ABC News 24 with Jane Norman
E&OE.
JANE NORMAN:
Christian Porter is the Minister for Social Services and released the report on domestic violence alongside the Prime Minister this morning. He joined me in the studio a short time ago. Well, Christian Porter, welcome to the programme. Seventy eight women have been killed by their partners this year alone. The Prime Minister says you could describe it as a crisis, so if that’s the case is your response matching the rhetoric?
MINISTER PORTER:
Well it’s not a, I mean it’s a terrible, terrible problem and it’s a problem that we have known about for some time and probably as a society as a whole we’ve probably responded slowly, but this Government has done and is doing more than any comparative government in our recent history and in fact more than comparative governments overseas. We have put together a $100 million package, but I must say that in terms of what we were talking about today and the research that we have had commissioned and an awareness campaign that will follow that research, this is a problem which is for all of Australia to contribute towards solving and it is going to take some time because it involves cultural and attitudinal change.
JANE NORMAN:
Rosie Batty, the Australian of the Year, has said that domestic violence now poses a greater threat to Australians than terrorism and given that, tragically a handful of Australians have died through terror attacks this year while seventy eight women have been killed in and as a result of domestic violence attacks, isn’t she right? Isn’t the threat greater?
MINISTER PORTER:
Well, I mean it is probably a not unuseful comparison and it is a way to illustrate the fact that this is a major problem just looked at statistically. The sheer loss of life, the number of women who are the subject of violence at the hands of their partners, the outcome of that very often is simply horrific. And serious criminal offending is occurring far too often in Australia inside far too many households, caused far too often by men who are the partners of women. So, I’ve got no difficulty with those sort of comparisons – it is just a huge problem.
JANE NORMAN: If you look at the budget then. The budget response to domestic violence is very limited especially compared to counter terrorism which the government has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into. Your government has announced a $100 million package to tackle domestic violence this year, is that enough? Is that sufficient?
MINISTER PORTER:
I think you might be being a little unfairly selective about how government budgets work on something like domestic violence. So, yes there is a $100 million specific package. Yes that is much greater than has ever been put together before. But, of course, there is an ongoing response by state and federal governments through a range of mechanisms – through the policing and proper investigation and prosecution of offending in the housing and homelessness base, so I think that if you actually looked to the budget in a fulsome sense, across the state and federal government, I think you would find that the results are a little bit better than you have described. But I take the point. But the budget is not just this one package that we are talking about, it has many, many layers.
JANE NORMAN:
So, you don’t think it is a disproportionate response to the fact that it is obviously, as you say, it is more than just the $100 million, but it is still significantly less than the amount that we spend on preventing terrorism attacks?
MINISTER PORTER:
Before politics I was a Crown Prosecutor and I would hazard a guess that about thirty percent of what most DPPs do around Australia involves, at some level, sexual or family violence or intimate partner violence, so there is enormous resources devoted to trying to stop this phenomenon, policing it properly, which is also a more recent phenomenon, properly investigating it, prosecuting it, taking it as seriously as it deserves to be taken. So, I just think it is not a fair comparison on budgets if I can put it that way.
JANE NORMAN:
Ok. I mentioned Rosie Batty a moment ago. There has been enormous focus on domestic violence particularly this year and last. I suppose because we have such an extraordinary Australian of the Year in her. But what happens, you know, next year? How do you maintain the momentum for change, maintain the rage I guess?
MINISTER PORTER:
Yes and I think that that is a very good and the obvious question and so what the Prime Minister and I announced today is a body of research which will inform what will soon be a $30 million awareness campaign designed at changing community attitudes. And in fact the research is meant to inform the campaign but the research in a way becomes part of the campaign because you and I are talking about it, there will be a national conversation about that and that conversation has to continue beyond the impact of individuals and you have mentioned some and they have done amazing work, but this has to be a whole of civil society response. Government has a leadership role, but by no means an exclusive role and the research that we have released today is meant to enliven that conversation, to have all Australians thinking about it and not just conversations inside government, but conversations in sporting clubs, conversations in the home, conversations between mums and dads and their sons particularly.
JANE NORMAN:
And is that national conversation sort of how the government wants to bring about this cultural change that you are talking about, particularly to be led by men because I suppose the question is, you know, how long does that take? How long does it take to unlearn learnt behaviour?
MINISTER PORTER:
I think the answer is that it is not a quick process but it can occur and it will be somewhat incremental but it requires intensity and long term devotion of effort. The research that we commissioned and have received says some very interesting things particularly about young men, boys really. That there are certain people that are very influential in a 10 year old’s opinion forming process. They would, as you would expect, include music stars, sports stars, but their mother is incredibly important, their father important as well for the relationship in learning and opinion forming and the way in which they rationalise circumstances and particularly circumstances that might involve aggressional violence – mothering is incredibly important so we are trying to look at what is wrong and what has gone wrong in terms of our cultural attitudes. Who are the people who are best placed to influence particularly boys and boys grow up to be men and husbands and partners and fathers and so this is part of the generational shift in attitudes we hope.
JANE NORMAN:
And Labor today on domestic violence has announced a policy to legislate for paid domestic violence leave. Is this something that the Coalition would consider?
MINISTER PORTER:
Well I think, as you’ve seen we are not a rule in rule out government. It is worth considering. My observation would be that, two things. Firstly, it is worth having a very good look at how this is working in the private sector and there are some progressive companies that have instituted their own versions of what Labor has suggested and I think it is very worthy to look closely and see how that’s working – so, yes it is absolutely worth considering. I guess the second point I make is that what we are trying to do, both in the Coalition Government expenditure of that $100 million specific package that I have spoken about and also in the commissioning of this research and the $30 million attitudinal campaign that will follow, is get to the bed rock foundational problems that are causing this issue to permeate. The question I think ultimately is how do we prevent, decrease and extinguish the need for any woman to have to take leave because of those circumstances arising?
JANE NORMAN:
Just one final question on another issue in your portfolio, the overhaul of family payments. Labor has announced it is only going to be supporting one element of it, so it is up for debate again and possibly a vote – are you going to be splitting the Bill to get that through or do you have confidence that you can get the whole package through in the Senate?
MINISTER PORTER:
Well, getting the whole package through would have obviously, because of Labor’s position, would involve agreements after negotiations with the crossbench. I think that there is some obviousness to the notion that where there are real savings on the table that Labor have agreed to, although and albeit only a proportion of a whole, that we try and divine a procedural course that allows us to make those savings and then argue the remainder of the package separately from what is agreed. So, yes, there is an obviousness to that and we are sort of working through procedurally if and if so how that might occur.
JANE NORMAN:
And could you bring that to a vote before Parliament rises for this year?
MINISTER PORTER:
Conceivably we could, yeah.
JANE NORMAN: Alright. Great. Thank you very much for your time.
MINISTER PORTER:
Thank you.