The National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women - Immediate Government Actions April 2009 

The Australian Government is committed to providing national leadership in reducing violence.

The Australian Government supports the direction of the Time for Action report and the need for action in each of the six outcome areas described. The Government gave the National Council to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children a wide brief so that a broad-based plan of action could be developed. Many of the Council’s recommendations require joint effort by the Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments and the community more broadly.

The Australian Government will take Time for Action to COAG.

Involving all governments is critical to providing integrated support for victims and reducing violence into the future. State and Territory Governments deliver a range of services from legal and policing, to services for victims and for perpetrators. They also fund and coordinate many services provided by the non-government sector. The Australian Government delivers support and services through the family law system and provides significant support for key services delivered through the States and Territories such as hospitals, schools and housing.

The Australian Government will work with the State and Territory Governments to develop the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women for release in 2010.

Time for Action identifies six key outcome areas and 20 high-priority actions that require an urgent response. The Government has agreed to immediately implement eleven, will consult with the States and Territories on seven and will consider two within the context of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women.

Starting in 2009, the Australian Government will fund a new package of actions to reduce violence against women. The Government will:

1. Invest $12.5 million for a new national domestic violence and sexual assault telephone and online crisis service. The new service will be run by professional staff and make active referrals to follow up services. The new service will operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
2. Invest $26 million for primary prevention activities including $9 million to improve the quality and uptake of respectful relationships programs for school age young people and $17 million for social marketing focused on changing attitudes and behaviours that contribute to violence.
3. Invest $3 million to support research on perpetrator treatment and the greater harmonisation of Federal and State and Territory laws.
4. Work with the States and Territories through the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General to:
1. Establish a national scheme for the registration of domestic and family violence orders. This scheme will allow orders to be enforced across State and Territory borders.
2. Improve the uptake of relevant coronial recommendations.
3. Identify the most effective methods to investigate and prosecute sexual assault cases.
5. Develop a multi-disciplinary training package for lawyers, judicial officers, counsellors and other professionals working in the family law system, to improve consistency in the handling of family violence cases.
6. Ask the Australian Law Reform Commission to work with State and Territory law reform commissions to examine the inter-relationship of Federal and State and Territory laws that relate to the safety of women and their children.
7. Establish the Violence Against Women Advisory Group to advise on the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women.