delivering funding for the domestic violence crisis line to operate 24/7. We know that when those opposite were in government the crisis line only operated Monday to Friday from 9.00am to 5.00pm, but we know very well that domestic violence does not just occur during business hours. We are delivering the ongoing trial of the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme so that people feeling at risk can get more information about their partners or ex-partners and be connected to services early. This is set up as a key prevention initiative so that people can make informed choices.

We have nine safety hubs across South Australia for women to access information, support and referrals. We provided funding to some of those that were already established and will continue to do more work in that space. Forty new crisis beds across the state have also been invested in. Most importantly, we have listened to the sector, to the feedback from the round tables we have held across our state, and dedicated nine of those crisis beds to perpetrators so that women and their children can stay at home where it is safe to do so. Furthermore, our 2020 state budget commits an additional $3.8 million in funding over four years so that we can:

continue the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme;

continue the personal protection app; and

develop a statewide early intervention counselling service for perpetrators of domestic and family violence.

As this house is already aware, the Attorney-General has introduced tougher penalties for breaches of intervention orders, as well as creating a new standalone offence for strangulation. Again, I share all these initiatives so that everyone in our community knows we are doing all we can as a government to ensure that women and their children are safe. Furthermore, the Workplace Equality and Respect program will ensure that government agencies continue to strengthen workplace gender equality, promote safe and respectful workplaces and have the knowledge to help prevent domestic violence.

The Marshall Liberal government is absolutely committed to combating and preventing violence against women. It can no longer be ignored and, whilst we work to address the impact of domestic and family violence, our ultimate goal is to prevent it from occurring in the first place. We know that we cannot do this alone. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge all those who support women and their families who have been impacted by domestic violence, all those who support anybody who has been impacted by domestic and family violence, regardless of their gender. That may be in a formal professional role or it may be as a family member, a friend or a loved one.

I would particularly like to acknowledge those who work in the family and violence sector. They have had a particularly challenging year this year with COVID-19 restrictions and, as always, they have gone above and beyond. They do an exceptional job at the best of times, let alone with all they have been faced with this year. It was incredible to be a part of the Women's Safety Services annual general meeting not that long ago. I know the member for Reynell was also on that virtual call, and they were reflecting on some of the work they have done this year.

They are just one of many organisations in our great state, all across South Australia's metropolitan and regional areas, who have really risen to the challenges of the COVID pandemic. They have been there to support women and their families who have been impacted by domestic violence and who continue to be impacted by domestic violence. On behalf of all the government, I want to say a heartfelt thankyou: our state is all the better for all that you do normally but certainly what you have done this year.

Ms MICHAELS (Enfield) (12:29): I rise today to support the member for Reynell in her motion to acknowledge the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. I do so in the context of what is happening now with COVID-19. More than ever, domestic violence rates are skyrocketing in the pandemic; in fact, the United Nations is referring to it as 'the shadow pandemic'.

The United Nations says that since the outbreak of COVID-19 emerging data from those on the frontline shows that all types of violence against women and girls, particularly domestic violence, have intensified during the pandemic. We have seen here, with our domestic providers, increases in calls seeking help. It is a growing problem for which we need to provide much greater government support to help these women get out of the situations they are facing.

Much more needs to be done to address violence against women domestically and also internationally, and the UN has done some fantastic work in that regard. It is very important that we identify the issues involved in violence against women; we are talking about not only physical violence but also sexual violence and psychological and emotional abuse. The United Nations, in its Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, signed in 1993, defines violence against women as:

any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.

It includes:

intimate partner violence, including battering, psychological abuse, marital rape and femicide;

sexual violence and harassment, including rape, forced sexual acts, unwanted sexual advances, child sexual abuse, forced marriage, street harassment, stalking and cyber harassment;

human trafficking, including slavery and sexual exploitation;

female genital mutilation; and

child marriage.

What is important to note in that is the psychological abuse and references to coercion. That is where domestic violence starts. I have seen it very close up, and I fully support the member for Reynell for introducing her bill on preventing coercive control this morning.

It does start with isolation, it starts with verbal abuse, it starts with emotional abuse. It can take the form of cyberstalking, apps on phones tracking where women are going, preventing them from talking to their friends and family. That is where it starts, and it escalates. If we do not get the problem dealt with at that level, we will never deal with the issue of physical violence against women. More and more women will be murdered and physically abused if we do not take action on this now.

I have done a lot of work in this space with a particular organisation, Catherine House, which deals with homeless women. I have been involved with the organisation for over 10 years, in the last couple of years as an ambassador for Catherine House. I actually started with a program where female lawyers from the firm where I worked would go and cook at Catherine House once a week on a rotation program.

Being in that environment and seeing those women in that situation, you cannot help but think, 'It could be me,' and it could be: one in three women are subject to domestic violence. To see firsthand those women in that situation—homeless and potentially drug or alcohol-addicted as a way of self-medicating to deal with these domestic violence issues—is horrific.

Madge McGuire, who was the former CEO, involved me in that program many years ago so that I could see firsthand, and I am very grateful that she did. I think I probably got more out of that program than the women eating our mashed potatoes. To see that firsthand, and knowing that the end result is women in their 50s and 60s living in their cars as a result of this problem when we can do more to deal with it, I think is critical. The situation we saw with Hannah Clarke could have been stopped so easily. We heard from her parents that it could have been stopped so easily.

As I said, one in three women are dealing with domestic violence experiences. We have seen the emerging data of domestic violence through COVID-19. We cannot ignore that. We have seen stats coming out of the United Nations showing that only 52 per cent of women who are married or in a relationship freely make their own decisions about sexual relationships, contraceptive use and health care—52 per cent. Less than half the number of women are in the situation where they feel comfortable making those decisions on their own.

Women and girls account for 71 per cent of all human trafficking victims worldwide, and three out of four of these women and girls are sexually exploited. That is the extreme end of what we see. As I said before, action starts somewhere. That is why it is so important for this house to deal with and pass the member for Reynell's Criminal Law Consolidation (Coercive Control) Amendment Bill: to give these women a way out of this situation. Any one of the females in this chamber right now could be facing that situation. As I said, I have seen it very close at hand, and I wish there was more we could do.

It would be remiss of us not to take this opportunity to deal with the Criminal Law Consolidation (Coercive Control) Amendment Bill that the member for Reynell introduced this morning. On that note, I want to thank all the workers involved in this space. It is a tough job dealing with women who are terrified even to make that call to get the information. We need to make it as easy as we can for them to get out of those situations. I thank all those workers and support workers and I thank the member for Reynell for this motion, and for her earlier introduction of the bill. With that, I conclude my remarks.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI (Unley—Minister for Innovation and Skills) (12:37): I rise to support the motion in its amended form. In doing so, I commend the member for Reynell for bringing the motion to the house, but it is disappointing that she cannot help herself but stick the politics in at the end.

This is such an important issue that, if we are to make a difference—and I know that we will because this is important to every single person in this chamber—it requires us to work together on this. It is not an opportunity to make political points through a stinger in the tail of worthwhile motions that come to this house. I am very pleased that the member for Elder has put forward an amendment, and I support the amendment, and I will support the motion in its amended form.

A lot of very good points have been made by previous speakers. The member for Enfield's statistics were horrifying: one in three women, I think, over the age of 15 are subject to some form of domestic violence. Only 52 per cent of women are in control of their own life in a married situation—a terrible statistic. Of course, the important thing to remember is that women cannot win this war on their own; men need to intervene when they see men doing the wrong thing.

How often do we hear in conversation a male, who is obviously in the workforce, and whose partner is at home looking after his children, complaining about his partner spending his money? I take offence at that every time I hear it. It is just outrageous. It is a partnership; that is what a marriage is about. Yet there are many people, many men in those circles, who might cringe silently but do not raise any objection. I think it is important for men, when they hear that, to raise objection because it is just outrageous to suggest that it is his money just because he is in the workforce earning the money. That has never been the case in my relationship, and I know that is the situation for many other men.

Awareness of this issue is very important. We need to continually raise awareness, but at the same time we need to make sure that we are empowering women to be more independent. Enabling women to be valuable members of the workforce is a very important and effective way of doing that. We in the Marshall government have been doing that. We have identified a number of areas where it is a pretty rough deal for women entering a career, as opposed to men, particularly in the areas of training contracts and skilled learning while being paid a salary to do so.

I have to say that when I took this job on I was very surprised to learn that there were not any paid pathways in the care sector for women or for anybody working in the care sector, which is an occupation predominantly dominated by women. You have a situation where a woman needs to learn in a classroom the skills for a Certificate III in Individual Support, for example, and then go to work for somebody free of charge for six to eight weeks to get on-the-job experience.

I could not believe that that was the only option available to women, so we were very quick to start pilot programs in that space, where we convinced those participating in delivering those services and employing people in that area to employ trainees where a trainee salary was paid while people were learning those new skills. Of course, that gives women more choice.

