Key findings: 2024 Yearly Report on the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children

On Wednesday 21 August 2024, the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission’s first Yearly Report on the progress of the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032 (National Plan) was tabled in Parliament and Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner Micaela Cronin delivered the key findings from the report. We outline some key findings.

1. Importance of language

When speaking about family, domestic and sexual violence, the use of language is often passive. For example, it is usually referred to as ‘violence against women’, rather than ‘men’s violence’. This does not make it clear that it is predominantly men who perpetrate violence, and that it is predominantly women who are the victims of this violence. Commissioner Cronin expressed the need for Australia to be stronger and clearer in our choice of language when speaking about domestic, family and sexual violence.

2. Embedding lived experience

The voices of those who have directly experienced family, domestic and sexual violence must be at the centre of any reform in this space. Lived experience advocates can help define problems, undertake meaningful evaluations and design effective solutions. When speaking about this, Commissioner Cronin emphasised the diversity of Australia, ‘what is going to work in a remote First Nations community will be different to a capital city.’ We need to listen to communities about what is important for them in order to implement informed interventions.

3. Engaging with men

Men have a critical role to play in ending gender-based violence and they must be part of every aspect of this plan. Commissioner Cronin highlighted the need to talk with and about men more. She said ‘the National Plan uses the word “men” 129 times. It uses the word “women” 543 times. Four times more than we talk about men.’

Engaging with men in a meaningful way must involve:

• governments working with service providers and the community to offer more support options for men who are concerned about their behaviour;
• increased accountability for people who use violence. This involves improving information sharing, risk assessments of men using violence known to the system and effective justice interventions that prevent harm; and
• governments prioritising the development of new and better data on men who use violence, their pathways in and out of violence, and what works to engage men to end violence.

4. Improved system governance

Ending domestic, family and sexual violence requires a holistic multi-sectorial and culturally informed approach and the coordinated efforts of multiple stakeholders. Though there has been some progress in this area, continued areas of focus include:

• governments need to ensure their systems are not causing harm to people;
• governments should keep integrating and strengthening responses between domestic and family violence, sexual assault, child protection and children and families’ sectors to adequately address the safety and wellbeing of children and young people;
• the coordination of governance and progress monitoring under both the National Plan and the First Nations National Plan for Family safety should be clarified;
• governments should commit to publicly sharing all evaluation results related the National Plan; and
• the Standing Council of Attorney-General should work on making death reviews faster, more consistent, and better funded across the country.

5. Building workforce capability

Workforce capability development needs national leadership prioritising specialist domestic, family and sexual violence workforce but also capability development and integration across multiple sectors to improve system responses. Areas of focus include:

• a collabourative national workforce strategy between the Australian Government, states and territories, to increase the number of specialised workers; and
• foundational training across broader workforces, including tertiary education training for key professions such as health and allied health, teaching, psychology and social work and law.

This finding is consistent with our 2022 submission to the draft National Plan where we highlighted the need for better family, domestic and sexual violence training for all legal professionals and law students.

6. Improving the capacity of our systems

While funding for domestic, family and sexual violence services has been steadily increasing over the past few decades, service systems are ‘overwhelmed and stretched beyond capacity.’ To overcome this barrier, there needs to be a clearer understanding of the demand for services and where funding is required. The key areas of focus in this space are:

• frontline and crisis services need to be better and more sustainably resourced;
• governments must consider new ways to fund services to ensure effective responses; and
• the Australian Government must work with states and territories to align the Family Domestic and Sexual Violence National Partnership agreement to the National Plan and Action Plans.

Identifying the need for funding and resources aligns with the Save Community Legal Centres: End the Funding Crisis campaign which also launched on Wednesday 21 August 2024. Part of this campaign calls on governments to provide $95 million for frontline domestic and family violence work. This funding is necessary to enable all community legal centres to meet the demand for legal assistance services and holistic support from victim-survivors of domestic, family and sexual violence.

For further information on the report’s key findings, please visit: Tabling of the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission's first Yearly Report to Parliament | Department of Social Services Ministers (dss.gov.au).