Gold Coast Centre against Sexual Violence: the Official Opening

Speech by Elizabeth Broderick

Sex Discrimination
Commissioner and Commissioner responsible for Age Discrimination

Gold Coast Centre against Sexual Violence, Southport,
Queensland

Friday 26 November 2010

I want to begin by acknowledging that we are gathered here today on the
traditional land of the Gombemberri people. I pay my deepest respects to their
elders both past and present. Thank you Aunty Patricia for your welcome to
country and to the Nunukul Yuggera Aboriginal Dancers performing the smoking
ceremony and the performance – it is fantastic that we can open this very
important building with such joy and beauty – thank you.

I also want to acknowledge Ron Clarke, the Mayor of the Gold Coast, the State
Members of Parliament, Gold Coast City Councillors, and the Queensland Police
South East Region Assistant Commissioner, Paul Wilson who is present here
today.

It is also a pleasure to see Karen Willis, who is a National Association of
Services Against Sexual Violence Board Member and someone I have had the
opportunity of working with in Sydney.

Most of all this morning I want to thank Di Macleod, the Director of the Gold
Coast Centre against Sexual Violence and the Management Committee for inviting
me to be part of today’s ceremony and such a lovely introduction. It is an
absolute pleasure to be here to celebrate the opening of this beautiful, purpose
built building.

Di and Kellie and the staff of the Gold Coast Centre perform some of the most
valuable and unrecognised work in this country and on behalf of the Australian
Human Rights Commission I want to say thank you. Thank you for the work you do
everyday, for the invaluable support you provide to people when they are at
their most vulnerable.

I also want to recognise your tenacity and commitment to making today a
reality. I hope that the permanent foundations of this building brings you the
stability you need to concentrate on the work that you do and I hope that the
expanded services you will be able to offer in this new building will show women
the respect and dignity we all deserve, that recovery is possible.

All women have the right to physical and mental safety – the right to
be safe in their families, in their homes, in their schools and in their
workplaces and in their communities.

Violence against women, including sexual violence, is one of the most
persistent and prevalent human rights abuses in Australia as it is across the
world.

As you would all know, yesterday was White Ribbon Day. All around Australia,
thousands of men stood up and took an oath not to commit or condone violence
against women. I attended a number of events and it was inspiring to see men
standing up all around this country taking a stand against violence.

Yesterday was also the United Nation’s International Day for the
Elimination of Violence Against Women which means all around the world men and
women, political and community leaders, musicians, celebrities and sports
personalities, the media, governments, community organisations and corporations
acknowledged they can lead the way to eliminating violence against women.

Finally, yesterday also marked the beginning of the 16 Days of Activism
against Gender Violence which is, as I am sure many of you know, an annual
international campaign which stretches between the International Day for the
Elimination of Violence Against Women and Human Rights Day on December 10.

Ending violence against women is a shared responsibility. Governments,
community, health and legal services, National Human Rights Institutions,
communities and individuals – we all have a role to play.

Given yesterday’s significance to the global movement against violence
against women, I do want to spend a moment on this point.

I was fortunate enough to spend yesterday afternoon at the launch of the
Macleod refuge’s publication, Black and Blue: Never Again which
brings together the stories of six women from culturally and linguistically
diverse backgrounds who escaped domestic violence. Told in their own words,
these are six of the most articulate and insightful accounts of domestic
violence that I have ever read. I know that many of you here today were also in
attendance – and it was a fantastic community event.

While events like the launch of Black and Blue and today’s
opening showcase the leadership role which community services and government can
play in eliminating violence against women, White Ribbon Day and the 16 Days of
Activism give us all an opportunity to stand up against all forms of
violence against women as members of our communities and as individuals.

In a recent address, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon
reported that, “violence against women and girls continues unabated in
every continent, country and culture. It takes a devastating toll on women's
lives, on their families, and on society as a whole. Most societies prohibit
such violence – yet the reality is that too often, it is covered up or
tacitly condoned.”^[1]

The central role which we can all play was highlighted by our then Prime
Minster Kevin Rudd, who in 2008 said, “On their own, all the laws in the
world can’t stop violence against women unless there is a genuine change
in the way that Australian men
think.”^[2] He is right –
we will not end sexual assault and violence against women until we effect
dramatic cultural change in our community.

The National Survey on Community Attitudes to Violence against Women
undertaken last year shows we have made some important progress on this front.
The vast majority of people surveyed did not believe that any physical force
against a current or former wife, partner or girlfriend could be justified under
any circumstances.^[3]

But we still have a long way to go – in regards to sexual assault, just
over one in 10 still think that ‘women often say no when they mean
yes.’^[4] One in three people
think that rape occurs because of men ‘not being able to control their
need for sex’.^[5] And we still
have 5% of Australians believing that women cannot be raped by someone with whom
they have been sexually
intimate.^[6]

Evidence shows that rates of false allegations of sexual assault remain low
and are comparable with rates found for other person-related offences like
mugging. Yet one in four Australians disagree with the statement that
‘women rarely make false claims of being
raped’.^[7]

The National Survey concluded that the strongest predictors for holding
violence-supportive attitudes were being male and having low levels of support
for gender equity or equality.^[8]

We are all responsible for challenging these attitudes where ever and when
ever we come across them.

