Release of National Plan consultation report

The new federal government has released the Stakeholder Consultation Report, intended to inform the development of the new National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children, following the former government’s refusal to do so.

Key takeaways - which will come as no surprise to the sector - include the need for the new plan to be more intersectional; for it to take account of children in their own right; and for there being an increased focus on the critical nature of access to housing for women and children escaping violence.

Another point that requires emphasis is the stakeholder prioritisation of services that meet the needs of people experiencing family, domestic and sexual violence. This was ranked the number one relevant outcome for the plan in response to the stakeholder survey. The critical role of specialist services was reiterated again and again in the report, including that ‘stakeholders consistently advocated for longer-term investment in specialist providers across the domestic and family violence and legal sectors’. 

Women’s Safety Ministers will be meeting this Friday 22 July in Adelaide to discuss the next National Plan. 

AWAVA will continue to advocate for the role of specialist services to be better understood and better supported in the new National Plan.

Around the Country

• A four-month inquiry into the police response to domestic and family violence cases in Queensland has heard officers avoided attending domestic violence call outs and made derogatory comments like "she's too ugly to be raped". 

• The inquiry also heard how a domestic violence victim was failed by a Queensland police officer who minimised her assault, despite clear evidence of a “punch-sized” bruise on her ribcage and allegations her partner threatened to decapitate a dog. Criminal charges have been laid in fewer than 20% of cases where Queensland police lodged an application for a contravention of a domestic violence order over the past year.

• Australian women facing severe pain after receiving pelvic mesh and sling implants have won a $105 million settlement with the multinational manufacturer of medical devices, Boston Scientific. 

• The rental crisis is escalating in Sydney with domestic violence victims struggling to find housing.

• The Human Rights Commission has launched Racism. It Stops With Me, a national anti-racism campaign working to increase awareness of racism, and equip more Australians with tools to address it.

• During a talanoa session at the Pacific Islands Forum in Suva, Senator Penny Wong spoke about the need to end gender-based violence.

• The Victorian government will take steps to curb sexual harassment in workplaces and the use of non-disclosure agreements in sexual harassment cases, as it accepts in-part or in-principle 21 recommendations from the Ministerial Taskforce on Workplace Sexual Harassment.

• Organisations collectively representing tens of thousands of survivors in NSW are calling on the NSW Government to strengthen the NSW Victims Support Scheme and increase its accessibility in a joint submission to the review of the Victims Rights and Support Act.

• Community legal centres across Australia are struggling with increased demands as the sector awaits reforms indicated by attorney general Mark Dreyfus.

• Northern Territory police and health staff will soon undertake comprehensive domestic and family violence training in a bid to counter unnecessary trauma for both victims and responders.

• ASIC has adopted a temporary no-action position that will enable large banks to withhold the reporting of certain credit information on consumer credit reports where reporting the information could lead to consumer harm, potentially protecting victim-survivors of family violence.

• The Queensland Government has committed $19.7 million over four years to roll-out a new specialist court to deal exclusively with domestic and family violence matters.

• The ACT Government has released the ACT Domestic and Family Violence Risk Assessment and Management Framework establishing a common approach to screening, assessing and managing domestic and family violence risk.

• Documents released under freedom of information laws show the rebrand of the Women's Network logo was questioned by a senior public servant, but they did not appear to notice the logo's phallic appearance.

• Coercive control is one step closer to being criminalised in NSW, with the NSW Government releasing a draft bill for public comment ahead of introduction to Parliament.

Around the World

• The "What Were You Wearing?" art exhibit at the United Nations invites observers to see the outfits worn by sexual assault survivors at the time of their attack, confronting and refuting the implicit victim-blaming in that question.

• A new law in Bolivia is attempting to curb the nation’s high rates of gender-based violence and foresees up to 20 years prison sentences for corrupt judges and prosecutors who favour defendants accused of femicide, infanticide and rape.

• The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) have pledged to undertake the follow-up activities of building a model in response to violence against women and girls in Vietnam.

• In Jordan the recent killing of Iman Irsheid, a 21-year-old university student, has once again brought attention to the harsh reality that gender-based violence remains a shameful and entrenched problem in Jordan and other parts of the Middle East.

