Page 3373 - Week 09 - Thursday, 24 August 2017
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launched last year. The first priority area in this action plan is prevention and early intervention. The document itself states:
Under the Third Action Plan, primary prevention activities will address attitudes and behaviours that excuse, justify and promote violence against women and their children. Early intervention activities will help improve identification of and early responses to violent behaviours.
The focus on prevention and early intervention in this action plan is of prime significance. On this point I wish to quote from a discussion paper prepared by the Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety and released last month:
Early governmental responses to domestic violence focused on providing support for individuals who had experienced domestic violence, and strengthening legislation and the justice system to punish perpetrators and protect victims. Prevention of domestic violence was an underlying goal, but often did not receive the same level of attention and resourcing as victim support and perpetrator prosecution. The Victorian Royal Commission found that for too long, the overwhelming and necessary demand for family violence response and crisis services had eclipsed efforts in prevention.
As I have before noted in this chamber, I spent my early years in a home that was characterised by daily acts of violence. I agree that it is absolutely necessary to provide crisis services to respond to these kinds of situations. I also know that I would have much preferred some kind of prevention or early intervention regarding what was happening in our home. We must always be careful that crisis intervention and support services do not overshadow the equally necessary measures to prevent violence before it occurs and to intervene before it goes too far.
This concern was brought up during budget estimates hearings by Frances Crimmins, executive director of YWCA Canberra. After having reviewed the proposed 2017-18 budget she told the Select Committee on Estimates:
… our concern remains that the safer family package only addresses the end of the domestic violence spectrum by responding to crisis. These measures must be complemented with investment in primary and secondary prevention strategies to tackle the root causes of domestic violence.
YWCA Canberra’s firm stance on investing in primary and secondary prevention initiatives is backed by international and national evidence demonstrating that violence is preventable …
Sharing Ms Crimmins’s concerns, I took the opportunity during estimates hearings to query the most important primary prevention and early intervention measures funded by the government in this budget, including the level of funding and how clients are first identified and engaged. I was shocked when the response from the Coordinator-General for Family Safety focused almost exclusively on awareness raising as a prevention measure. A strong focus on preventing violence by raising awareness comes straight from the first action plan 2010–13. Four years and two action plans later, I expected a far more developed and substantive answer from this government.
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