In addition to the actions for early implementation, the National Council has sought to give an indication of when each of the other proposed actions could be implemented across the lifetime of the Plan of Action. This is not to suggest a fixed or inflexible approach to implementation, but rather to act as a guide for COAG and individual jurisdictions, and to assure the sector that consideration has been given to each action and its role within the Plan of Action. Within this framework, the following sequencing of actions is proposed:
2012 – 2015
1.2.2 Increase the development and availability of leadership and mentoring programs for women and men, to harness the positive capacities within communities as well as build to improve community safety in disadvantaged localities.
1.2.3 Provide incentives that recognise effective affirmative action strategies within local governments to increase the participation of women in leadership and community decision-making roles.
1.2.4 Develop targeted programs to redress violence-supportive attitudes common to particular communities or to the Australian community as a whole.
1.2.5 Support the transition of newly arrived immigrants and refugees by ensuring orientation and opportunities provided through the English on Arrival language courses, familiarising them with Australian laws and the Australian legal system, including principles of gender equality and the value placed on respectful relationships in Australian society.
1.2.6 Strengthen media and internet standards to address sexualised and denigrating representations of women, and minimise the impact of the persistent exposure to representations of violence in childhood and adolescence.
1.3.3 As part of a broader social marketing plan, provide factual information to workplaces and communities to challenge myths and change attitudes, and give guidance on protective behaviours and available supports and services designed to engage people of different ages and abilities, positioned to be meaningful within the context of different cultures.
1.4.2 Develop specific formal and informal employment support initiatives with businesses (including affordable childcare) that enable women who have experienced violence to enter or return to the workforce.
1.4.3 Encourage employers to provide flexible working arrangements for women who have experienced violence.
1.4.4 Explore incentives for employers to recruit and retain women who have experienced violence.
1.5.3 Enhance the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Personal Safety Survey to encompass physical and non-physical abuse; and provide adequate sample sizes for generating reliable data for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and other specific sub-populations.
1.5.4 As part of a national survey, measure attitudes to gender inequality, respectful relationships and women’s safety every five years to redress violence-supportive attitudes and encourage the development and growth of respectful relationships and gender equality as social norms in our community.
1.5.5 Implement the results of the ABS Statistical Framework for Family and Domestic Violence.
1.5.6 Undertake the ABS Personal Safety Survey every five years to increase our understanding of the prevalence and incidence of personal violence in our community.
1.5.7 At regular intervals (every five years) undertake research and report on the impacts and costs of sexual assault and domestic violence to the Australian community.
2.1.2 Expand the capacity of teachers and other educators and community leaders to provide violence prevention education programs.
2.1.3 Incorporate a focus on respectful relationships in broader social marketing campaigns designed to raise community awareness and effect cultural and behavioural change, which are particularly targeted at people from diverse backgrounds and young people who have an increased risk of victimisation and perpetration.
2.2.2 Incorporate respectful relationship education into the national curriculum so that all children have access to, and participate in, a comprehensive respectful relationship education program before leaving school.
2.3.2 As part of associated government initiatives, provide resources to families at key transition points (for example birth of children, starting school, puberty, leaving school) to help them maintain a positive approach to parenting.
2.3.3 Build on and target existing resources, programs and services to assist parents and primary caregivers to provide positive parenting by supporting their children to develop respectful relationships.
2.4.1 Provide annual reporting on the number of respectful relationship programs provided per State/Territory, and assess the application of best practice standards.
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3.1.4 Expand training and support to rural practice nurses and Aboriginal health workers in sexual assault and domestic and family violence assessment and referral.
3.2.3 Following the audit of crisis accommodation services, increase service capacity and revise eligibility criteria, where required, to ensure equitable access to crisis support and accommodation for women and their children – regardless of circumstances such as geographic location, cultural background and English language proficiency, disability, sexuality, presence of male children or addiction.
3.2.4 Develop and distribute information on a range of models for safe accommodation that can be applied or adopted based on local circumstances, including safe places, outreach support, removal of perpetrators, or assistance with relocating women from communities where there is no safe haven.
3.3.8 Ensure interpreter services for women experiencing violence (including interpreters competent in Auslan) receive training to ensure interpreters understand issues related to sexual assault and domestic and family violence and are able to interpret in a sensitive yet impartial manner.
3.3.9 Support the effective delivery of mental health services to women and their children who have been victims of sexual assault and/or domestic and family violence. This should include enhancing the capacity of existing mental health services to support women in times of crisis, as well as increasing access to subsidised ongoing counselling services.
