For one hour on Wednesday afternoon, the national crisis of violence against women received more attention from politicians than it has during the entire election campaign.
It came as three women were killed by violence in the 48 hours prior.
And it came as the issue of violence against women and domestic and family violence did not arise during the first leaders’ debate between Prime Mininster Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton on Sky News last week. The issues did not come up during the ABC debate between the two leaders last night either.
But yesterday afternoon’s online forum, organised by No To Violence and hosted by journalist Kristine Ziwica, was different. The entire conversation centred around the urgent priorities of ending domestic and family violence and violence against women. addressing sexual violence, meeting the needs of children affected by violence, early prevention mechanisms and the massive gap in rates of domestic and family violence between Indigenous and non-Indigenous women.
One hour was far from enough space for such a complex conversation, but the No To Violence did manage to get representatives from the major parties in the discussion, s well as a community’s independent representative was com. It was notable that they were all women.
The forum featured Labor MP Amanda Rishworth, Liberal Senator Kerryne Liddle, Greens Senator Larissa Waters and community independent and independent member for Goldstein Zoe Daniel.
The panellists were given strict time limits for their responses to questions, and three minutes to share opening statements.
These statements highlighted shared beliefs between the four groups, including the extent of the issue and the fact that the numbers are not going down when it comes to rates of domestic and family violence and the number of women killed by violence.
Rishworth said the Labor government has raised violence as a national priority and that the National Plan to End Violence will continue to be the focus. She spoke of the need for investments across four domains: prevention, early intervention, response, and healing and recovery. She said we need to hear more from men and boys in the prevention space.
Senator Liddle for the LIberal party, said she had spent the past two years talking with people across the sector since being appointed Shadow Minister for Child Protection and the Prevention of Family Violence. She noted her personal experiences of trauma and losing her sister to domestic violence.
Senator Liddle noted her frustration in the numbers not going down — that despite there not being a second action plan to end violence, we’re still seeing violence.
“We’re seeing many more of the drivers that are also being impacted by the cost of living crisis, but also when I think about drivers such as gambling, alcohol, housing, recidivism of violent behaviour by offenders, we must also consider that those issues need to be addressed. These are the things that keep me up, the impact of what happened with the removal of the cashless debit card, the lifting of alcohol restrictions in the Northern Territory, and the catastrophic impact immediately after those things.”
Senator Waters for the Greens highlighted the urgency and need for more action: “We’re in a national crisis and an epidemic, and we need a national response.”
She opened with The Greens’ election platform, including pushing for the financial commitment needed from the federal government to get the job done. She said they hoped they would start a bidding war regarding who would commit more. “I’ve been really disappointed so far in the campaign that there hasn’t been a lot said about violence against women.”
“We know that the refuges are full. We know that those legal service helplines do not have enough staff to answer every call. We know that there’s no long-term affordable housing. We know there’s a wait list as long as you’re armed for trauma counselling and support,” she said. “Now, we think it’s government’s job to fix that and to plug that funding gap, and if you cancel just one of those nuclear submarines, you would have more than enough money to fully fund frontline services.”
Senator Waters said the Greens policy goes into great detail and includes funding for prevention work, education in schools, justice system reform, resourcing teachers to deliver materials and training and creating a national toll of women killed by violence, like what occurs with the road toll.
Zoe Daniel, as a community independent who has been regularly raising the issue of violence against women, also shared her disappointment that the issue is not getting much airtime during the campaign.
“Violence against women and children should be a core election issue. It should be on par with economic and national security concerns, because the safety of women and children is fundamental, and if the primary responsibility of government is to keep people safe, then evidently we’re failing.”
Daniel shared several priorities in need of focus, including keeping family and domestic violence on the national agenda and reaching bipartisan support for national leadership, increasing investments in frontline specialist services and funding for men’s behaviour change programs.
