Page 3843 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 8 November 1994
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Mr Connolly: It is overwhelmingly committed by males and, until recently, overwhelmingly denied by males.
MR CORNWELL: I acknowledge the Attorney-General's interjection.
Mr Kaine: They are being politically correct.
MR CORNWELL: They are being politically correct; yes. It is a perversion of social justice, I would suggest, to try to run campaigns along these lines. Mr Attorney, I am appalled at that interjection by you. You are condoning it. What you are saying is that in a certain section of the community violence is permissible. It is not. You know that as well as I do.
I find it appalling that we should be running these advertisements on television about violence against women. Of course that is unacceptable; as is violence against children, as is violence against men. I do urge you to reconsider the content of the advertisements. I have no objection to your running advertisements against violence. I also believe that the lone fathers' representations on this matter have been brushed aside as being unimportant or not worthy of your consideration. I sincerely hope that the information that was given to me is incorrect, Chief Minister; otherwise, I am afraid that you are running a political agenda based, as I say, upon a biased, if not perverted, sense of social justice. I do not believe that that does you, your Government, or this Assembly any good in our attempts to stamp out violence of any description in this community.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer)(9.15), in reply: Madam Speaker, could I, in closing this debate, thank all members for their contributions to the debate. At this time I will address only the comments made by Mr Cornwell. I would respond to Mr Cornwell by saying that I absolutely stand by the media campaign that is presently being run to stamp out domestic violence in our community. It is a fact that 97 per cent of this violence is directed against women and children. Mr Cornwell is uncomfortable with that fact. Mr Cornwell would prefer me to portray a false situation or to pretend that women are equally violent against men. They are not. Ninety-seven per cent of this violence is directed against women and children; and the media campaign that is being mounted is aimed at addressing the issue as it exists in our community. Mr Cornwell wants to blind himself, and the lone fathers want to blind themselves, to the facts of the matter. We had a murder in the ACT last week. How can you continue to deny that this is a real issue and that it is a real issue of safety for women and children, which many of them do not survive? It is an absolute falsehood to pretend that those are not the facts. Mr Cornwell also referred to my having brushed aside representations from the Lone Fathers Association. That is simply not true. I have a record of their phone calls to my office. They have been dealt with more courteously than they have dealt with my staff, I might say. If they have comments to make in writing, they will be dealt with in full.
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