Background Paper to Time for Action: The National Council's Plan for Australia to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children, 2009-2021  

11.1 Overview

The following table provides a high-level overview of the support systems in place for victims/survivors of sexual assault and domestic and family violence in Victoria in terms of the ‘three Ss’ – structural, strategic and sustained principles.

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The following table provides a high-level overview of the support systems for victim/survivors of sexual assault and domestic and family violence in Victoria in terms of the ‘three P’s’ – prevention, provision and prosecution.

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11.2 Profile

This section outlines in further detail the Victorian Government’s current response to violence against women and their children, using Amnesty International’s structure of the ‘three S’s’ – structural, strategic and sustainable, and ‘three P’s’ – prevention, provision and prosecution.

11.2.1 Structural

The Victorian Government has well established and long standing governance arrangements in place to develop and oversee the response to violence against women and their children, including the following.

• The Women’s Safety Strategy was launched in 2002 as the whole-of-government policy response in partnership with the community sector to:
  • reduce the level and fear of violence against women;
  • improve the safety, wellbeing and capacity of women to participate in Victorian life.
• The strategy was coordinated by the Office of Women’s Policy within the Department of Planning and Community Development.
• As part of the Women’s Safety Strategy, the Government committed to reforming the way in which family violence was handled and to developing a more responsive system for victims of family violence and increasing accountability for perpetrators. A Family Violence Ministers Group was set up to lead the reforms. It is led by the Minister for Women’s Affairs and Education and Early Childhood Development and includes the Attorney-General, the Minister for Housing and Local Government, the Minister for Police and Emergency Services, and the Minister for Community Services.
• A Family Violence Interdepartmental Committee was also established to coordinate work across government departments. This committee is chaired by the Department of Planning and Community Development and has representation from the Department of Human Services, the Department of Justice, Victoria Police and the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.
• The whole-of-government approach to implementing the Women’s Safety Strategy relied on a number of cross-government committees to build a common understanding of the issues and solutions related to violence against women. Examples of integrated structures under the strategy included:
  • The Statewide Steering Committee to Reduce Family Violence is led by Victoria Police and the Department of Planning and Community Development. It aims to improve the effectiveness of responses to family violence across government and the community sector. It is now known as the Family Violence Statewide Advisory Committee.
  • The Statewide Steering Committee to Reduce Sexual Assault led by Victoria Police and the Department of Planning and Community Development. It aims to provide advice on effective strategies and interventions to prevent and improve responses to sexual assault. It is now known as the Statewide Advisory Committee to Prevent Sexual Assault.
  • The Statewide Steering Committee on Violence Against Women in the Workplace is led by the Department of Planning and Community Development. It aims to improve prevention of, and responses to, violence against women in the workplace (this committee ended in August 2006).

Each of these committees oversaw the introduction of initiatives such as the Criminal Justice System Reform and an Integrated Family Violence Response. There were six defining or critical initiatives within the strategy, which represented major shifts in policy and program responses to increase women’s safety. These initiatives are:

• whole-of-government coordination, planning and implementation;
• Family Violence Law Reform;
• Integrated Family Violence Reform;
• Sexual Assault Reform Package;
• Sexual Assault Law Reform.

• The Sexual Assault Advisory Committee, chaired by the Secretary of the Department of Justice, was established in 2004 comprising representatives from the Victoria Police, the prosecution, defence, judiciary, human services, victims and other relevant justice portfolios. Its purpose is to provide leadership and oversight of the implementation of the sexual assault reforms, with terms of reference to:
  • provide guidance and advice on the analysis and development of further initiatives aimed at improving the response of the criminal justice system to sexual assault, and the development of an implementation strategy;
  • ensure the consistency of the Victorian Law Reform Commission’s recommendations and other initiatives with relevant government policies and activities in the criminal justice system (including the work undertaken by the Statewide Steering Committee to Reduce Sexual Assault).
• The Indigenous Family Violence Partnership Forum is chaired by the Parliamentary Secretary for Community Development and was established in April 2005 to enable the Government and Indigenous communities to address Indigenous family violence together. It gives community members access to key decision makers across government. The forum includes representatives from the 10 Indigenous Family Violence Regional Action Groups who are community-elected representatives, relevant Indigenous community organisations and state and federal government departments and agencies.

