Time for Action: The National Council's Plan for Australia to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2009–2021 - A Snapshot 

In May 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and the Minister for the Status of Women, Tanya Plibersek, set up the 11 member National Council to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children. Government asked the Council to lead a national conversation and analyse research to produce a plan to reduce the incidence and the impact of sexual assault and domestic and family violence perpetrated against women and their children.

In developing Time for Action : The National Council’s Plan for Australia to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children, 2009-2021, the Council consulted more than 2,000 Australians. This involved meetings in every State and Territory, six expert roundtable discussions, reviewing 370 formal written submissions and more than 350 interviews with both victims and with perpetrators of sexual assault and domestic and family violence. The Council drew from the available evidence, undertook research to identify current responses to violence against women across Australia, commissioned a comparison of State and Territory domestic violence and sexual assault laws, and was informed by an analysis of the costs to the economy of violence against women and their children. In writing the Plan, the Council invited people with a variety of expertise to act as ‘critical friends’ and provide feedback on its draft Plan.

The Council formally presented Time for Action to the Government in March 2009. Time for Action argues for a sustained new level of investment in primary prevention and the justice system to create respectful relationships, fair outcomes, and safe communities. This is to be complemented by more effectively planned, targeted and evaluated approaches to services that respond to victims and their families in all their diversity, holding perpetrators accountable for their violence, and working to stop men’s violence against women and their children.

Size of the problem

Violence against women is a fundamental breach of human rights, and sexual assault and domestic and family violence are the most pervasive forms of violence perpetrated against women in this country.

Sexual assault and domestic and family violence cannot be excused or justified under any circumstances. It is wrong and all victims need compassionate and highly responsive support and all perpetrators must be held accountable for their violence. While both men and women can be perpetrators and can be victims of sexual assault and domestic and family violence, research shows that the overwhelming majority of such violence in Australia is perpetrated by men against women.

• Any woman can become a victim of sexual assault and/or domestic violence – violence knows no geographical, socio-economic, age, ability, cultural or religious boundaries.
• Over their lifetimes, sexual violence affects almost one in five Australian women and physical violence affects at least one in three Australian women.
• Women usually experience violence at the hands of men they know, often in their own homes, often repeatedly.
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women report higher levels of physical violence and are more likely to sustain serious injuries.
• Women with disabilities are more vulnerable to violence and often have fewer pathways to appropriate support or options to escape violence particularly when perpetrated by partners and/or carers.
• Young women experience higher rates of sexual assault.
• Immigrant and refugee women are more likely to be murdered as a result of domestic violence.
• Almost one in four children in Australia has witnessed violence against their mother or stepmother.
• Women and their children who have experienced violence have poorer health and use health services, including mental health services, more often, even after they have escaped the violence.
• Without implementing a plan to reduce violence against women and their children, an estimated 750,000 Australian women will report being a victim of violence in 2021–22.
• The cost of violence against women and their children to the Australian economy is estimated to be $13.6 billion in 2008-09 and, if there is no reduction in current rates, it will cost the economy an estimated $15.6 billion by 2021-22.

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Areas for improvement

Against a background of international developments, and as a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979) and the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (1994), Australia has for decades acknowledged it has a responsibility to prevent sexual assault and domestic and family violence through policy, legislative and service reform. Despite significant efforts and investments, the horrific numbers of women and their children affected by violence has not shifted over the decades. The statistics about prevalence and the evidence about the impacts and economic costs of violence against women compel governments to reform for safety.

The Background Paper to Time for Action analyses the way the Australian Government and each State and Territory Government is currently dealing with violence against women and their children.

A fragmented system

All jurisdictions have implemented, or are in the process of implementing, cross-departmental and inter-agency approaches to sexual assault and domestic and family violence. However, significant barriers to effective collaboration and partnership impede genuine implementation of such approaches and no mechanisms to monitor and evaluate these whole-of-government approaches appear to be in place.

Gaps between policy intent and implementation

Nationally, there are gaps between policy and legislative intent and their implementation. Policies and laws interact in some cases to the detriment of women’s and children’s safety. Repeated stories about inadequate arrangements to support the portability of domestic violence orders across State and Territory borders; contradictory impacts experienced by victims as a result of their engagement with the Family Law and child protection and justice systems; and, the variance across jurisdictions in the way in which laws and procedures define consent and free agreement in sexual assault matters, signal the urgency for legal reform.

Failure to invest in primary prevention

Past investments in communication campaigns about violence against women have not been sustained or sufficiently aligned to ensure coherency in messages to the community. Public campaigns are a critical partner in any social change process and there is evidence that they work when they focus on positive messages promoting cultural and behavioural change, rather than focusing on victims as a means of encouraging them to access support.

Inadequate funding of services

Despite the wide ranging impacts of violence against women, funding commitments vary widely across jurisdictions with many initiatives operating as pilots. This severely impedes organisations’ ability to attract and retain skilled staff in a sector where the work is complex, stressful and not well paid.

Responses are not tailored and accessible

A one-size response does not fit all victims and their children. Service systems are currently inadequate in supporting women in all their diversity. They are insufficiently integrated to provide a seamless and coherent service that addresses the multiple impacts violence has on a woman and her children’s health, housing, financial, employment, schooling, family and social support needs.

Lack of evidence

In the small proportion of cases where the successful prosecution of perpetrators of violence occurs, the investment is primarily in sentencing rather than rehabilitation. This is partly because of a serious lack of knowledge about what interventions work in stopping men’s violence. As a minimum, building the evidence about what works in primary prevention, what services for victims and their families promote safety and recovery, what law and procedure provides a just legal response for victims, what risk assessment and risk management tools effectively trigger early intervention, as well as what works in stopping men’s violent behaviour, are critical to achieving the safety of all women and their children.

Inadequate monitoring and reporting

Adequate data and evaluation to inform understandings of what works, what works best and why, to ensure government and community investments are effective in reducing and ultimately preventing violence against women and their children, is consistently lacking. Setting the baseline for monitoring change over time, agreed by all governments, is essential.