Page 1370 - Week 05 - Thursday, 26 April 1990
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MS MAHER (5.08): Mr Speaker, other speakers have noted that today is National Stop Domestic Violence Day. It is an important way to make everyone aware that we are all responsible and that all governments must work to eliminate domestic violence.
It is fitting that this Assembly pauses to think about the effects that domestic violence has on our community. The costs of domestic violence are enormous. The first effects of domestic violence are the terrible injuries that too many women and children are suffering today and every day and the trauma that goes with the horror of violence in the home.
Domestic violence destroys the fabric of family life; it leaves permanent scars on survivors; it has the potential to emotionally damage all members of the family, their children and even their children's children; it generates a heavy cost on government in legal aid, financial help to survivors and help in kind, such as new housing. Often survivors have no source of income other than from the government. There are heavy medical costs and many other costs that cannot easily be quantified, such as lost schooling.
Domestic violence is a problem that faces all of Australia, and it must be addressed in a bipartisan manner. With encouragement from all States and Territories, three years ago the Federal Government launched a major campaign to educate the community about domestic violence. A domestic violence task force was set up, with representatives from all States, Territories and the Commonwealth, to manage the national education campaign and to coordinate initiatives against domestic violence.
For example, today a national forum on domestic violence training initiatives is being held in Adelaide. It is being attended by people who train workers in domestic violence management across Australia. The ACT has people there from both the government and non-government sectors.
The national education program is aimed at providing education on various aspects of domestic violence across Australia. It includes subprograms aimed at meeting the needs of women living in rural and isolated areas, women from non-English speaking backgrounds, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and Australian youth. In this way it is hoped that the message that domestic violence is not acceptable will be heard loudly and clearly across the whole of Australia.
I have mentioned the national initiatives because they emphasise the importance of community education. The objective is a change in community attitudes towards domestic violence. It is not that long ago that women were considered to be at fault if they were assaulted in the home. Research in the mid-1980s showed that many
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