AUSTRALIA: Government Commitment to Target Family Violence

The state government has reinforced its commitment to reducing violence.

The government has signed up to the Second Action Plan of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010-2022.

Community Services Minister Mary Wooldridge said the National Plan targeted family violence and sexual assault and sets out a long-term and sustained commitment to respond to and prevent violence against women and their children.

“The National Plan both builds on and contributes to the work that the Napthine government and other jurisdictions are doing to reduce violence against women and their children, and brings together this expertise in a national framework for action,” Ms Wooldridge said.

“A key success of the National Plan has been the development of the Foundation to Prevent Violence Against Women and their Children – jointly established by the Victorian and Commonwealth governments.

"This new national agency is dedicated to preventing violence before it occurs by changing attitudes and building relationships, communities and organisations that are gender equitable and non-violent."

Ms Wooldridge said we all have a critical role in ending family violence.

The key national priorities of the three-year Second Action Plan include actions to: drive whole of community engagement to prevent violence and build awareness and ownership of violence as a community issue; better understand and meet the needs of diverse groups of women; improve perpetrator interventions; strengthen and explore the way systems and services work together; and work to implement a national scheme for domestic violence orders.

Women's Affairs Minister Heidi Victoria said family violence disproportionately impacts on women.

“One in three Australian women have experienced physical violence since the age of 15 and almost one in five have experienced sexual violence,” Ms Victoria said.