If you take on a job that is relatively low paid—as a matter of fact, I think you actually earn more per hour working in a department store than you do in the care sector, yet you can walk straight into a retail job without any training—you have to participate in a training program. Although the classroom training is subsidised through the government, there is no salary for learning; we are determined to fix that and we have started that process.

We have also been very innovative in the way we are using the Skilling South Australia program. This is extra money that is used on top of the Subsidised Training List to encourage and support vocational education—in other words, contracted training. We are focusing on paid training in this space, people being paid to learn. In August, I launched the Empowering Career Options project, which is a partnership between MEGT, a group training employment agency; the state government; and TAFE SA. We identified women who were victims of domestic violence and built a program to support them to get skills to be of value in the workforce. In this instance, it was Certificate III in Business.

We had a pre-traineeship program where 30 women who were affected by domestic violence applied and went through the program; 21 were successful and offered traineeships in Certificate III in Business Administration. We used the extra funding that we had through Skilling South Australia to support those women in the workforce and also outside working hours. Additional funding was available to provide psychologist support, personal individual psychologist support via telehealth, for when those women may have needed some additional support to get back to normality through gaining these skill sets through a paid traineeship. This was $102,000 that was spent in the Skilling South Australia program.

This is what has been so successful about Skilling South Australia. We do not have buckets of money with labels on them, saying that they are only for that purpose. We go out and, through industry and community, we find problems in the community. We go to industry and the community for solutions and we are able to fund those solutions. This is just one very small area, and I note that there is no silver bullet in this. Violence against women has been around since the beginning of human life and it is not going to be resolved through a silver bullet.

It will need a series of projects, a series of people working in that area, identifying the different sorts of issues that need to be addressed, coming up with solutions and working with communities in those areas. But there is no doubt that the empowerment of women is a very effective way of helping women move away from a situation of domestic violence.

If they have the ability to work, earn their own income and not rely on the income of a partner who is abusing them, it gives them the ability to support their children, to leave that relationship and move away from that awful situation they are in. Programs like this will help women do that. As I said, that is just one piece of this very difficult puzzle to fix. I am very pleased that we have been able to do that in the skills portfolio. I know that Minister Lensink is also working with the member for Elder, with women and others in order to support women in these situations to come up with solutions.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay) (12:47): I rise today to support the original motion and talk about the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. This is a day that is celebrated and recognised throughout the world because of the task that is still before us to make a difference. We know that one in three women experience violence in their lifetime. I have to say that during my time we have had significant increases in attention to this issue. What we have seen in the past is silence, stigma and shame in relationships about people raising this issue, people talking about this issue.

If there is one thing that we have seen collectively probably over the last decade is increased recognition that we must increase the support services to support women and children who are experiencing violence. But it is far more than that. It is the important role we have to play in changing our culture and recognising that this is not just something that women have to fight but something that we, as a society, have to change and recognise.

I am very pleased to reflect on the time when I was Minister for the Status of Women when we increased our support, whether it be looking at support for people on the frontline supporting people impacted by DV or looking at legislation and policy that we move somewhat. Of course, we saw nationally at COAG the Prime Minister at the time making this an area of national importance.

I would like to take this opportunity to mention the recent election of Natasha Stott Despoja to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. Natasha will be one of 23 experts who monitor the progress of the global focus against elimination of violence against women. As a South Australian, she is incredibly well known, and I got to know her even more when she was chair of Our Watch and developed support around continuing to look at how we can change behaviours in many different ways and how we can support women. As South Australians and Australians, we should reflect on how proud we are that she will now be representing us on a global stage.

We have seen many different ways in which we can change our culture, but a key one I would like to briefly talk about is the gender pay gap. It is institutional sexual discrimination and it is oppression against the limitations and opportunities of women. The reason I talk about the gender pay gap—because you might think, 'What has that got to do with violence?'—is that it is at the very heart of the differences between men and women and how they are treated, and I talk about it in regard to the workplace.

The member for Unley talked about some of the things he has looked at with traineeships and some of the differences there. We have a lot of room to move here. According to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, women in Australia earn 14.1 per cent less than men. Why? Because they are a different gender? That is 14.1 per cent less. For all of us in this house, the 69 of us, we have a remuneration tribunal. We have a third party that determines what each and every one of us is paid. I am grateful for that because when I have worked in different sectors there is a lack of clarity and transparency regarding what people are paid.

I am not shy, and I have put forward what I deserve to be paid and had that argument, but there is no clarity or transparency, and in some industries, like the finance and insurance services industry, that leads us to having a 26.9 per cent gap between men and women. We have a long way to go in how we as a nation recognise the fundamental changes we have to make about how we act when we are talking about men, women, girls and boys. We have come a long way, but there is more to do.

