More than 40 years after the first women's refuges were set up, 175 domestic violence incidents are reported each day in Queensland with one woman dying at the hands of a person she loved every week.
How could this be? was a question the head of the Special Taskforce on Domestic and Family Violence, former Governor General the Honourable Dame Quentin Bryce asked at the last 2014 QUT Business Leaders' Forum today.
"It is all our business. These are issues that cause such grievous harm, to say nothing of the phenomenal cost not only in human terms but in economic terms. One of the things is, it is getting on the agendas at workplace. It is crucial for men to engage in this, to talk about it," she said.
"Attitude surveys show people do overwhelmingly believe this is a community issue. It's not for government, it's not for someone else, it's for each one of us as individuals and we have to learn how to start the conversations, how we take action and not be a bystander."
Taking action and translating ideals into practice was one of the themes of Ms Bryce's address as she outlined her long and varied career in the public's service and how she grew into her various leadership roles that included the Queensland director of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner and a member of the Australian delegation the UN Human Rights Commission.
Speaking of her years as a young, working mother with "five kids under seven", Ms Bryce said she learnt much about getting things done.
"I look back and marvel at those years which were enormously important in my development.
"I saw what neighbourhood meant, of getting together, depending on each other - committees, committees, committees and fundraising.
"We started up childcare, kindy, preschool, tennis classes. We worked out how to lobby, how to network and who would help us. Doing it for ourselves. Learning leadership. Initiative."
Ms Bryce was appointed to the Fraser Government's controversial National Women's Advisory Council.
"That work opened up new understandings for all of us. The most significant to me came with my journeys to the Northern Territory from Arnhem Land to the red heart. I saw that leadership that Indigenous women are revered for - dignity, determination, and respect."
She said one of the roles that inspired her most was as principal of The Women's College at the University of Sydney.
"It was one of the things I'd secretly hankered for. I was thrilled with the prospect of living in a community of scholars of 300 young women. I wanted to contribute to their futures and so to the future of our country. I loved being part of their lives.
"It was one of the wonderful things in my life getting into science and new challenges and get into things you never had the chance to do."
Olympian and politician Lord Sebastian Coe will speak at the first QUT Business Leaders' Forum for 2015 on February 9.
Media contact: Niki Widdowson, QUT media, 3138 2999 or n.widdowson@qut.edu.au
