Daniel James

Isn't that part of what a Royal Commission can do?

It can spark a national conversation because from, I guess, from a punter's perspective, people on the street that aren't on the front line and in service provision or in advocacy around this.

There's a mix of, you know, funding from one place, there's state police, there's courts in another, there's separate legal services, separate prevention campaigns.

Couldn't a Royal Commission sort of force all those systems to talk to each other, but also, more importantly, I reckon, start a national conversation around what we need to do as a society to address this scourge?

The question that's always being asked when it comes to any sort of portfolio is, is the government doing enough?

And I guess that's the question in this particular space as well, Minister.

You've got a national plan to end violence against women, which has so far invested $4.4 billion over four years.

But the government's just announced an additional $5.3 billion per year on new defence spending.

Does the money focused in this space equate to the priorities of the government?

And on top of that, you've got $5,000 and access to goods and services and safety planning as well.

Coming up, the Minister's emotional response to the task at hand.

Let's talk about one of those touch points that the government can have a very direct impact on, and that's around reforms to child support because the system is being weaponised against women and children.

For people who have never dealt with it, how does a payment system become a form of abuse?

Minister, I also want to talk about how young people are showing up on both sides of sexual violence data.

More than half of recorded sexual assault victims in 2024 were under 18 at the time of the incident, and 15% of offenders in 23-24 were aged 10 to 17, mostly male.

Will the new action plan treat young people as one of the central parts of this crisis?

I mean, yeah, I can hear it.

I can hear it in your voice.

I mean, how worried are you about the rise of things like online misogyny in young people and how it connects to domestic violence and sexual violence?

How do we develop a plan to address that?