Thursday, 16 November 2023

Family violence

Nick McGOWAN (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:05): What a feckless bunch we are. Many have spoken today about family violence. Yes, it is true, it is devastatingly true, that one woman, one girl, one lady a week is killed by their partner or their ex-partner. We say it so often it is almost virtue-signalling. We talk about their vulnerability and we talk about how undesirable it is and how abhorrent it is. Yet when there comes the opportunity to act in this place, we seldom do, I think, what is now necessary. What is necessary is a disproportionate response. It was only some weeks ago that the suggestion of ankle bracelets and such was pooh-poohed because it might be an incursion on offenders’ rights. So at what point do we get sick and tired of women being killed in this state? Fifteen a day hospitalised – that is not enough; we need 30 or maybe 50. How many need to be killed a week? Maybe two or three before we act. At some point we have to send a message to boys, young men and men: (1) do not hit girls; (2) never, ever kill them. We are feckless. I only wish that the words I have heard today from everyone here were matched with their actions, because unless they are, women will continue to be killed every day, and we will wake up to that in the news. I am sick and tired of it.