Tuesday, 13 May 2025

Family violence

Gabrielle DE VIETRI (Richmond) (19:14): (1127) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Prevention of Family Violence, and the action I seek is to find a permanent home for the She Matters memorial and for investment in real solutions to family and domestic violence.

128 – that is the number of Australian women and children who have been killed since the start of 2024, 25 of them this year alone, overwhelmingly at the hands of male partners or family members. And for every murder, there are countless more women and children who commit suicide after experiencing family violence. On Saturday I joined thousands to march through the streets calling on our governments to do more to stop men from killing women and to keep women and children fleeing family violence safe. As we named the women one by one, teenagers nearby held each other, their shoulders shaking with grief. One father called out, ‘That’s my daughter.’ Enough is enough – too many names, too many vigils, too many lives taken too soon.

We must acknowledge that men’s violence against women disproportionately impacts First Nations women, migrants and refugees, queer women and women with disabilities. As the epidemic of violence grows, support services are being stretched. But the worst thing is that they are facing cuts, with family violence and Koori Court jobs being identified as cost-cutting opportunities by this government when what we need is clear – more prevention, more education and housing security for the women who need it. Please, more must be done.

The memory of these women must spur us to do better. Yet, not far from here, a commemorative mural in their names, the She Matters mural, was defaced just last week. That is why I am calling on the state government to help find a permanent public home for the She Matters mural, to honour the women murdered and to remind us every day to do better. To the ones we have lost, to those who carry the weight of survival: you are not alone. We fight with you.