Family violence
Following the murder of Fiona Warzywoda in the electorate in 2014, [13] Watts campaigned for preventing and removing family violence across Melbourne's West and Australia. [14]
In 2014,Watts launched the bipartisan "Parliamentarians against Family Violence" with Coalition MPs Andrew Broad and Ken Wyatt. [15] Australian of the Year,Rosie Batty addressed a meeting of the group in 2015,expressing that "Cross-party commitment is important to the issue of family and domestic violence". [16]
In response,former Labor Leader,Mark Latham used a column in the Australian Financial Review to label Watts as "symptomatic of the decline in Labor's thinking" and argue that "Watts has fallen for the feminist line on domestic violence". [17]
In 2015,Watts and fellow Labor MP Terri Butler introduced a private member's bill to criminalise the non-consensual sharing of private sexual material. [18] [19]
In an opinion piece published by the Chifley Research Centre,Watts called for action in response to the issue of family violence. He has written on the importance of engaging with the states,territories and relevant stakeholders,as well as the use of effective communication in achieving successful policy outcomes to the issue. [20]
Foreign affairs
Watts has been an outspoken advocate of Australian Aid in the Parliament [21] and has travelled to Cambodia [22] and Papua New Guinea [23] to visit Australian funded development programs [24] in those countries.
Watts has been an advocate of greater Australian engagement in Asia,speaking frequently about Asian-Australian diaspora communities. [25] [26] He has been a delegate to a number of bilateral events such as the Australian Chinese Youth Dialogue, [27] Australian Indian Youth Dialogue [28] and CAUSINDY. [29] He was also a program participant for the Asialink Leaders Course in 2017. [30]
Watts has also written on the economic growth of Indonesia in recent years,stating "there is no other nation in Asia more important to our future than Indonesia". Subsequently,he has called for an increase to the cap on working holiday visas for Indonesians and argued that it is time Australians consider Indonesia as "critical" to both the economic prosperity and security of the country. [31]