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11.2.2 Strategic

Several policy platforms have been established in Victoria to enhance safety in the community and reduce violence. These include: Growing Victoria Together, A Fairer Victoria, The Women’s Safety Strategy, Integrated Family Violence Reform, Sexual Assault Reform Package, the Victorian Indigenous Family Violence Strategy, and the Elder Abuse Prevention Strategy. Further detail on these strategies is as follows:

• The Women’s Safety Strategy is the main policy responsible for reducing violence against women and their children. Six strategic directions were identified in the Women’s Safety Strategy in 2002. These are: whole-of-government coordination, planning and implementation; Family Violence Law Reform; Integrated Family Violence Reform; Sexual Assault Reform Package; and Sexual Assault Law Reform. In working to provide a coordinated and integrated response to victims of family violence, reforms have included:
  • the development of a Police Code of Practice for the Investigation of Family Violence along with widespread training of members in relation to the Code of Practice;
  • the development of specialist courts for victims of family violence, including the introduction of Applicant and Defendant worker positions within five Magistrates Court venues;
  • funding of men’s behavioural change programs for court ordered and voluntary attendance by men using violence;
  • the introduction of a common risk-assessment framework for services involved in responding to victims and perpetrators of family violence;
  • enhanced funding and services for women and children experiencing family violence;
  • the development of a Code of Practice and service standards for women’s and children’s family violence services;
  • a review of legislation relating to family violence resulting in a new Family Violence Act;
  • training a large proportion of the health, human services, justice, education and non-government workforce in relation to assessing risk and responding to victims of family violence.
• The Sexual Assault Reform Package allocated $34.2 million through the 2006-07 Budget to reform the way the criminal justice system responds to sexual assault. The package, along with legislative reforms, responded to the recommendations outlined in the Victoria Law Reform Commission’s Sexual Offences: Law and Procedure Final Report 2004. This report found low rates of reporting and prosecution despite a high incidence of offences. The inquiry also found a high rate of attrition and low conviction rate in sexual assault matters prosecuted. The report made 201 recommendations regarding legislative and non-legislative reform. It highlighted the need for major cultural and attitudinal change, system-wide change, and legislative reform in the criminal justice system. The objectives of the Sexual Assault Reform Package are to: encourage people to report sexual assault; minimise the trauma and distress for complainants throughout the criminal justice process; and reduce the incidence of sexual assault in the community. A range of activities and initiatives form the Sexual Assault Reform Package and include:
  • a Specialist Sex Offences Unit within the Office of Public Prosecutions to provide an integrated and specialist service for the prosecution of sexual offence cases;
  • the development of a Victims’ Charter;
  • the establishment of multidisciplinary centres in Frankston and Mildura to provide integrated responses to victims of sexual assault that include police, support and counselling and forensic examinations in the one location;
  • treatment programs for young people and adults, including post-release support and the enhanced extended supervision order;
  • a Magistrates and County Courts sexual offences list;
  • judicial education;
  • a Child Witness Service with specialist support workers and access to remote witness facilities;
  • enhanced victim counselling and support to improve service capacity;
  • workforce development through the provision of ongoing training for sexual assault counsellors;
  • new regional crisis-care units provided by Centres Against Sexual Assault in Bairnsdale, Shepparton, Wangaratta and Warrnambool;
  • a forensic nurse network to improve access for adult sexual assault victims to timely and appropriate forensic medical services;
  • system-wide evaluation which started in 2008 and will be completed in late 2010.
• A strategic framework has been developed for the Victorian Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander Community called Strong Culture, Strong Peoples, Strong Families – Towards a safer future for Indigenous families and communities. The plan outlines eight high-level objectives which have been developed in close consultation with the community. The objectives are broad and provide a strategic framework underpinned by specific strategies and actions. This 10-year plan articulates a vision whereby ‘the Indigenous community and the Victorian Government, in partnership, will lead the development of a safer Victoria for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and communities’ ²³¹.

