Tonight I will be addressing the Senate on the important role White Ribbon Day is playing in educating the community about cultural change, with the ultimate aim of eliminating violence against women. According to the ABS, nearly half a million Australian women suffer violence in a one-year period.
In the ACT alone, police attend approximately 3,600 identified domestic violence matters per year.
I welcome the report released this month, An Assault on Our Future: the impact of violence on young people and their relationships, issued by the White Ribbon Foundation which endorses the focus of the White Ribbon Foundation’s Campaign on the positive roles that men and boys can play in combating violence against women.
Although the majority of perpetrators of violence are male, the majority of males are not perpetrators. We need this majority to become less silent, and more visible, in portraying a positive role as the norm.
After eleven years of relative inaction on the problem of violence against women, we at last have a Government committed to a national strategy.
The Rudd Labor Government has set up the National Council to Reduce Violence Against Women, which has been working on a National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and Children.
The Government has also announced that it will invest up to $2 million in research and analysis of Australian community attitudes towards violence against women in partnership with VicHealth, the Social Research Centre and the Australian Institute of Criminology.
I commend the work of the National Council to Reduce Violence Against Women and that of the organisations working to understand and combat this problem.
Contact: Rachel Allen 6277 3334 or 0418 488 295