3.3.10 Create a brokerage funding program for local service providers in order to ensure early access to emergency services to ensure the safety of women and their children, regardless of where they reside.
3.3.11 Ensure community awareness and education programs are provided in language, and through media, which are accessible to older women, women with disabilities, and women not competent in English.
3.3.12 Ensure services (legal, medical and community) recognise and understand the extra complexities experienced by immigrant and refugee women and their children experiencing violence in order to improve the capacity of services to respond appropriately and effectively.
3.4.2 Include in funding agreements a requirement, and sufficient resources, to undertake rigorous, independent evaluations of all government-funded initiatives and programs, and make the results publicly available, as a condition of continuing funding.
3.4.3 Fund research and develop best practice models which enable women to transition from emergency accommodation to more stable medium – longer-term housing.
4.1.2 Establish a reference for the Australian Law Reform Commission to develop national guiding principles to inform a consistent interpretation of the law and applicable rules of evidence for sexual assault matters and domestic and family violence matters.
4.1.3 Enhance support services to assist female visa applicants experiencing domestic or family violence to access the protection of migration legislation.
4.1.4 Ensure all victims of violence (including children exposed to violence) have access to victim/witness services with staff who are knowledgeable and responsive to the diversity of women, so they can support them in their interactions with the justice system.
4.1.5 Ensure adequate funding for legal aid and advocacy services is provided by the Australian Government, over and above State/Territory funding, to recognise the significant focus given to domestic and family violence in the 2006 amendments to the Family Law Act 1975.
4.1.6 Undertake gender/intersectional analysis of proposed policies and legislation to ensure they do not jeopardise the safety of women and their children.
4.2.2 Ensure State and Territory domestic and family violence legislation contains a clearly articulated objective definition of domestic and family violence that recognises the gendered nature of domestic and family violence and its impacts and consequences; that domestic and family violence is motivated by a desire for domination and control; and that it must be used in conjunction with criminal law where a crime has been committed.
4.2.3 Give primacy to the safety and wellbeing of children, including protection from unsupervised exposure to perpetrators of domestic and family violence, when considering ‘the best interests of the child’.
4.2.4 Focus police practices and accountability on gathering evidence to support criminal charges where relevant, and eliminate the occurrence of dual arrests and cross-orders, in the investigation of domestic and family violence allegations.
4.3.5 Increase the establishment of specialised courts or special court proceedings guaranteeing sensitive, timely and efficient handling of cases of violence against women.
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4.3.6 Expand the use of specialist approaches to prosecutions (including increasing the availability and use of specialist courts) to minimise withdrawal and maximise the chances of successful and timely reporting and convictions in sexual assault and domestic and family violence cases.
4.3.7 Ensure guiding principles for the interpretation of the law relating to sexual offences feature within sexual offence legislation for every State and Territory jurisdiction, including within the rules of evidence as they relate to sexual offences.
4.4.2 Commission the production of a model Bench Book, in consultation with jurisdictions and as part of a national quality professional development program, for judicial officers on sexual assault and domestic and family violence, to provide a social context analysis and case law, and to complement existing resources and enhance the application of the law.
4.5.1 Undertake national benchmarking of substantive law, evidence and procedure, interpretation and application for sexual assault offences that includes recommendations about which provisions are best able to provide a just legal response for victims.
4.5.2 Undertake and evaluate, with necessary caution, trials to explore the utility and suitability of restorative justice for cases of domestic and family violence and sexual assault.
4.5.3 Continue to trial and evaluate supplementary legal processes in the area of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family violence and sexual assault, such as restorative justice, which are driven by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
5.1.3 Develop standards, benchmarks and models for behaviour change programs and services for perpetrators that take account of individual differences and the typology of their violence; and create incentives for their participation.
5.1.4 Ensure that men who have a history of violence against women and children and are in correctional facilities have access to behaviour change programs as early as possible, and certainly before their release.
5.2.2 Develop initiatives that change attitudes and behaviours of young people at the earliest point that sexually deviant, violent, bullying, abusive or humbugging behaviours are exhibited.
5.2.3 Increase funding to men’s counselling and support services that meet the standards of practice, including telephone support services, to help men reach out for support when they recognise the antecedents to violence and provide support for non-violent behaviour.
5.3.1 Increase community-based maintenance and follow up services for individuals, families and communities that enable perpetrators to maintain changes to their attitudes and behaviour.