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11.2.3 Sustained

The governance structures mentioned above have all been in-situ for several years and demonstrate a commitment by the Victorian Government to addressing violence against women and their children. The Government has made a significant financial commitment in recent years to fund programs aimed at improving responses. In 2005, $35.1 million was committed to assist in reforming the family violence service system. This initial funding was to:

• provide immediate 24-hour assistance and referral support for victims;
• develop a common approach to assessing risk for women and children;
• provide more emergency housing options, with more support and protection to help women stay in their own homes and communities;
• provide more intensive levels of support to the most vulnerable women and children, targeting repeat violence;
• increase counselling and support programs for women and children;
• strengthen police responses;
• increase access to, and improve responses from, the courts;
• increase men’s behavioural change services and emergency housing;
• provide early intervention programs for adolescent males exhibiting aggressive or violent behaviours;
• develop new Healing and Time Out Services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

In the 2007-08 Budget, an extra $14.1 million was provided to:

• develop a new family violence Act for Victoria;
• implement the Risk Assessment and Risk Management Framework;
• continue the Family Violence Court Division and the Family Violence Court Intervention Project for two years;
• fund a network of specialist family violence lawyers across Victoria to support people applying for intervention orders.

Another significant investment was announced in the 2008-09 Budget, when $24.1 million over four years was committed to:

• develop a new Victorian State Prevention Plan addressing violence against women;
• extend funding to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family violence prevention programs and development of an Indigenous specific prevention framework;
• increase support for women and children;
• increase investment in responses to men who use violence;
• provide resources to strengthen governance in the regions;
• develop a communications campaign to increase awareness of the new Victorian Family Violence Act.

In 2008, the Victorian State Budget committed $8 million in funding over four years to establish a Geelong branch of the Office of Public Prosecutions to provide specialist sex-offences prosecutors to service western Victoria.

Progress on initiatives under the Women’s Safety Strategy is reported annually and in 2007 the Women’s Safety Strategy was comprehensively evaluated. Outcomes of the evaluation will inform future policy development on women’s safety. In 2007, Victoria also secured a five-year Australian Research Council Linkage Grant to undertake research in relation to the family violence reforms. This research is being carried out in conjunction with Melbourne and Monash Universities.

11.2.4 Prevention

In 2006, the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth) developed a prevention framework to address violence against women (Preventing violence before it occurs: A framework and background paper to guide the primary prevention of violence against women in Victoria). Priority areas for prevention activity detailed in the framework include media and communications campaigns, community strengthening, targeted activity with specific population groups and the use of schools as a key platform for generating successful approaches to the prevention of violence against women and children.

The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development is undertaking a project to identify violence prevention, intervention and respectful relationships education in Victorian secondary schools. Stage one was completed in August 2008 and aimed to identify violence prevention or healthy relationships programs in government schools. The second stage will analyse three to six programs that were identified as good practice or promising models for further implementation.

The next stage of reform focuses on preventing violence before it occurs. This centres on the development of a statewide prevention plan. Preventing violence before it occurs is recognised as central to the long-term goal of eliminating family violence. It has been recognised from the outset of the Victorian reform process in 2005 that efforts need to be made to improve the system’s capacity to intervene effectively after violence has occurred.

The integrity of prevention projects depends, in part, on ensuring the service systems responsible for responding to violence are meaningfully and consistently applied. The Victorian reforms aim to reinforce this link between prevention and response. If services and law enforcement are not effective this will undermine the marketing of primary prevention or incentives for taking primary prevention seriously. Most people see violence as serious, preventable and unacceptable in Victoria. The single message of taking violence seriously has been consistently reinforced in Victorian responses to violence and now in its prevention initiative.