I will close by saying that I support the original motion. The theme for this is 'Orange the world: Fund, Respond, Prevent, Collect!' I will leave on this note: the shadow pandemic has impacted women much more substantially. We have seen women losing jobs, particularly in areas like hospitality and retail, and they are more likely to be casual or part time. I certainly know that this is something Labor will be talking about as we recover from COVID—that women have been particularly impacted by this pandemic.

We have recently seen Premier Dan Andrews and the Victorian government recognise this in their budget. I call upon the Marshall Liberal government to take heed of that and recognise that women have been fundamentally more impacted during COVID. I support the motion.

Dr HARVEY (Newland) (12:53): I rise to speak on the motion moved by the member for Reynell which, for about half of it, I entirely agree with. It became a bit unnecessarily partisan, so obviously for that reason I support the amended version of the motion, but I certainly support much of the intent of the member for Reynell as well as virtually all of what she said in her speech on this motion.

This is a very important issue that impacts so many people within our community. There is a lot more work that needs to be done, but the Marshall Liberal government is doing some important work in supporting programs and putting very real money into programs, whether for support services or in the area of primary prevention. Clearly, there is more work to be done not only at a government level but, I think, broadly, at a community level and also a cultural level.

Some of the statistics on this issue are horrific. We have heard many already, but the fact that on average one woman a week is murdered by her current or former partner in Australia is disgraceful. One in three Australian women have experienced physical violence since the age of 15. One in five Australian women have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15. One in four Australian women have experienced physical or sexual violence by a current or former intimate partner since the age of 15.

We could go on and on, and those numbers do not get any better. It is very much a tragedy and a disgrace in our community that this happens right around us every day. It is also important to note that gender inequality is very much at the heart of this issue. This is where it starts, and where it ends is often catastrophic.

On a more positive note, I would like to touch on some of the important work that some non-government organisations have done, particularly the Eastern Adelaide Domestic Violence Service. I want to raise this particular service because the Minister for Education and I have had a bit to do with this group for a number of years now, particularly the minister, having organised a regular quiz night for a number of years. Since my election to this place, I have been a participant in that as well, co-hosting it and raising funds from a generous community to support this wonderful service, headed up by Kathy Lilis, who does an outstanding job.

I would like to particularly credit the staff of the service. We spoke to Julie, Jacqui and Janassa recently when we visited there. Of course, this year, because of COVID, rather than organising a quiz night we did an online fundraiser, and we went along and visited the service to speak to some of the staff and get a sense of some of the work they do, including supporting children. Particularly coming up to Christmas, community funds help support the purchase of presents for children who are at the service.

Migrant women are another very important area. Jacqui in particular was very passionate about that and was talking about the importance of helping to educate women so that they understand their rights, because unfortunately perpetrators often take advantage of that lack of knowledge of the system here and of rights. Ultimately, the work that the service does is about providing toolkits to impacted women and their children to help escape that cycle of violence.

I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to the fundraiser so far. I particularly acknowledge Gurtej from the Minister for Education's office, who has really been at the heart of organising this fundraiser. It does show that, whilst there is a lot of work to be done in this area, there is also enormous community support and, I think, a greater awareness. All of us in this place need to continue to work as hard as we can to bring this issue further to the fore and to ultimately eliminate violence against women.

Ms WORTLEY (Torrens) (12:58): I rise to support the original motion moved by the member for Reynell. Domestic violence is devastating. It is devastating that 48 women have lost their lives so far in Australia through domestic violence this year. It is devastating for their families, for the sons and daughters who no longer have their mother, for the parents who have lost their daughter, for the brothers and sisters who have lost their sibling, for the nieces and nephews who have lost an aunty and for friends who have lost an important person in their lives.

Adequate government funding for prevention of domestic violence is crucial if we are to work towards the elimination of domestic violence in our community. The impact on the lives of children and future generations depends on how seriously the government takes this issue today and the allocation of adequate funding to address the elimination of violence we see against women in our community.

I have had women sleeping in their cars, with nowhere to go, literally running away from their homes. I even had one woman sleeping in the car at the front of my office with her dog. I have spoken on the phone and in person to women who have been terrified by the actions of their former partners, and this is many months after the relationship has ended. We need to work together to create a future, a better future, where no-one thinks it is okay to control someone through violence—it is not—a future where violence is not ever an option, where every woman feels safe in every situation she finds herself in, a future where no child is forced to mourn their mother. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 13:00 to 14:00.

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