‘Hide from daddy’: Senator’s harrowing DV account

In an emotional and brave first speech, Labor Senator Nita Green will today open up about her abusive father and struggles her mother went through to escape.

NEW Queensland Labor Senator Nita Green will give a harrowing and emotional account of domestic violence she and her mother endured growing up as she gives her first speech in Parliament today.

She will describe her father as “cruel when sober, and abusive when drunk” and recalling a night they attempted to flee with their mother in the dark so “daddy doesn’t see us”.

Domestic Violence crisis: We’re supremely failing both genders

Senator Green, who is based in Cairns after winning Labor’s only Queensland Senate spot in May, will tell the deeply personal story as she pays tribute to her mother for escaping the domestic violence situation and instilling strong values in her.

One in three women experience domestic violence

Newly-elected Queensland Labor Senator Nita Green will open up about her personal experience with domestic violence in an emotional first speech. Picture: AAP Image/Sean Davey

She will use the speech to call for more action to stamp out the scourge in Australia.

Describing her father as charming, intelligent and hardworking, Senator Green goes on to say he was an alcoholic and suffered depression.

“He was cruel when he was sober and he was abusive when he was drunk. He was supposed to protect us … but no one protected us from him,” she will say.

“When I was three or four years old my Mum left in the middle of the night … me walking along side my brother in a stroller and our bags on our backs.

“When I asked her why we were walking the long way around the block she said, ‘so daddy doesn’t see us’.”

It took another 10 years from that night before her mother, Kathy Musson, left the relationship.

Senator Green will say the family were left homeless for the first several nights after fleeing, as their rental accommodation was unlivable.

“Tragically, domestic violence remains one of the biggest drivers of homelessness for Australian women,” she will say.

Labor Senator Nita Green with her mother Kathy Musson. Picture: Supplied

“I have no doubt it was hard for mum to leave. She shouldn’t have had to do it on her own, but like so many women she did.

“One in five women in Australia has experienced family violence. Family violence is a health crisis and a cultural crisis and it has to stop.

“We can’t just be hopeful or well-meaning; we must demand that it stops.”

She will also take aim at Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s promotion of the so-called “quiet Australians” – saying noisy ones standing up for change would always be needed.

“It seems to me that a false value is being placed on being not just quiet, but passive or disinterested in politics,” she will say.

“It’s a view that dismisses Australians who are concerned with what goes on in here, who are

outspoken, who stand up and make change.”