Since I have been in this position, I have seen significant developments and
improvements in the state of gender equality in this country. In just the last
12 months we have seen the appointment of the first female Governor General, the
election of our first female Prime Minister and the introduction of the first
national paid parental leave scheme.

Despite this, domestic and family violence, sexual assault and sexual
harassment remain an everyday reality for many Australian women as they are for
women around the world.

In Australia, nearly one in five women has experienced sexual assault since
the age of 15 and one in three women has experienced physical assault since the
same age.^[9]

ABS data suggests one in ten men and women has experienced childhood sexual
abuse.^[10] Other studies suggest the
number is even higher.^[11] We also
know that the vast majority of women who experience sexual assault do not report
it to the police.^[12]

Women who have experienced violence are much more likely to seek informal
support and may seek assistance from services including the Gold Coast Centre
against Sexual Violence and it is crucial that these services are able to offer
support to women to recover and to rebuild their lives.

That is why days like today are so important. The opening of these purpose
built premises represents the hard work, tenacity and dedication of the Gold
Coast Centre against Sexual Violence, Queensland Health and the Gold Coast
community.

Funding from Queensland Health means that the Gold Coast Centre against
Sexual Violence has been able to actually purchase the land we are standing on,
demolish the old buildings and, most excitingly of all, design and build a new
centre as well as equip and furnish the new building.

I can also tell you that the foundations of this building broke new ground in
more ways than one. In my position I have been able to visit a number of sexual
assault and domestic and family violence services and I have yet to be in
another purpose built centre.

I have been to the Centre’s old premises and I know the difference that
this building will make to the Centre.

Firstly, I hope the fact that these are permanent foundations means that Di
and her team will be able spend less of their precious funding on the ever
increasing rents of this area. It also means they will be able to spend less of
their time trying to secure their tenure.

Of course this, in turn, means they will be able to spend more and more time
and resources on providing their invaluable services to the Gold Coast
community.

For the first time the Centre will be set out in way that works for the women
who use it and those who work here. There are now discreet areas for the
administration, counselling and education work of the Centre. I know that we are
all going to have the opportunity of going on a tour of this building, and we
will be able to see that there are now more counselling rooms, as well as a
separate group room, separate staff room and separate training room. When I
first visited the Centre, all these functions were squished into one room!

The new building also means the Centre can now expand their own services and
cement their relationships with other individuals and services so that this
place will become as close as possible to a one stop shop. This includes police,
legal, medical as well as additional therapies who will soon be able to offer
services from this building. Di has told me of her commitment to wrapping
services around the women who use the Centre – I can already see that the
space and permanence of this building means that she and her team will be able
to continue to develop new ways of delivering support and services to women who
have experienced sexual violence. It is exactly this sort of innovation which
should also be driving our national response to violence against women and I
want to again acknowledge the leadership of both the Gold Coast Centre against
Sexual Violence and Queensland Health.

As a national advocate, I am energised by seeing that partnerships and
projects and services such as this are possible.

And so it my absolute pleasure to unveil this plaque and declare the Gold
Coast Centre against Sexual Violence officially open.

This will be a place where women who have experienced sexual violence can
come and begin the process of recovery. This is a place where friends and family
members can come for information and support. This is a place that will educate
the Gold Coast community on sexual assault and this is a place that will create
social change.

Congratulations again.

^[1] United Nations, International Women’s Day 2007: Message of the Secretary-General www.un.org/events/women/iwd/2007/sg-message.shtml,
(viewed 23 November 2010)

^[2] Quoted in VICHealth, National Survey on Community Attitudes to Violence
Against Women, (2009), p 2

^[3] VICHealth, National Survey on Community Attitudes to Violence Against
Women, (2009), p 8

^[4] VICHealth, above

^[5] VICHealth,
above

^[6] VICHealth,
above

^[7] VICHealth,
above

^[8] VICHealth,
above

^[9] Australian Bureau of
Statistics (ABS), Personal Safety, Australia, 2005 (Reissue), Catalogue
No. 4906.0 (2006), p 7

^[10] ABS,
above, p 12

^[11] J Mouzos & T
Makkai, Women’s Experiences of Male Violence: Findings from the
Australian Component of the International Violence against Women Survey (IVAWS) (2004), Australian Institute of Criminology, Research and Public Policy
Series, No. 56; L Fergus and M Keel, ‘Adult victims/survivors of childhood
sexual assault,’ Australian centre for the Study of Sexual Assault
Wrap, no. 1, November
2005.

^[12] ABS, note 9, p 21