Two weeks ago, a 30-year-old woman known as AK and her 14-week-old baby were found dead at a Central Australian outstation.
A gun, and the body of AK’s partner were found nearby, and NT Police are investigating the murder-suicide.
It was a devastating discovery for AK’s family, her surviving children, and our NT community.
It was also devastating how little media attention the deaths have attracted.
We haven’t publicly grieved them as a nation, the way we grieved Hannah Clarke and her children.
Every woman’s life and every child’s life should be treated with value.
Such deaths cannot continue to fly under the radar.
Violence must be held to account.
First Nations women in Australia experience some of the highest rates of violence of any population in the world.
It accounts for three out of five calls NT Police receive.
Nationally, one woman dies every week or so at the hands of their former or current partner.
We need to do better.
We must do better to protect women and children, and to stop violence from occurring in the first place.
I was proud to secure an election commitment for $3.2 million in funding for DV providers.
I look forward to working with the NT Govt, Dawn House, and the Darwin and Aboriginal Islander Women’s Shelter to deliver funding to provide more safe accommodation for women and children fleeing danger at home.
Earlier this year, I met with a number of Darwin groups that provide domestic and family violence support, who are doing tremendous work under extremely difficult circumstances.
They have told me repeatedly that the Territory is in dire need of needs-based funding.
Our violence prevention services cannot keep being funded on a per-capita model when the rates of violence are so high.
Our services are overstretched and underfunded.
Only a needs-based funding model will begin to help tackle the crisis.
I will continue to advocate to my friend and colleague Minister Rishworth to overhaul how funding for these services is allocated.
And I’m proud to be part of a Federal Government that is committed to ending domestic and family violence.
A real impediment to women escaping is that they feel financially trapped, without the money to rent a house and get set up, or meet their kids’ needs.
They should never have to choose between their safety and their wages.
That’s why this Government is ensuring that workers can access ten days of paid leave in order to deal with the impact violence is having on them.
The coverage of casual workers is important, as women experiencing such violence are often employed casually.
They need this certainty.
This will be a lifeline for so many. And it is long overdue.
The Government will also release our National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children in October.
It’ll set out a strategy for the next decade to reduce violence.
And this is just the start.
The Government has committed to a number of new initiatives, including:
· 500 more community frontline workers, of which many must be dedicated to the NT
· Teaching consent and respectful relationships in schools
· Building more safe and affordable housing
· Establishing a new Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission.
It’s on all of us to confront and stamp out violence at every level.
I commend the men that are standing up against violence including Charlie King and the Catholic Education Office in my electorate.
The message is simple – NO MORE!
And I want to commend Charlie for something else too, for pointing out that women do not have CU IN THE NT stickers on their cars for a reason.
That’s because that slogan has a dark underbelly and is detested by many women.
They know that for many, it’s the last word they hear before they’re knocked unconscious, or worse.
No good man beats a woman.
So let us all say NO MORE and work for a safer country.
I commend the Member for Paterson, my friend Meryl Swanson, for putting forward this motion.
