It’s good to be here with our Australian and New Zealand police commissioners coming together for just the second time in history to speak out on an important subject.
It’s good to be with so many of my parliamentary colleagues, led by the Leader of the Opposition, and it’s good to be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with our Governor-General to speak out with one united voice that women and children must be safe – women and children must be safe.
I speak as the father of three daughters, as the brother of three sisters, and I say that nothing is more horrifying than the knowledge that there are women and children right around our country today who are living in fear because of some male who is in their household and instead of being the love of their life, the apple of their eye, or the hero of their being, that person has become their tormentor.
Frankly, speaking as a male, speaking as a leader, our job is to be the protector, not the oppressor, of the people who depend upon us. So, I’m really pleased to be here to add my voice to those of all of my colleagues this morning.
Nothing could be more debilitating than to live in fear of someone you love and yet we know that it happens and we know that it must stop.
The presence of the police commissioners is, I suppose, the move visible sign that violence against women and children is not just a social scourge, it is an absolute crime – a very serious crime – and perpetrators must be prosecuted and they must be punished. They must be punished with the full severity of the law.
Finally, I just want to say to any woman in our country who is feeling vulnerable, who is feeling frightened: please do not suffer in silence, please make contact with the police in the first instance. You should not suffer in silence and know from today’s event that you are never alone. All of us are there to help anyone who is being persecuted, anyone who is being oppressed, but particularly women and children who are being persecuted, who are being oppressed, who are being victimised in their own homes. It must never happen and our job is to make sure that it stops.
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