Labor MP Emma Husar breaks down as she recalls her tragic tale of domestic violence

LABOR MP Emma Husar has tearfully shared her harrowing tale of surviving domestic violence in parliament.

FOR the first 13 years of her life, Emma Husar was forced to watch her always-drunk father physically abuse her mother.

Her dad was the son of a WWII German soldier who was frequently violent towards his own wife and seven children.

“Whilst the blows that landed on my mother during my childhood didn’t land on me physically, they may as well have,” the Labor MP told parliament through tears on Wednesday.

“The trauma inflicted was the same. I recall it vividly and in great detail.”

Ms Husar, in a powerful speech on family violence, said each episode ended the same — her father would apologise and promise to be different. But that would only last a short while.

One night, he threw the family dinner at a wall.

“That stain remained on the wall for a very long time, but the stain in my heart lingered much longer.”

Her mother would bundle both her and her sister into the car and fled to refuges in Sydney’s west, but after so many incidences her father found out where they were.

They were then forced to go to hotels above pubs.

One night, when in a hurry to escape, her father removed and smashed the car’s distributor cap — rendering it useless and the trio trapped. “The police fetched us this time,” she said.

“I still remember sitting in the police station well into the early hours of the morning and the officers of Penrith police giving us pink milk while we waited.”

Like many women, her mum returned home.

Emma Husar in the House of Representatives. Picture: Kym Smith

She eventually left, but not before one last terrible incident.

“There were 13 police cars the last time physical violence affected my childhood, but this was the end of physical violence once and for all.”

Ms Husar revealed that, for the past 16 years of her life, domestic violence has continued to affect her as a grown woman with her own children.

She thanked Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and the Labor caucus and staff for their support and understanding.

“For many years I was embarrassed and I was ashamed,” she said. “I know that I shouldn’t be, but I am. I hope that today I have lent my voice, my story, my passion for advocating for change to the choir of the White Ribbon movement to stand up, speak out and to act.”

Mr Shorten said he was proud of remarkable women like Ms Husar.

NEW COURT RULES PROPOSED FOR DV CASES

Domestic violence perpetrators won’t be able to subject their victims to hostile cross-examinations in court under new measures Opposition leader Bill Shorten is proposing.

The Labor leader called on the Government to introduce two key reforms to current family violence laws in an address to the White Ribbon breakfast today.

One would force judges in cases of alleged domestic violence to consider whether a vulnerable witness should be given protections during court.

The other would give a judge, who didn’t believe there were sufficient measures currently to protect a witness, the power to direct Legal Aid to represent them, and any other litigant without a lawyer.

“Allowing the perpetrators of violence to cross-examine survivors is a re-injury’,” Mr Shorten said.

“It is trial-by-ordeal,” he said. “I’m proposing common sense reforms that will take power away from perpetrators, and protect survivors from further trauma. And I will give Legal Aid the resources it needs to help deliver justice for victims.”

Mr Shorten also announced a Labor policy to commit $43.2 million over four years to Legal Aid to ensure both parties in domestic violence cases have sufficient representation without the need for personal cross-examination.

The Labor leader claimed the Turnbull Government has been to slow to act since it agreed to consider this measure, a Productivity Commission recommendation, six months ago.

“These proposals come from our conversations from victims, advocates and families,” he said. “Rosie Batty, among others, has emphasised how important these changes are.”

Originally published as Labor MP Emma Husar breaks down as she recalls her tragic tale of domestic violence