CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER
LAUNCH OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AWARENESS MONTH
MELBOURNE 4 APRIL 1989
This is an important day for Australia.
It is the day that marks the beginning of an innovative and
vital campaign of community education education to break
the silence surrounding the scourge of domestic violence.
Domestic violence is a widespread and a deep-rooted problem
in the Australian community.
Thousands of Australian women and children are suffering
physical and mental hurt within their homes through verbal
abuse, threats, harrasment, bullying and bashing.
Yet, too often, fear and misplaced shame are preventing
those victims from breaking the silence on which this
repugnant form of violence thrives.
And too often the rest of the community has stood quietly to
one side while this violence is perpetrated turning a
blind eye and a deaf ear to violence in the home that would
not be tolerated if it was brought out into the open.
The time has come for the Australian community to say enough
is enough.
We must break the silence.
The Federal Government believes that domestic violence must
be seen for what it is a matter of national concern.
That is why in 1987 we created the National Domestic
Violence Education Program and why as part of that program I
am today declaring this month to be National Domestic
Violence Awareness Month.
I am calling on the people of Australia to join with the
Government in a campaign of education to understand better
what are for many of our fellow Australians the hard facts
of family life.
it's an indication of the hidden nature of domestic violence
that precise statistics about it don't exist.
What evidence we do have is depressing: it is clear that, as
in other similar countries, domestic violence has reached an
appalling extent within the Australian community.
Every day, some 2000 women and children are making use of
women's refuges and shelters most of them fleeing violence
in their home.
They come from prosperous homes and they come from less
well-off homes. They come from all parts of Australia, from
capital cities and from the country.
In a Federal Government survey in 1987, almost half the
respondents said they knew either a victim or a perpetrator
of domestic violence.
The survey also revealed one in five Australians believe the
use of physical force by a man against his wife to be
acceptable in some circumstances.
U. S. research suggests that one quarter of hospital casualty
patients may be victims of domestic violence.
But many such statistics only tell us of those cases of
domestic violence which come to public notice, or are
recognised by doctors and hospitals.
Many of the women who suffer domestic violence keep silent
about their injuries, and therefore hide the violence from
their doctors, from official statistics even from their
friends and relatives.
Equally, the causes of domestic violence are complex.
Researchers believe it may be triggered by stress and
frustration, exacerbated by alcohol, and based perhaps on a
deep-seated inability of some people to resolve without
violence the difficulties that occur in their relationships.
But behind all this there is the unassailable fact that as a
community we are all too accustomed to condoning domestic
violence all too ready to avoid the uncomfortable
questions that may expose violence within the home.
This campaign seeks at least to start the process of
reversing those attitudes.
I take this opportunity to pay special tribute to the
absolutely vital work that has been performed over many
years by women's refuges and shelters.
Throughout our suburbs and towns, refuges and shelters are
providing women with the means to escape violence at home
and to build a new life.
As Prime Minister I want to recognise and express my respect
for the invaluable support and assistance rendered to
victims of domestic violence by the dedicated people,
including many volunteers, who run these refuges and
shelters.
Australia was the first country to provide national
Government funding for refuges and we still have in
international terms a proud record of support for this
important work.
In this month devoted to increasing awareness of domestic
violence, the Federal Government will sponsor a media
campaign; we have prepared posters, pamphlets, and a
discussion kit; and a video on domestic violence, which has
already been shown on SBS, is available for groups to
borrow. The support we have received for the program from. so many
areas of the Australian community is indicated by the range
of distinguished guests here today. Our efforts have been
constructively assisted by State and Territory Governments.
I acknowledge, particularly, the role of the
Commonwealth/ State Task Force which co-ordinates the
program.
Our project also has the support of Local Government, the
churches, the trade union movement, the medical, nursing and
legal professions and members of police forces. I welcome
guests from all those areas.
I also welcome the presence and participation of a wide
variety of community groups who will play an active part in
the Awareness Month. Among hundreds of local initiatives,
51 community groups across Australia will be carrying out
projects funded by grants from the national program during
April. If anyone needed an example of why this is an important
campaign, they should listen, as we have just done, to Lola
McCarg. She has told us at first hand about the devastating
experience of just one of the thousands of women who
experience violence in their own homes.
Her words are the courageous words of a survivor, and they
are words of frankness and generosity. In speaking out
about her personal experiences to remind us that women can
do something about domestic violence instead of suffering it
in silence, Lola McCarg has made a very fitting start to
this campaign of breaking the silence.
Now is the time to break the silence which has shrouded
domestic violence.
It's up to all of us not least the men to realise and to
state that domestic violence is just not acceptable.
Put at its simplest men should understand that such
behaviour is cowardly it is a sign not of strength but of
weakness.
4.
It's up to neighbours and friends to support and protect any
woman who can be seen to be suffering fear and distress.
It's up to parents and teachers to work against the patterns
which foster the notion that violence is an appropriate way
to express frustration and worry.
It's up to doctors and religious advisers to be alert to the
signs of violence, and to understand the support needed by
women who seek their assistance.
It's up to communities to be alert to violence as a
community problem.
It's up to the media, and other influential groups within
our community, to help break the silence about domestic
violence.
We want an Australia where Lola McCarg and thousands like
her are free of the threat of violence in the home.
It is my hope that this National Awareness month will help
eradicate that threat.