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11.2.5 Provision

The Victorian Government provides services under a whole-of-government strategy including:

• The Family Violence Court Division of the Magistrates’ Court at Ballarat and Heidelberg. These courts provide assigned Magistrates with additional specialist legal and non-legal services comprised of: family violence registrars; family violence applicant workers; outreach workers; family violence defendant workers; family violence duty lawyers; and family violence police prosecutors. In these courts, Magistrates are able to direct perpetrators to attend behaviour change group programs.
• The Specialist Family Violence Service, located in the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria at Melbourne, Sunshine (with a circuit to Werribee) and Frankston, provides for a specialist family violence registrar, family violence applicant worker, family violence police prosecutor and additional magistrate resources to hear and determine family violence matters.
• Victoria Police have established specialist roles related to family violence and sexual assault. Each police region has appointed Family Violence Advisers, while each station has a nominated Family Violence Liaison Officer. Victoria Police also has specialist Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Units at 31 sites.
• Twenty Family Violence Regional Partnerships across Victoria. These partnerships provide an integrated multi-agency approach, providing support services, counselling and group work programs. The partnerships aim to improve communication between services to ensure that women receive an appropriate response regardless of where they enter the service system. Another 20 organisations operate women’s refuges to provide emergency crisis accommodation for women and their children experiencing family violence.
• Centres Against Sexual Assault. Fifteen centres across Victoria provide emergency or crisis care 24 hours a day for victims who have been recently sexually assaulted. This includes information and advocacy, counselling and support and community education and training.
• The Women’s Domestic Violence Crisis Service, which provides a 24 hour telephone service providing support, information and accommodation for women and children escaping domestic violence.
• Women’s and children’s services are funded by the Department of Human Services to provide counselling and support to victims of family violence.

Other programs aimed at reducing violence against women and their children include those programs offered to perpetrators of violence including:

• Male Adolescents at Risk Project operating in the Dandenong Court Region providing voluntary programs for young males between 13 and 17 years who have come to the attention of the justice system as a result of exhibiting aggressive or violent behaviour;
• Men’s Behaviour Change Program for men to attend either voluntarily or as part of a court order;
• No to Violence runs the Men’s Referral Service for men and community members concerned about violence from men;
• specific programs targeting sex offenders such as those delivered through forensic health services.

Strong funding has been allocated to programs for: new intensive case management for women with complex needs; increased funding for women’s and children’s counselling programs; the development of a common risk-assessment framework for the integrated service system; expanded housing options for women and children; and crisis accommodation for men and men’s voluntary behaviour change programs.

The Police Code of Practice for the Investigation of Family Violence was introduced in August 2004 and is aimed at improving responses by police in the legal system. A Family Violence Court Division of the Magistrates’ Court was established in 2005 with two demonstration courts set up in metropolitan Heidelberg and in the large rural city of Ballarat. Specialist services at three additional Magistrates’ Courts have also been established to provide a high level of support for the applicant as well as specialised court staff and additional magistrate resources.

Other services that may be involved in responses to family violence include Child and Family Services programs (including Child Protection), mental health services, drug and alcohol services and community health services. Many initiatives have resulted from the Women’s Safety Strategy and in particular from the cross government steering committees.

The following initiatives were highlighted as case studies under the Women’s Safety Strategy 2002-07:

• The Australian Football League (AFL) – the Respect and Responsibility policy framework was developed by the AFL in conjunction with The University of Melbourne and the AFL’s advisory committee. The policy aims to position the AFL as a leader in advocating cultural change across the organisation and to promote safe and inclusive environments for women at all levels of Australian Football.
• Time out services are intended to provide Aboriginal men who use violence against family members a place to calm down and receive counselling, mentoring and support to help them reduce their reliance on violent responses. The services also link Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men into mainstream support services that can provide a culturally appropriate response.
• Student Critical Incident Advisory Unit – in 2005, the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development established this unit to respond to student-critical incidents involving allegations of sexual assault. This followed issues raised by the Victorian Law Reform Commission and the Victorian Ombudsman, which sought to improve government agency responses to sexual assault. It conducted an internal organisational review that recommended the unit’s establishment. The unit developed Responding to Allegations of Student Sexual Assault: Procedures for Victorian Government Schools, a practical resource to guide school principals and teachers about the processes and protocols to be followed in responding to allegations of sexual assault reported to schools.

