Domestic and Family Violence

Mr GREG PIPER (Lake Macquarie) (18:12): I add my voice to the chorus of members speaking on the issue of domestic violence and the need to do better to address the domestic violence crisis this State and country are facing. Lake Macquarie and Newcastle, like the rest of New South Wales, has seen an appalling and unacceptable increase in domestic violence offences in recent years. We have experienced an annual 2.3 per cent increase in domestic violence related assaults in the five years to December 2023 and a truly shocking 12 per cent annual increase in sexual assaults. We also know there is a huge amount of under-reporting in this area. Truly appalling figures have been laid bare many times this week, with one in four women and one in eight men in Australia experiencing violence by an intimate partner since the age of 15. Tragically this year in Australia one woman has died on average every four days from domestic violence. That is a national shame.

For a long time, family and domestic violence support services and advocates in Lake Macquarie, the Hunter and across the State have been highlighting the growing problem of domestic and family violence in New South Wales and the desperate need for more funding and support for victim-survivor services and prevention programs. A number of remarkable domestic and family violence support services are operating in the Lake Macquarie and Greater Newcastle area. I acknowledge the tireless work of the advocates and staff members at Nova for Women and Children, Warlga Ngurra Women and Children's Refuge, Got Your Back Sista, Jenny's Place and Survivors R Us. The work that these dedicated service providers do every day and the frontline services they provide literally save lives.

This work is hard, distressing and, right now, relentless. For a long time, advocates and support services have been speaking out about the overwhelming demand on services in the Hunter due to the relentless rates of domestic and family violence across the region, compounded by the housing crisis and the cost-of-living crisis. Advocates and domestic and family violence support workers have described the heartbreak of being unable to meet the demands on the services and the feelings of guilt and stress when they cannot provide clients safe places to stay or the support they need because their services are so overwhelmed.

I thank all of the advocates and domestic and family violence support workers for working so hard to support victim-survivors in the Hunter and across New South Wales, for their bravery and dedication, for refusing to walk away, and for continuing to advocate strongly and loudly for those who cannot advocate for themselves, even when it feels like there is no end to this crisis. There is no doubt it takes a toll on them personally, but they continue to show up day after day to support victim-survivors desperately in need. I thank the Government and Minister Harrison in particular for their leadership, for their recognition of the urgency of this situation and the need for an emergency response, and for their commitments over the previous days, particularly to expanding the Staying Home Leaving Violence program and additional funding for domestic violence support workers.

Of course, more work is to be done. Bail laws and processes need to be addressed. There must be changes to the justice system and more support for the domestic and family violence sector workforce. But what is clear from all sides of this House this week is a recognition of the urgency of this issue, an acknowledgement that it is too important to be politicised, and a commitment to work together for change. The current domestic and family violence crisis will not be solved solely in this place; it takes a whole community's commitment. But the community is speaking out loudly. Women, children and all those suffering violence from intimate partners cannot continue to live in fear, and innocent lives cannot continue to be lost. I welcome the Government's response to this crisis, and I commit to working with the Government, the domestic violence support sector and all in this House on the reform needed to protect victim-survivors and to ensure that those who, tragically, did not survive, such as Molly Ticehurst, are not forgotten.