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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-11-25 Daily Xml
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WHITE RIBBON DAY

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (14:46): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for the Status of Women a question about White Ribbon Day.

Leave granted.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: The United Nations has declared 25 November the international day for the elimination of violence against women. It is known as White Ribbon Day, after the white ribbon was adopted as a symbol for the campaign, which originated in Canada and has since spread around the world. Will the minister inform the house what the government is doing to spread the White Ribbon Day message?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (14:46): I thank the honourable member for his most important question and his ongoing personal support for this particular initiative. This day, 25 November, White Ribbon Day, marks the beginning of the 16 days of activism against gendered violence campaign, which ends on 1 December, with the United Nations Human Rights Day.

As members would be aware, the White Ribbon Foundation runs a national campaign for White Ribbon Day every year, and White Ribbon Day ambassadors play an important role and are critical to the success of the campaign. Ambassadors are highly respected men, leaders in our community, who are willing to take a stand and be positive role models to other men in the community, whatever their sector, background, age or belief. We know that often domestic violence can be cyclical.

We know it often relates to learned attitudes and behaviours. We know that someone who has been subjected to domestic violence or violence at a young age often goes on to repeat the same patterns of violence. It is most important that we have these alternative, positive role models for men, particularly young men, and it is most important that we have a network of ambassadors out there showing an alternative and portraying a particular set of social attitudes that indicate that violence in any form is abhorrent.

Ambassadors support the campaign in many ways, such wearing a white ribbon or wristband in the lead-up to White Ribbon Day, and encouraging others to do the same or sharing the white ribbon message with local communities, particularly in rural and regional areas. These ambassadors play a vital role as role models for other men as they pledge to never remain silent about violence against women.

It is great to see my parliamentary colleagues, including the Hons Stephen Wade and Mark Parnell, who are white ribbon ambassadors and were at the Adelaide white ribbon breakfast held this morning. I also acknowledge in this place a number of other white ribbon ambassadors: the Hons Ian Hunter, John Gazzola, John Darley, Mark Parnell (who I have mentioned), Robert Brokenshire, Russell Wortley and John Dawkins, who has given longstanding support to this campaign, which is appreciated very much.

I was delighted to announce at the breakfast this morning that the government is providing a local coalition of men taking a stand against violence, and I have provided them with a grant today of $30,000 to take their important message out further into metropolitan and country communities to speak out against violence to women. I am very much looking forward to working with the coalition of men supporting non-violence.

They will use the grant to engage with ambassadors, doing things like running training sessions and coordinating events for next year's White Ribbon Day in South Australia, and also to develop the white ribbon ambassador program. I presented a letter confirming the grant to the coalition's Trevor Richardson at lunchtime today at Men in the Mall—a wonderful event.

I congratulate and acknowledge the hard work of my colleagues, the Hons Ian Hunter and John Gazzola and their staff for organising and running this year's event. It was a fabulous success. Hundreds of people went by there today, taking an interest and stopping and talking to a wide range of celebrities, including a number of sports stars who were there. It is always quite overwhelming, and quite touching, to see those men who are prepared to come out and publicly lend support to this event and this campaign.

It is pleasing to see men taking a lead role in White Ribbon Day activities. We know that violence against women is not just an issue for women: it is everyone's issue, a shared issue. It is a shared issue because the women victims are people's mothers, daughters, aunts and such like; and we also share it because each and every one of us wants to know that our children, and men and women, can move freely in our society without being threatened by domestic violence. It is very much a community issue, and it will not be until each and every one of us accepts responsibility for taking steps to eliminate domestic violence that we will eradicate it from our community.

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