Australia: With the unveiling of a new national plan on domestic violence, the Albanese government has set an ambitious aim to abolish violence against women and children within a generation.
The plan calls for improved crisis housing and assistance for males to cultivate “healthy masculinities.”
The new National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children makes numerous recommendations to improve violence prevention and response, including changes to how Australia’s media, schools, court systems, internet businesses, the health sector, and offenders themselves react.
“Violence against women and children is not inevitable, by addressing the social, cultural, political and economic factors that drive this gendered violence, we can end it in one generation.” the report stated.
The plan, which is more of a general roadmap for change than particular funding promises or requirements, has received support from the federal, state, and territorial administrations. COVID-19 led to an upsurge in crime, and two-thirds of women who had been the victims of violence reported that the violence had begun or intensified after the pandemic had started.
A statement from members of the Independent Collective of Survivors, which was included in the report, mentioned that, “Too many of us are being re-traumatized trying to engage with systems that are meant to ‘protect’ us but fail, systems that create barriers to access and have costs beyond our means because services are not designed for the realities of our lives. Systems that wait until the worst has happened before they respond, then blame us for not reporting or leaving.”
In addition to two different five year action plans, the national plan calls for the creation of a separate action plan specifically for First Nations women. It identifies a number of areas for state and federal government development, with particular attention paid to increasing housing and including men and boys in preventative efforts.
“Current rates of family, domestic and sexual violence are unacceptable, we want to make these changes now so the next generation of women and children can live in a society free from violence. We need sustained and collective action across society.” Quoted the social services minister Ms. Amanda Rishworth.
The plan urges people, especially males, to better fight sexism and harassment as bystanders and calls for better support for men and boys to establish healthy masculinities and strong connections with peers. It also calls for addressing homophobic or transphobic attitudes.
Additionally, there are recommendations for increased financing for perpetrator treatments and programs that change men’s behavior, particularly those that address the “underlying trauma of participants” in those programs. Other suggestions include addressing societal attitudes that justify or minimize violence as well as attitudes that put the onus on victims to stop or flee the violence.
Furthermore, the strategy asks for expanding the supply of housing, better assisting those with limited reading or language skills in navigating the rental market, and improving housing support for those fleeing violence.
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