Motion on White Ribbon Day
17/09/2014
The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: On behalf of Dignity for Disability I will put on the record a few brief words in support of this admirable motion by the Hon. Mr Dawkins and certainly thank him and acknowledge his ongoing work in support of this area. I speak on this issue from a number of angles, I suppose one could say: as a member of parliament wanting to better society, as a woman and as a woman who in fact grew up in a domestic violence situation.
Of course, I am not going to go into the details of that on the floor here today but I do want to acknowledge that and I want to do that for a very specific reason; that is, because silence about these issues condones these issues. The more that victims or those who have experienced domestic violence either as a witness within a family or other situation, or as a direct victim of violence, are pushed into silence either by our perpetrators or by society as a whole, the farther away we are from solving these issues.
Of course I also speak in support of this motion as a woman with disability, and I believe it is very important that we acknowledge, not only in this chamber but as a parliament and as a state, that women with disabilities and deaf women are at least twice as likely to experience domestic violence than our non-disabled counterparts.
There are arguably a few reasons for this. One may be our lessened ability to physically defend ourselves. It also comes to the inaccessibility of women’s shelters for those wanting to escape domestic violence situations. We may have a greater than average financial dependence on our partner or other perpetrator of abuse, or we may have very real physical dependence on the perpetrator of that abuse as well.
Whether it is a professional supporter or an intimate partner, if the person getting you out of bed and dressed in the morning, for example, is the person perpetrating the abuse against you, you are of course far less likely to be in a position where you are able to escape that abuse. Similarly, if public transport is inaccessible to you due to your disability, and you rely on that to get away because the car may be jointly owned by the person perpetrating the abuse (or you may not even own a car), then that further disadvantages you.
So, it is important that we acknowledge that women with disabilities, and people with disabilities in general, are more likely to experience this abuse than our non-disabled counterparts. While we acknowledge that, we certainly should not accept it. We certainly need to work together constructively as a parliament and as a society to eliminate the additional barriers that people with disabilities can face in escaping domestic violence situations while we work on creating a situation where we do not find ourselves in violent situations to begin with.
I want to make very clear that, while this particular movement has my full support as what the Hon. Stephen Wade rightly called a pro-women movement, I do acknowledge that men and boys can also be victims of violence and aggression, but I believe that, while society as a whole sees victims of violence mainly being women, and therefore seeing male victims of domestic violence as being somehow weak or abnormal, the reason we need to push this as a pro-women movement is to make that space more free for men and boys to come forward if they are experiencing domestic violence because, until we address this issue for women, it will not be a safe space for men to acknowledge and seek support for any issues they may be experiencing.
The other point I make is that this is not a movement about blaming men. This is about raising the bar for men and acknowledging men as potential leaders and mentors in this area and as creatures who have the capacity to not settle for anything less than a non-violent society. Often we hear an excuse from many male activists saying, ‘Well, not all men perpetrate this abuse, thankfully, so why should we all be tarred with the same brush?’ I believe that we should not settle for the excuse of ‘not all men’ but should be aiming for a society where we can say ‘no men’. We should not accept that not all men do this but accept that no man should do this.
I acknowledge the many ambassadors for White Ribbon, not only in this chamber but also in this parliament, in both houses, and also the many ambassadors for the cause out there in the community. This movement has Dignity for Disability’s full support for the reasons I just outlined, and I hope we can continue to work together constructively on this issue.
