Key Points
- Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a $4.7 billion program to prevent gender-based violence.
- This includes strengthening front-line services, including legal services.
- It follows a second National Cabinet on the issue, as federal and state governments aim to combat the “national crisis”.
Australians fleeing domestic violence will soon receive additional support as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a $4.7 billion funding boost.
Albanese met with prime ministers and chief ministers on Friday morning to discuss what he repeatedly called a “national crisis” and reaffirmed his government’s commitment to ending family, domestic and sexual violence “in one generation”.
Forty-seven women have been violently killed in Australia since the start of the year, according to advocacy group Destroy the Joint’s Counting Dead Women project.
The Prime Minister said it was crucial to have an “all hands on deck” approach, with collaboration essential between states, territories and the federal government.
“We must act to ensure women’s safety. These horrific and disturbing deaths and despicable violence must be avoided,” he told reporters Friday morning.
“Achieving this requires action and change at all levels of government, but more than that, it also requires action from all parts of our society.”
Here’s where the extra funding will go and what other commitments National Cabinet has made to tackle gender-based violence.
$3.9 billion for legal services
The plan includes $3.9 billion over five years for front-line legal services, representing an increase of $800 million for a sector that had expressed concern about vulnerable women being turned away.
All elements of the legal aid sector will receive financial support, including women’s legal services, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services, domestic violence prevention legal services, legal aid and community legal centers.
Some of the money will be allocated to increasing the salaries of community sector legal aid providers to ensure they can recruit and retain workers, but exact figures have not yet been published.
More than $700 million to improve responses to violence
The Federal Government will also contribute $351 million to a new five-year National Partnership Agreement on responses to family, domestic and sexual violence, with states and territories matching this commitment.
The agreement will allow each jurisdiction to direct money where it is most needed, with a particular emphasis on prevention.
Funding will be provided to frontline agencies to provide specialist services for women, services to help children exposed to family, domestic and sexual violence heal and recover, and to work with men, including through behavior change programs for abusers.
Other commitments
The National Cabinet has committed to developing a new national family and domestic violence risk assessment framework, improving the sharing of “red flags” on perpetrators between jurisdictions and strengthening the system to prevent the escalation of violence.
The Commonwealth will fund the setting of national standards for male behavior change and audit key government systems to identify areas where they are being used as weapons by abusers.
It will also work with experts to identify gaps in support for children and young people who have experienced or witnessed gender-based violence and provide more than $80 million in funding to improve and expand services focused on children and trauma-informed.
Alcohol laws will be examined by prime ministers and chief ministers, as well as their impact on victim-survivors of violence.
The Prime Minister said states and territories remained committed to recruiting an additional 500 frontline workers through funding allocated in May.
Criticism of delay in funding schedule
Albanese said the Government was providing women and vulnerable organizations with “certainty for the future”, even though the funding increase will not come into effect until July next year.
“We are providing the funding as part of a five-year agreement that will begin in the next financial year, and what these legal services will benefit from is the certainty of knowing what awaits them as they move forward,” he said. he declared.
Albanese’s comments were followed by criticism from Liberal Party deputy leader Sussan Ley, who called for the funding to be released immediately.
“If this is the case, on the trajectory we are following, 40 women will be killed and many more women and children injured between today’s announcement and the funding coming into effect,” he said. -she declared.
What else is being done to combat violence against women and children?
This program builds on the rapid review of prevention approaches that followed a National Cabinet meeting in May.
After the May meeting, which offers up to $5,000 in financial support to people fleeing an abusive relationship.
This sum is in addition to the $2.3 billion that the government has already committed to providing. .
If you or someone you know is affected by family and domestic violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, text 0458 737 732 or visit. In case of emergency, call 000.
run by No to Violence, can be contacted on 1300 766 491.