5.3.2 Strengthen post-release transition services to ensure perpetrators have access to education and training, employment assistance and family counselling, where required.
5.4.2 To further understandings of the cycle of violence and the intergenerational transmission of violence, undertake research to identify the impacts of daily trauma on the developing brain of children who are victims of sexual assault and domestic and family violence, and the intersection of these impacts on their life-long ability to self-regulate and control their behaviour as adults.
6.1.3 Ensure funding models and reporting requirements do not overburden community based organisations and/or detract from achieving outcomes.
6.1.4 Support and further develop community volunteering and exchange systems between staff in the government and the sexual assault and domestic and family violence sectors.
6.2.2 Ensure resource allocation models promote continuity of funding for local programs where they are shown to be effective through evaluation.
6.2.3 Ensure that community planning partnerships work together at the local level services to build client-centred service systems that are simple and practical to access and use.
6.3.2 Investigate simplified outcomes and indicators for domestic violence and sexual assault to reduce the reporting burden and gather consistent evidence.
6.3.3 Investigate a better balance between individual privacy and the safety needs of individual clients and recommend ways to better ensure the safety of women and children.
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2015 -2018
1.4.5 Encourage, support and recognise business initiatives which prevent gender-related violence (for example, sexual harassment) in the workplace.
2.2.3 Develop and implement an accreditation and evaluation system for respectful relationships programs to ensure that program development and delivery meets best practice.
2.4.2 Undertake benchmarking of young people’s attitudes towards women and violence; and review every five years.
3.1.5 Develop and implement multiple training and accreditation strategies for medical and allied health professionals, legal practitioners and community service workers to develop their understanding of the structural nature and impacts of sexual assault and domestic and family violence on women and their children, taking account of factors such as age, ethnicity and disability.
3.1.6 Develop and implement model codes of practice to ensure that there is consistency, transparency and accountability between sectors (health, community, legal) in delivering services that respond to sexual assault and domestic and family violence. The codes of practice should apply to a range of front-line workers, and include core principles and values to guide service delivery that reflect the diversity of women experiencing violence, and ensure approaches that focus on intersectionality to address the compounding factors that increase a woman’s vulnerability to violence.
3.3.13 Explore the feasibility of providing a Medicare payment to rural general practitioners for the provision of forensic medical sexual assault examinations in order to encourage more rural doctors to undertake training and provide these services.
3.3.14 Provide access to specialist trauma and recovery counselling services for women in prison and their children; provide access to educational opportunities for women in prison; and strengthen post-release services for women to ensure they have access to safe and supported housing, education and training, employment assistance and counselling.
3.4.4 Undertake research on the specific needs of older women affected by violence, especially sexual violence, to ensure services are responsive to their particular needs.
3.4.5 In partnership with peak bodies and the sector, review, update and promulgate standards and good practice guidelines to support programs for women and their children who have experienced violence to assure quality service.
4.2.5 Capitalise on guilty pleas to apply elements of restorative justice in the conventional justice system which improve responses for victims; including, for example, the use of incentives for perpetrators of violence to plead guilty and ritualising the guilty plea to incorporate explicit acknowledgement of, and responsibility for, the crime and the harm caused.
4.5.4 Undertake research on police practices in pro-arrest jurisdictions within Australia to understand variance in dual arrest rates and the impact on women’s safety, including women being re-victimised in the justice system, with the goal of minimising dual arrests.
4.5.5 Evaluate the effectiveness of homicide/fatality review processes in all States and Territories to determine the most effective models.
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5.1.5 Increase the availability, range and evaluation of perpetrator programs that meet standard principles, particularly in rural and remote areas.
5.1.6 Develop best practice programs to address violence in lesbian relationships and to prevent violence in carer relationships.
5.4.3 Develop methods to evaluate perpetrator programs that are consistent with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.
6.1.5 Ensure Government funding processes support collaboration and cooperation in local communities, not competition.
6.2.4 Ensure mechanisms are in place to facilitate appropriate information sharing between relevant government, and other, agencies to enable services and supports to ‘wrap-around’ women who have been violated, and their children.
6.3.4 Investigate and establish what minimum level of services and infrastructure is required in different geographic settings to achieve minimum domestic and family violence and sexual assault prevention and response outcomes.
2018 – 2021
Ongoing implementation of continuing actions from previous Implementation Plans; and overall evaluation and review process that sets the foundation for action beyond 2021.