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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-03-17 Daily Xml
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Domestic and Family Violence

Mrs POWER (Elder) (15:57): The hypocrisy of those opposite is breathtaking. It is disgusting and it is shocking and, yes, I of all people should not be shocked at the low that Labor are willing to go to for political pointscoring. I of all people know firsthand that Labor will say and do anything if they think it is politically advantageous for them to do so. I experienced this firsthand in the lead-up to the 2014 election, when I was bullied, harassed and subjected to racist, lowball attacks. What is worse is that my volunteers in polling booths were also abused and sexually harassed by volunteers of those opposite.

I also saw it firsthand as I watched my federal colleague the member for Boothby, Ms Nicolle Flint, be bullied, harassed and the target of a sexist campaign. Yet those opposite did not speak out or do anything at the time to call out such behaviour. Yet here I am today, once again, shocked at the gutter politics that Labor is willing to engage in, I suppose in the hope that that will win them a few votes. What we have witnessed in question time by those opposite is just appalling.

Let's set the record straight. Let's actually ask the question and let the answer be heard, about what we are doing on this side to ensure women and their children can feel safer and respected in our state. Firstly, in South Australia—a South Australian first—the Premier appointed a sole person dedicated to tackling and preventing domestic and family violence. That person happens to be me.

This is not a tokenistic appointment. No, it is not tokenistic at all. We have backed it up with record funding. For all the questions around what we are doing and how much we are spending on prevention, this is the time to listen up. Since we were elected in 2018, we have committed more than $21 million. In our first budget, we announced $11.9 million as we worked to implement the comprehensive suite of initiatives that we promised to tackle domestic and family violence. We have continued to back that up with additional funding.

We are doing things like investing in additional crisis accommodation right across the state. What we heard from the sector is the importance of dedicating some of these crisis beds to perpetrators and really shifting the focus from taking those who have already been subjected to domestic and family violence out of their homes and putting them through another traumatic circumstance of being uprooted. We heard about, rather than uprooting them once again, taking the perpetrator out, wrapping around support, keeping a line of sight over them and really leading the country with this perpetrator pilot program.

We announced funding to ensure that our crisis line here in South Australia could operate 24/7—24/7. It used to operate only during business hours, but we know that domestic family violence does not just happen during business hours. We rolled out our Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme, we launched a campaign to break the cycle, we are investing in funding as part of the federal government's Stop it at the Start campaign and we are continuing to support Our Watch, which is really about preventing domestic and family violence and developing the evidence base to inform the work that we are doing. There is so much work that we are doing, yet I look at the clock and I know that we are limited in time.

In conclusion, yes, Monday's rally was an important one. Together, we stood united to say that enough is enough. This goes beyond politics and it goes beyond this parliament. It is about creating safe workplaces for all women across our state—and that is exactly what we are doing. It is about saying discrimination, sexual harassment and abuse are never okay. It is about saying enough is enough and we do want cultural change and we want it now.

Those of us in this place need to be the positive role models, we need to act and we need to look beyond our own little patch. We need to get out of the gutter—and I direct that to those opposite. You need to get out of the gutter and join us in being positive role models, stop scaremongering and actually be the change that is needed.

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