2018-02-28
Today’s release of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s report on Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence demonstrates Australia continues to be in the grip of a domestic violence epidemic, and the Greens have called on the Turnbull government to take national leadership and provide the level of resources needed to tackle this crisis.
“This staggering report paints a distressing picture of domestic violence and family violence in this country,” said Senator Janet Rice, Australian Greens spokesperson for women.
“The government’s current level of funding for domestic and family violence crisis services is clearly inadequate. It’s just not good enough that 1.6 million Australian women have experienced sexual or physical violence at the hands of an intimate partner or that fifty women per day report a sexual assault to police."
“It’s clear the current level of resourcing is not enough to deal with the staggering amount of demand for crisis and support services.”
“The Turnbull government must heed the report and take clear steps that match the challenge at hand, including addressing the data gaps, significantly increasing in funding for domestic violence services, implementing a broad program of reforms to keep victims and survivors safe and to hold perpetrators to account, and make our workplaces safe by supporting the Greens’ bill to provide ten days paid domestic violence leave as a right for every worker.”
“This report just goes to show how far we still have to go to ensure Australians live without violence and to achieve gender equality.”