Page 4043 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 26 November 2014
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out of their houses to see what was going on and the resulting conversations about the planes and what they symbolised were good to have because it made people more aware of this matter and it made people, one would hope, reflect on what they can do to effect change.
Raising awareness of an issue and fundraising is an important way of engaging us on these critical issues. But, in the long term, interventions and activities that make a real difference are where the government is focused. The ACT women’s plan 2010-15 identifies the need to improve safety and security for women, with one of the three outcome areas identifying both priority areas for action and progress indicators. The women’s plan provides the strategic underpinning for the ACT prevention of violence against women and children strategy 2011-17—“Our Responsibility: ending violence against women and children”—and involves the whole community in upholding and respecting the rights of women and children to live free from fear and experience of violence.
It is deliberately called “Our Responsibility” in an effort to emphasise the nature of the responses that are required. The strategy provides overarching principles to guide violence prevention activities across government and non-government agencies and provide flexible and targeted responses to women and children experiencing violence.
The ACT strategy has four main aims: women and children are safe because an anti-violence culture exists, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children are supported and safe in their communities, women’s and children’s needs are met through joined-up services, and men who use violence are held accountable and supported to change.
The government will provide over $5 million in 2014-15 towards crisis responses to those experiencing domestic and family and sexual violence, and specialised accommodation and outreach services for women who are escaping domestic violence. There have been a broad range of initiatives under “Our Responsibility”, which include funding for the Canberra Men’s Centre for the working with the man program, a program which works with men who use violence to be accountable for their behaviours and to change their attitudes towards women.
Initiatives under the national plan include the four yearly people safety survey, undertaken by the ABS, and the four yearly national community attitudes survey undertaken by VicHealth. For the first time, the 2012 people safety survey results allowed us to drill down into jurisdictional data. The survey found that in the ACT 6.3 per cent of women had experienced domestic violence or experienced violence, and women with a disability or long-term health condition were three per cent more likely to experience violence than other women in our community. We will only begin to see changes in the data when the next survey is undertaken in 2016.
In the ACT, data about men’s violence against women is collected in a number of different contexts. We have the AFP data, which records reported incidents. We have data from services such as the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre and the domestic violence service, and their data focuses on the services they provide and therefore reflects the number of inquiries or calls that are made to their crisis line. Their data is, of course,
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