She also spoke of more for primary prevention, early intervention, and housing funding for crisis accommodation and financial abuse. She sees opportunities to amend the Superannuation Act so family violence perpetrators can’t inherit the super savings of their victims, along with changes to family payment benefits to end the weaponisation of child support. She also wants to more data collecting to build the evidence base needed for identifying the risk factors. Daniel added that the general issue of women’s economic empowerment is key, including universal child care to enable more women to work and address gender pay and superannuation gaps.
“The more we empower women, the less they will have to choose between violence and poverty,” she said.
The panel were further questioned on ideas for working with young men and boys, breaking intergenerational cycles of violence and early interventions. They were also asked about commitments to First Nations women, as well as to children affected by violence.
“We do need to engage with men and boys at the prevention area, particularly as we see some new threats emerge online. Misogyny in particular is something that we need to be able to counter and work with in the prevention space,” said Rishworth.
Senator Liddle said she would focus on the differentiation between intimate partner violence and family violence and the increasing number of people coming to the attention of police, incarcerated.
Senator Liddle noted the delay in the specific dedicated plan for Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander women, and said she’s looking forward to reading it. She also concerns in funding going to the best services for supporting First Nations women.
“One of the things that I am committed to is the work that was done to inform some of the priorities in the national plan. But I’m also going to call out that what must be at the forefront is excellence in service delivery and outcomes and Aboriginal community controlled organisations, in many instances, are the best service providers to provide those services, but not always. Not always when there are Significant governance issues and those organisations are caught up in looking at themselves rather than delivering to the very people they exist to deliver to, and they are the most vulnerable people in Central Australia,” she said.
“There was a DV service, there a shelter that didn’t even get a look in for some of that $300 million that was poured into Central Australia because they were not an Aboriginal community controlled organisation, even though 99 per cent of the people that were within their walls were Aboriginal people from the local community.”
Waters said it’s crucial that Indigenous service Dijirra has its funding guaranteed. “We need to pay the workers properly, too,” she added that while there has been an increase in community legal services, it’s got to get to the right places. We need to change the culture in the justice systems, not ensure people can trust the systems.
Zoe Daniel said the experience of First Nations women show that services must be guaranteed multi-year funding. “I don’t know how these services continue to operate without that funding certainty, particularly given the burnout and dropout rates. This is important across the sector, especially for services dedicated to First Nations people.”
The issue of growing misogny online, and reaching more women and boys, also came up.
Zoe Daniel raised concerns about the “rigid man box behaviours” that are predicted to worsen due to the amount of time people are spending online, the isolation it creates and predictions that online misogyny is increasing and seeping into the real world.
She also noted the impact of the “drivers” of family and domestic violence that fuel the number of people in those situations.
Senator Waters said, “Absolutely, we need a strategy to help men stop using violence… It is a problem for men to fix. Ironically, we have a panel here of women. We know the majority of perpetrators are men, and that their behaviour needs to change. Because of sexism and patriarchy, we know men will listen to men, which is why organisations like No To Violence are so important.”
She said we need more role models for boys and men showing that “kindness and respect” are traits of being a good man.
Zoe Daniel said, “The concern is that some of the rigid man box behaviours are predicted to worsen because of the amount of time being spent online. The thing is, though, I have a strong view that healthy masculinity is good for men, boys, girls, women, and the community. We need to reach those boys in our sports, schools, media, local government, community organisations, and higher education and promote those behaviours.
Daniel expressed concerns we’re not reaching boys enough, and that if we don’t put in the resources now, that will get worse.
The conversation ended with Kristine Ziwica noting the top-voted question from the audience that all panellists will be asked to respond to, which is why there have been no new commitments from the major parties during the election campaign. “Why is the fear of backlash more important than the risk to women?” It’s an important question. One that we’d like to see front and centre during the next leaders debate between the PM and Opposition leader.
If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, call 000.
If you need help and advice call 1800Respect on 1800 737 732, Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.
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