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11.2.6 Prosecution

In 2002, the Attorney-General asked the Victorian Law Reform Commission to examine the system of family violence intervention orders in the Crimes (Family Violence) Act 1987. The Report was tabled in Parliament in March 2006. A key recommendation of the commission’s report was that the Crimes (Family Violence) Act 1987 be repealed and a new Family Violence Act passed. The new Act would focus solely on family violence, not interpersonal disputes resulting in stalking intervention orders. Introduced into Parliament in 2008, the new Family Violence Protection Act will:

• establish a new system of police-issued family violence safety notices, which will provide police with another tool to respond quickly and effectively to family violence;
• make it easier for victims of family violence to remain in the family home with their children if they wish, while the perpetrator of violence may be required to leave;
• restrict self-represented respondents from personally cross-examining their alleged victims in court;
• provide a comprehensive definition of family violence that includes economic and emotional abuse, as well as other types of threatening and controlling behaviour;
• broaden the definition of ‘family member’ to cover a wide range of family and family-like relationships;
• ensure that all the relevant evidence is before the court when it is making decisions, with appropriate checks and balances in place to ensure that no unfairly prejudicial evidence is admitted.

This Act is likely to commence towards the end of 2008 and will be accompanied by a $1.5 million community education campaign with training and information sessions for the relevant response areas and services. Other relevant legislation includes:

• Crimes (Family Violence) Act 1987 – the main purpose of this Act is to provide for intervention orders in cases of family violence. Part 1 of the Act gives definitions of the terms used within the Act. Part 2 stipulates the conditions of the intervention orders for which it legislates, including who may make a complaint, the duration of the order and the provisions regarding interim intervention orders, and holding powers for police. Part 3 deals with procedures regarding consent orders, costs, service and variation of orders as well as the registration of interstate orders. Part 2A, inserted in 2004, allows the court to order the defendant to attend counselling and creates an offence of contravening a counselling order. Part 4 deals with the criminal offence for breaching an intervention order, an arrest power for police and procedures for search and seizure of firearms.
• Crimes Act 1958 – Part I, Division 1 of the Crimes Act deals with offences against the person. Subdivision 1 is involved with homicide; subdivision 4 includes offences against the person including assaults, deprivation of liberty, threats and stalking (including cyber stalking). Subdivision 8 covers sexual offences including rape.
• Magistrates Court Act 1989 – Sections 4H and 4I establish a Family Violence Court Division of the Magistrates’ Court, define the jurisdiction of this division and create special arrangements for giving evidence in family violence matters²³².
• The Sexual Assault Reform Package, along with legislative reforms, responded to the recommendations outlined in the Victorian Law Reform Commission’s Sexual Offences: Law and Procedure Final Report 2004. The Commission undertook an inquiry into the law and procedure in relation to sexual offences, which found low rates of reporting and prosecution despite a high incidence of offences. The inquiry also found a high rate of attrition and low conviction rate in sexual assault matters prosecuted.

  The report’s recommendations included legislative and non-legislative reform, and highlighted the need for cultural and attitudinal change, system-wide change and legislative reform in the criminal justice system to effectively respond to sexual assault.

• Legislative reforms include:
  • Crimes (Sexual Offences) Act 2006;
  • Crimes (Sexual Offences) Further Amendment Act 2006;
  • Crimes Amendment (Rape) Act 2007;
  • Justice Legislation Amendment (Sex Offences Procedure) Act 2008.

The Department of Justice also led the drafting and enactment of the Justice Legislation (Sexual Offences and Bail) Act 2004 which created the new offences of forced prostitution and sexual exploitation.

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231. Department of Planning and Community Development, Strong Culture, Strong Peoples, Strong Families – Towards a Safer Future for Indigenous Families and Communities, Victorian Government, Melbourne, 2008, p. 6.
232. Australian Family and Domestic Violence Clearinghouse, Policy and Legislation (www.austdvclearinghouse.unsw.edu.au/au_resources.html), Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, 2007, viewed September 2008, .