It's hard not to laugh-cry when a minister says we will be rid of family violence in a generation. Laughing because it is the least specific measure ever (what the hell is a generation anyway?), crying because you know it won't happen.
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Not now. Not ever.
The federal government released the new national plan to end violence against women and children yesterday which is a faint blueprint on how to fix the future. While the Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth's claims are noble - and a million times better than anything the Coalition said or did after its 10 desultory years in office - the idea that the next generation of women and children can live in a society free from violence is pure fantasy. I mean, I love that she said it. But this cannot be done in 15 or 20 or 30 years and certainly not with the plan as it stands.
The new plan has zero detail about targets (but at least recognises that there will be targets), worse it has zero detail about money. These were criticisms pointed at the draft, finally released for consultation early this year. And they are now criticisms of the current plan. To fix family violence in this country, we need to do two things. One, we need a truckload of cash injected into domestic violence support work across the nation and we need to fix men. The first we can do. The second will take so much time.
Earlier this year, the then Coalition government promised $1.3 billion to various initiatives over six years. This included: money for prevention initiatives and for consent education; money to protect victim-survivors from cross-examination by family violence perpetrators; money for the Illawarra Women's Health Centre; implementation of some of the recommendations of the Respect@Work report and to update respectful relationships education platform. That included the National Partnership Agreement funds of $260 million over two years included in the last budget. Labor has promised more for line workers but we haven't seen the details.
All great and worthwhile. But we need money for front-line services. I was chatting to Hayley Foster, the Full Stop Australia chief executive officer who says Full Stop's national 24/7 telephone and online counselling service for those experiencing domestic and family violence is funded by NRMA and the money runs out on June 30 next year.
H-E-L-P. Can someone please explain to me how that essential service relies on private funding? Not only that, the service is listed on the national plan.
And let's not forget the number of services specifically for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children which cannot cope with demand, which have to turn women and children away. I am pleased the plan confirms we will have a separate First Nations plan but how much longer will we have to wait? How many more women and children will die waiting?
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Now the usual excuse from a new government is that it is a new government. But the problems are not new. We know what's needed because people gave excellent feedback when the draft report had its consultations. We have been having the same conversations for decades. Not only that, the Australian National Audit Office, diligent, specific, did a whole thing on coordination and targeting of domestic violence funding and actions back in 2019. Maybe this government should check out the link. We can't wait any longer.
As Kristine Ziwica, author of Leaning Out, puts it: "Targets and evaluations are key for the long-term success of the plan and also crucial for accountability." We need to see what they are. Without them, as Ziwica says, "These are meaningless lofty goals and motherhood statements. There needs to be funding attached that matches the scale of this lofty ambition."
As she puts it, we spent years being gaslit by a government which told us everything was under control, as women and children were injured beyond repair or killed.
We don't need vision statements. We need vision. Money. And speed of delivery.
As for fixing men, if that can be done in a generation, I will walk backwards to Broome. That's more than a grease and oil change. It's a whole refit. We will need to begin when men are infants. There's at least two generations right there.
- Jenna Price is a visiting fellow at the Australian National University and a regular columnist.
Jenna Price is a Canberra Times columnist and a visiting fellow at the Australian National University.
Jenna Price is a Canberra Times columnist and a visiting fellow at the Australian National University.
