Mid West MLC Sandra Carr stands in solidarity with sex abuse victim advocates Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins

Positive change is impossible if the “silencing and gaslighting” of abuse survivors does not end, says Member for the Agricultural Region Sandra Carr. Ms Carr has in the past shared her own experience with domestic abuse and sexual violence, and the mental illness which accompanied this. She has now thrown her support behind former Australian of the Year Grace Tame and ex-Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins, who have put the spotlight on the cultures and practices which lead to survivors of sexual violence continuing to suffer long after the abuse is over. Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8, Ms Carr said it was little wonder people like Ms Higgins and Ms Tame were angered by lacklustre government responses to growing family and domestic violence statistics. “We have a crisis in this State and in this country that is aided and abetted by that silence and our unwillingness to engage, speak out, make noise, ask questions or act on our suspicions,” she said. “We are angry and we are frustrated and we have had enough.” According to State Government data, eight people died due to family or domestic violence in 2021. About two thirds of all assaults were family or domestic violence-related last year. Ms Carr said these figures were “horrifying” but did little to reveal the true impact of violence on the lives of survivors of abuse. “Statistics are not people. Statistics do not show us blood and bruises. They do not trust the pain and trauma and suffering of everyday people,” she said. “There has to be change because women are suffering, being harmed, survivors are self-harming and women are dying in this country.” While she had come out of her abusive relationships stronger than ever, Ms Carr said the weight of emotional, physical or sexual violence could often be too crushing to bear. “I send my condolences on the recent loss of a child sexual abuse survivor — a friend of mine lost a family member to suicide after years of trauma; it just became too much for that young person,” she said. “As current news makes us painfully aware, women and children from all walks of life are at risk; no one, it seems, is spared.” Ms Carr also slammed Prime Minister Scott Morrison for his response to widespread rallies against gendered violence last March. Mr Morrison had praised Australia’s “vibrant liberal democracy” and said similar marches elsewhere were “being met with bullets”. “While women stood outside the Australian Parliament, inside, the current Prime Minister of Australia said that they were lucky because, in other countries, such protests would have been met with bullets,” Ms Carr said. “When the bar is so very low that women should be thankful that they are not being shot and killed for seeking their fundamental right to safety, it seems safe to say that we have a serious problem. “To the Prime Minister, with all due respect, I will say that women are being met with bullets — with violence, with abuse, with sexual assault, with coercive control. “Women are dying. Women and children are being murdered, beaten, raped, groomed and assaulted every single day in this country, so do not tell us we are lucky.” Ms Carr said the State Government had implemented a raft of measures to prevent violence and support and protect abuse survivors. But she said there was still much more to be done. “I hope that this is something that we all (in Parliament) can collectively work together to address rather than just stand here and talk about it,” she said. Lifeline: 13 11 14 24-hour family violence hotline: 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732)