Page 1371 - Week 05 - Thursday, 26 April 1990
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Australians believed it was all right for men to assault members of their families in ways that were totally unacceptable outside the home.
The challenge before us is to make the community understand what domestic violence means. As a community we must view this sort of behaviour as unacceptable. The full weight of the law must be used to prevent such action and to take appropriate steps once violence has occurred. I find that it is still sadly true that many women either lack support or feel that they lack support to say publicly that they have been abused. I recall that only recently a person from New South Wales was interviewed and said, "It must have been the woman's fault". We must oppose this attitude wherever it appears.
It is not a woman's fault if she is abused physically or emotionally. No provocation is great enough to deserve violence in return. No circumstances could make it her fault or clear the perpetrator from responsibility. This Government has a very clear view on this matter and will do whatever it can to educate the community that domestic violence is unacceptable in the ACT. Our policy on the status of women says:
Women and children are more likely than men to be victims of criminal assault, particularly domestic violence and sexual abuse, and of street violence. The Alliance Government has a strong commitment to promoting the safety of women and children in our community and to providing ongoing community education programs.
Now I would like to quote some excerpts from the report of the National Committee on Violence. Some have already been mentioned, but I think they are worth reinforcing. It says:
One of the most striking aspects of violence in Australia is that the vast majority of those who commit acts of violence are males ... Victims of sexual assault and domestic violence are overwhelmingly female ... it is difficult to estimate the extent of domestic violence because of the lack of suitable data, but ... broad estimates suggest that "the behaviour is widespread, almost to the point of being a normal, expected behaviour pattern in many homes" ... in 1986-87, 25 per cent of all offences against the person reported to police occurred in a private dwelling ... a survey of community attitudes in 1987 found that 46 per cent of respondents reported knowing someone involved in domestic violence ... 47 per cent of all female homicide victims were killed by their spouse, compared to 10 per cent of male victims ... The general features of domestic violence ... were its private nature, that it is under-reported, that it occurs
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