Govt must fund national plan to end violence against women and children

National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children aims to end gender-based violence within one generation by stopping the violence before it starts, writes Hayley Foster. 

Committing acts of violence against women and children isn’t inevitable.

It is a choice.

The epidemic of violence against women in this country is a national crisis.

One woman dies every ten days at the hands of their former or current partner.

One in three women has experienced physical violence since the age of 15 and one in five has experienced sexual assault – and it doesn’t just happen in the home, but in schools, universities, sport, media and entertainment industries and in community and faith-based settings.

We know that one in three Australians have been sexually harassed in the workplace in the last five years.

The statistics are horrific and the personal stories behind them devastating. Nevertheless, having worked in this space for decades, I can attest to the fact that the numbers have only been going one way – up.

But today I am feeling a surge of optimism.

The new National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children has been released with an ambitious strategy, to end gender-based violence within one generation. It seeks to stop the violence before it starts.

It is a comprehensive statement of gender-based violence in this country and what is needed to address it.

The national plan recognises the critical role that all parts of society, including business and industry, institutions, and other organisations need to play, working together, to end gender-based violence.

It recognises that structural change is needed to improve access to housing and income support for people impacted by violence, and to improve our legal systems. The plan is also integrated with other national plans and strategies to ensure policy settings are pulling the same direction.

Importantly, unlike the first plan, which was released in 2010 it commits to action to address victim-survivor recovery and healing.

That’s an essential part of the puzzle.

At the moment sexual assault victims in regional areas are being forced to drive for up to 10 hours to be medically examined and in some cities they have to wait until the next day. That means they can’t go to the bathroom or have a shower if they want to get any sort of justice.

In some parts of Australia survivors are waiting up to 18 months to see a counsellor. Huge swathes of rural Australia are void of specialist sexual violence services. That’s why Full Stop Australia, a sexual and family violence counselling and advocacy organisation, is pushing for measurable targets.

Targets are essential if we want to hold governments and other actors to account on their performance on reducing gender violence.

We’re calling on the Commonwealth and each state and territory government to commit to specific, measurable targets in their first five-year action plans.

For example, we would like to see a commitment to a 50 per cent increase in the number of victim-survivors of gender-based violence being able to access services to support them in their safety and recovery over the next five years.

We now have the opportunity to stem the flow, turn the tide and ensure that our next generation of women and girls live their lives free from violence.

We need to commit to the funding needed to address this crisis, once and for all.

We have to believe that a life without violence is possible.