This site is being archived soon. Visit wesnet.org.au for more information.

Budget measures to address violence against women

AWAVA has expressed concern that the Government’s commitment to address violence against women has not resulted in any substantial additional funding.[1] The 2017-2018 Budget is not taking any substantive measure to reduce gender inequality, which is recognised as a cause of violence against women. Diverse groups of women such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait women, women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and women with a disability are not receiving any additional funding to meet their needs despite the outcomes of the evaluation of the Second Action Plan of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children.

While we welcome some budget announcements on family law and homelessness services, we remain concerned that without substantial investment and collaboration, we will not be able to prevent or properly respond to violence against women. The funding announced only forms a basic platform for what is needed: a genuine and shared effort to resource services so that they can meet all the needs of the diverse groups of women who are attempting to build lives free of violence.

Measures restricting income support, access to pensions and tertiary education also have the potential to undermine the enabling environment for women, as financial independence and access to education are key to women’s safety and well-being.

We also need a more well-developed and consultative approach to addressing housing affordability, which disproportionately impacts on women.

The Victorian government has allocated $1.9 billion to preventing and responding to family violence in just one state. By contrast, the 2017-18 Australian Government budget includes only around $50 million of “new money” on initiatives relating to violence against women. Announced additional funding does not follow the recommendation obtained from the evaluation of the Second Action Plan namely any funding for Perpetrator intervention programs or better engagement and addressing the needs of diverse groups of women like Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

It is unclear whether any funding will be made available for the future development of policy and programs that focus on addressing the particular needs of women and their children who have been exposed to sexual violence as per evaluation outcomes.

AWAVA reiterates its call for rigorous, transparent reporting of all Commonwealth spending relating to violence against women, across the different portfolios, to enable monitoring by civil society and as a platform for collaborative efforts. Consultation with the federally-funded National Women’s Alliances is another important means by which the Australian Government can help advance gender equality. CPI increases are still not accounted for in the funding of the National Women’s Alliances, resulting in a cut in real terms of approximately $29,000 per Alliance over the four years from July 2016 to June 2020 (assuming a CPI of 2.5%pa). This again limits the ability of National Women’s Alliances to provide input to government on behalf of the diverse range of women and women’s organisations, and to represent this diversity in decision making and policy outcomes.

Read the full version here  

[1] AWAVA, ‘Violence against women:  Some Budget positives but big gaps remain’, media release 10 May 2017 http://awava.org.au/2017/05/10/announcement/2017-18-budget

In Australia, sexual violence is recognised as a serious crime and an extreme violation of human rights in which the Australian Government has an obligation to exercise ‘due diligence’ in establishing effective measures to prevent, investigate and prosecute such cases of violence.

The criminal justice system remains the primary institution for responding to sexual violence offences and over the years there has been increased awareness that survivors/victims experiences of the criminal justice system must improve if they are to pursue and access justice for these crimes. As such, reforms have been made to sexual assault law and policy to redress some of shortcomings of the system to improve the situation of sexual assault survivors in the criminal justice system and to increase the low reporting rates and poor practices that lead to the unnecessary attrition of sexual assault cases.

To access the report, please click on the links below:

Prevalent & Preventable Conference 2016 – Easy English report in pdf

Prevenlent & Preventable Conference 2016 – Print only (for screen readers)

AWAVA commits itself to supporting work that are geared towards integrating the understanding of sexual violence into domestic and family violence prevention and response, which  includes access to justice. We believe that all aspects of the legal process must be accessible and responsive to the ongoing needs of women and children who have been subjected to violence.

Gender inequality and the unequal power dynamics between women and men results in women facing a range of social and economic discrimination. Women’s access to justice is impacted by gender inequality and the social and economic disadvantages experienced by women. Women have less access to information about their rights, have more difficulty obtaining legal services, and are more likely to experience financial insecurity, which impacts on their access to legal support and leads to difficulty in navigating court systems. Women living with violence often face increased social and economic marginalisation. This results in them facing additional barriers in accessing legal services, thereby restricting their ability to use the legal system to seek protection or to uphold their rights and re-establish their lives after having left a violent relationship.

While significant steps have been undertaken to improve the legal system’s responsiveness and establish stronger safeguards for women and children experiencing and at risk of experiencing violence, it still does not deal well with some aspects of violence against women and children. In many instances, women and children still face significant barriers in accessing justice, and shortcomings of the justice system often continue to fail them. As a result, they are often re-traumatised and placed at a heightened risk of further violence or death. In addition, important services that work to remove these barriers continue to be subject to funding shortages and harsh funding cuts, further limiting women’s and children’s ability to access justice and often resulting in adverse outcomes.

While this brief addresses sexual violence to some extent, it is focused predominantly on domestic and family violence and intimate partner violence. This reflects a broader imbalance in which policy-making, public debate and research are increasingly addressing domestic and family violence, while issues of sexual violence remain marginalised. We acknowledge that more work needs to be done to integrate understanding of sexual violence with wider efforts to eliminate violence against women and their children, and to raise the prominence of sexual violence within the national debate.

Download the policy brief here

Australian governments, ministers and community leaders are voicing stronger commitments than ever before to ending violence against women and their children. But while more and more women are recognising themselves as victims/survivors of violence and seeking help, there is no guarantee that when they come forward they and their families will receive the knowledgeable, competent support they need, which  is best provided by specialist women’s services.

One of AWAVA’s key priorities this year is promoting the role and importance of women’s specialist services in preventing and responding to violence against women and their children.

Download our policy brief here 

In its 2010 review of Australia, the CEDAW Committee asked the Australian Government to report back in 2012 about actions taken to implement the Committee’s recommendations on violence against women, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. This report provides the views of, and is endorsed by the National Women’s Alliances and 106 non-government organisations. The report was co-ordinated by the Australian Women Against Violence Alliance (AWAVA) and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Alliance (NATSIWA).

Download the report here