Speeches
Thursday, 13 November 2025
White Ribbon Breakfast
Good morning and welcome to the annual Adelaide White Ribbon Breakfast, now in its 17th year.
Your presence here reflects your commitment to uniting against domestic, family, and sexual violence.
I commend the White Ribbon Committee for its continued dedication to ending violence against women through this breakfast and other initiatives, including the Wake up to Change Beanie Project.
I look forward to the panel discussion, including hearing from someone with lived experience – thank you, Jack for sharing your story.
When Rod and I hosted a reception for supporters of Catherine House earlier this year and when I attended the National Survivors’ Day morning tea with the Governor General recently, I was moved to meet, and hear the stories of, people with lived experience of abuse.
Stories and conversations like today’s are essential to ending domestic, family, and sexual violence. We must keep these discussions open – at every opportunity – making it clear that violence in any form is never acceptable.
Today, we focus on the silent victims of this scourge – children and young people.
We know that more than one in four women in Australia experience partner violence or abuse.[1]
Yet the impact of family violence on children, not as dependents but in their own right, is not always recognised.
The Australian Child Maltreatment Study found that nearly two-thirds of respondents experienced at least one form of maltreatment in childhood, including exposure to domestic violence.[2]
No matter how children experience violence – directly or as a witness – their long-term development and wellbeing can be deeply affected.
First Nations children, children with disabilities, and those from culturally diverse backgrounds are disproportionately impacted.
As Governor, I received the final report of the South Australian Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence from Commissioner Natasha Stott Despoja in August this year.
I commend all those who contributed to this important work and the courageous people who shared their experiences to help shape a clearer path forward.
The Royal Commission’s report included a study by Dr Kate Fitz-Gibbon which gives voice to children and young people’s as victim-survivors of violence.
It is heartening to see their voices amplified.
As a community, hearing, respecting and responding to the experiences of children and young people is imperative - because it gives us a chance to break the cycle of intergenerational violence.
And because every child has the right to feel safe and secure.
We can take hope from the fact that this report provides a clear pathway forward to prevent and respond to domestic, family and sexual violence.
The next steps are vital.
While governments, workplaces and schools have a significant role in driving change, real change requires all of us to take action.
We need a community-wide commitment to ending violence – grounded in the belief that everyone has the right to live free from fear, harm and abuse.
To everyone here today, thank you for your steadfast commitment to a building a safer future for all members of our community.
It gives me pleasure to formally open the White Ribbon Breakfast.
[1] Domestic, family and sexual violence in South Australia | Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence