Media release – Tabatha Badger MP, Greens spokesperson for the Prevention of Family Violence, 27 July 2024
Powerful Rally Calls for Action on Family and Gendered Violence
On behalf of the Greens, I was proud to join hundreds of Tasmanians from all walks of life at Parliament Lawns today to call for an urgent and meaningful response to the family and gendered violence epidemic.
Victim-survivors and advocates have been fighting for action on this national emergency for years, and it’s been encouraging to see this critical issue receive much more attention in 2024. However, despite some moves towards new measures, what we’ve seen from both state and federal governments has still not been enough to deal with the true extent of the problem.
The scale of this crisis is huge, with one in three women aged over 15 having experienced family, sexual violence, or coercive control. Support services are overwhelmed, with Tasmanian providers turning away women and children fleeing violence at six times the rate of the national average. It’s a completely unacceptable situation, and one that these services just can’t cope with – especially at current funding levels.
As this powerful rally heard from both its brave speakers and passionate participants, we must together say ‘no more’ to family and gendered violence. For the government, that has to include increasing the funding available for both prevention measures and frontline support services in September’s budget. There are also other critically important steps required, like full implementation of best-practice police training to ensure victims are identified and protected.
For a deep and lasting response to this crisis, it’s imperative that all sides of politics collaborate on solutions. I am keenly awaiting the results of Parliamentary Library research on cross-parliamentary approaches across Australia, UK and NZ to this issue. Once this is complete, I hope Premier Rockliff will agree to a similar approach here in Tasmania, as he has previously indicated he is open to doing.
We must all do whatever we can to ensure much more is done to address the family and gendered violence emergency, and the Greens will continue to make this issue a top priority.
