Tuesday, 30 April 2024

 Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (19:10): (848) My adjournment is for the Minister for Prevention of Family Violence, and the action that I seek is for the minister to outline when the government will deliver the now overdue Victorian 10-year sexual violence strategy, which was promised to be released in 2022, and what consultation is planned to ensure that the government delivers on its commitment to work closely with specialist and community sector services and to ensure that lived experience is at the centre of these reforms to build effective and long-lasting change.

It was both encouraging and confusing to see the Premier and ministers marching against domestic violence over the past week. It was encouraging because it is a very serious issue that I have been advocating for and that does need to be addressed by the government, and it was confusing because they are the government. If you are the government, why are you protesting to yourself to advocate for change? There should be more doing and less marching, I think – more doing and less talking. I have been asking for a year now for action on the stalking reform, and according to the Premier and the Attorney-General, they are still considering the recommendations in this report. When it comes to violence against women, we have reached crisis point in this state. Action is needed, and whatever needs to be done to speed up consideration should be done, because we need less marching and less talking from those opposite and more action.