HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MONDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2015
*** CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY ***
It is time for a national crisis summit on family violence.
Not a ‘talkfest’, but an assembly of the frontline:
- Community and legal services
- Law enforcement and experts
- People working in prevention
And most importantly a platform for the voices of survivors and their families.
The people who understand the ‘postcode lottery’ of unequal treatment…
People who know the cracks in our system, because they have fallen through them – and in some cases survived and climbed back out.
The summit would involve state leaders – but it must go further than COAG.
Mr Speaker
Too often the first public warning sign that a woman is in danger - is a report of her death.
And whilst, weekly, women are being killed, there are tens of thousands further living with violence in their homes.
The dreadful reports from Queensland and Victoria last week force us to confront this reality once again.
But last week also showed that our nation is capable of rising to meet great and urgent challenges.
This Parliament, community groups, welfare organisations, State governments – Australians one and all – came together to offer help to 12,000 desperate people on the other side of the world.
Let us bring the same urgency, the same purpose and the same compassion to the total elimination of family violence from our national life.
We cannot practice politics as usual, never before have we assembled everyone.
Family violence requires national leadership.
ENDS
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