Senator urges action on female mutilation

16 Oct 2012, 2:57 pm   -   Source: AAP
Liberal senator Bill Heffernan says not enough is being done to stop female genital mutilation. (AAP)

Liberal senator Bill Heffernan says not enough is being done to stop female genital mutilation. (AAP)

Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan says not enough is being done to stamp out the practice of female genital mutilation.

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Liberal senator Bill Heffernan reckons the Humans Rights Commission is not doing enough about female genital mutilation.

The senator told an estimates hearing in Canberra on Tuesday that the practice was appalling.

Senator Heffernan said he had become aware of young women who had been sent back to their parents' country of birth to be circumcised because it was illegal to do so in Australia.

"We know that in some of those countries ... 80 per cent of the girls in those countries are circumcised or trimmed when they reach puberty," he said.

"Why don't we do something about it?"

Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick said she was outraged about the practice which amounted to violence against women.

Ms Broderick said the practice was strongly embedded in some cultures.

"I am not defending it at all," she told the Senate hearing, adding the commission had done education work with communities in Africa and elsewhere.

"We are about combating all forms of sex discrimination."

The most extreme form of discrimination that existed in any country was violence against women.

"They are some of the issues you are talking about," Ms Broderick said.

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