For the first time, the federal government has set targets for ending violence against women and children, including a dedicated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander action plan.
Today, Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth launched a five-year plan aiming to reduce the number of women killed by intimate partner violence by 25 per cent each year.
A staggering 57 women were killed by violence in Australia in 2022, according to Destroy the Joint. And this year already, the number has reached 34 as of August 2023.
“No woman or child should have their lives terrorised by someone who professed to love and care for them,” said Rishworth in a statement.
“No woman or child should have their lives ended prematurely due to that violence.”
Rishworth told the ABC that to track progress on its targets, the government will rely on the Australian Institute of Criminology for its data for its baseline– which, according to current data shows twenty-five women have died at the hands of current or former partners in the year to July 2021.
Director of the Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre, Professor Kate Fitz-Gibbons says the Action Plans announced today represent “a much-needed next step” in meeting the objectives of the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022-23 but adds that more must be done to ensure real progress.
“The commitments made are welcome but the urgency to act is yet to be demonstrated, says Professor Fitz-Gibbons. “All governments across Australia must now move to fully fund and action these commitments as a matter of priority.”
“This government has made an unprecedented funding commitment of $2.3 billion over the 2022-23 and 2023-24 budgets to address women’s safety and support delivery of these Action Plans. While this sounds impressive, it is not commensurate with the scale of the crisis of domestic, family and sexual violence in Australia.”
Professor Fitz-Gibbons says increased funding is “urgently needed at the Commonwealth, state and territory levels.”
An analysis by the Australian Bureau of Statistics last year found that one in four women have experienced partner emotional abuse since the age of 15, and over half of these women report experiencing physical and/or sexual violence by this partner as well.
Women who experience intimate partner violence are also twice as likely to suffer mental health disorders and only around 22 per cent feel fully recovered after a decade, according to a study from Hunter Medical Research Institute and the University of Newcastle.
Dedicated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander action plan
The problem is even more profound for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, with the murder rate for Indigenous women eight times higher than for non-Indigenous women. And figures compiled by the Australian Institute of Criminology show a significant proportion of these are attributable to intimate partner violence.
Announced today as well, the government will establish a national peak body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family safety to address the disproportionate rates of violence against Indigenous women.
The body will be under what’s described as the first dedicated action plan for Indigenous Australians. The government said the three-year plan is aligned with Closing the Gap targets– halving the rate of all forms of family violence and abuse against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children by 2031.
“This plan is a first for our country and has been developed by listening and working with First Nations people because we know that listening is the key to developing better policies and programs and delivering better outcomes,” said Linda Burney, the minister for Indigenous Australians.
The plan includes providing services in prisons for Indigenous people who are both victims and perpetrators of family and sexual violence. An Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men’s advisory body will be established as well.
More targets included in the government’s plan include increasing understanding of violence against women across the community and changing attitudes, improving police responses, improving access to housing for women and children facing violence and increasing corporate Australia’s role in preventing customers from experiencing violence.
If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual or family violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or click here.
If you are in immediate danger call 000. If you need mental health support contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.