As governments prepare to finalise the National Plan on Violence Against Women and their Children that will set our country’s direction and framework for the next 12 years, ACLW joins a coalition of key organisations and advocacy groups urging Australian governments to increase investment in preventing sexual violence and supporting victims, and adopt a greater focus on intervention for perpetrators.
We have come together to jointly call for 12 actions as the starting point for government commitments. The letter reads:
To Women’s Safety Ministers,
I support the joint call for governments to:
- Build stronger foundations in our community to prevent violence before it starts.
- Increase capacity across our communities to recognise and respond to early signs of abuse.
- Increase and extend investment in specialist support services.
- Increase and expand the focus on sexual violence.
- Shift the burden to the person who uses violence.
- Recognise children and young people as victims in their own right.
- Expand research to build evidence-based services.
- Reform the Family Law system.
- Prioritise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community led initiatives.
- Tailor initiatives and responses to community needs.
- Expand victim-survivor choice and control through expanded pathways for support and accountability beyond police and criminal courts.
- Invest in programmes with long-term funding, to give them enough time to work.
I urge you to commit to these as priority areas for action, and as foundational to the next National Plan.
Add Your Support to the Joint Letter
The letter has been opened to individuals to sign on at: www.safetysummit.org.au
The full text of the letter is at https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/fairagenda/pages/80/attachments/original/1627516766/Public_Joint-Letter-to-Womens-Safety-Ministers_Final_sent.pdf?1627516766
The national summit on women’s safety was supposed to take place on July 29 and 30 this year, but plans have been postponed by the growing COVID-19 outbreak in Sydney.