• Efforts to address sexual and gender based violence in Kenya have received a significant boost following the launch of the second edition of the National Monitoring and Evaluation Framework towards the Prevention of and Response to Gender Based Violence in Kenya.

• London-based feminist recording studio Cactus City is calling for evidence of misogyny in UK music industry with the intention of creating a collective sample to send to the the Women And Equalities Committee’s ongoing Preventing Violence Against Women And Girls inquiry.

• Another video of violence against women has sparked further outcry in China, with surveillance footage showing a man violently dragging his ex-wife and their child.

• The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women found that Spain should offer reparations to a woman who underwent a caesarean section without her consent with her arms strapped down.

• In the Republic of Ireland, a new initiative to enable people experiencing domestic abuse and coercive control to receive support in their local pharmacy has been launched in pharmacies. Participating pharmacies will provide access to a phone in a private consultation room and contact details for local support services.

• In Scotland, the Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain QC reflected upon the change brought about by the introduction of ground-breaking legislation designed to tackle coercive and controlling behaviour.

• The chief justice of Ethiopia’s federal supreme court has told the BBC she is working to build an independent court that will deal with gender-based violence in the country effectively and objectively.

• Venezuela's rural, remote, indigenous communities have been particularly affected by COVID-19 and the country's socio-economic crisis; community gardens help Wayúu women from Rio Negro to make ends meet, and provide a haven from violence.

• The pandemic has revealed the devastating and real extent of honour-based violence in the UK, according to the founder of a leading charity which supports survivors.

• In the United States, the White House has released a Readout of White House Listening Session with Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Organizations.

• The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) has called for violence against women to be recognised as an EU crime.

Research and Publications

• Dr Anne Summers AO has released a report The Choice: Violence or Poverty drawing on data from the ABS Personal Safety Survey outlining the dilemma confronting many Australian women who have to choose between staying with an abusive partner or leaving and living in poverty.

• The Gendered Violence Research Network has released a report Understanding Economic and Financial Abuse and Older People in the Context of Domestic and Family Violence.

• The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has released People with disability in Australia, finding that people with disability face challenges routinely and actively participating in everyday life areas (such as employment) and are more likely to experience poor health, discrimination and violence than those without disability.

• The Queensland Audit Office has tabled its report, Delivering social housing services, examining whether social housing is effectively managed to meet the housing needs of vulnerable Queenslanders.

• The Australian Institute of Family Studies has published its final report from the research project Identifying Strategies to Better Support Foster, Kinship and Permanent Carers.

• The Grattan Institute’s report New politics: A better process for public appointments finds that Australian politics has a growing ‘jobs for mates’ culture that is undermining our democracy.

• The Centre for Social Research and Methods (ANU) has released Mental health and wellbeing during the COVID-19 period in Australia finding that a significant proportion of Australians experienced lower levels of wellbeing, higher levels of psychological distress, long periods of loneliness and social isolation, fewer hours worked, and a drop in income during the pandemic.

• In its fourth iteration, the She’s Price(d)less report finds that while the gender pay gap did not further worsen with the significant disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, progress on closing the gap has stalled.

• The World Economic Forum has released its Global Gender Gap Report 2022, showing that gender parity is not recovering, and that it will take another 132 years to close the global gender gap.

• The World Health Organisation analyses the global gender pay gap in the health and care sector in the time of COVID-19.

• The UNHCR has released Age, Gender and Diversity Report 2021: Promising Practices from Europe.

• OECD Policy Insight, Starting unequal: How’s life for disadvantaged children? charts the well-being of disadvantaged children, both across OECD countries and relative to their more advantaged peers, and shows how growing up at the bottom end of the socio-economic ladder impacts almost all areas of children’s lives. 

• A new report, The Road to Safety, says Indigenous women and gender-diverse people in British Columbia have been enduring a significant increase in domestic violence during the pandemic, highlighting the need for culturally appropriate services.

• The Annual Report of the UN Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict has been published, reporting on how cross-border conflict and intercommunal violence impacts on the protection of children.

• Amnesty International has released a report Unprotected: Gender-Based Violence Against Venezuelan Refugee Women in Colombia and Peru.

• The Network, a Chicago-based advocacy organisation has published its annual report Measuring Safety: Gender-based Violence in Illinois showing that domestic violence continued to surge in Chicago and across Illinois in 2021, while pandemic-based isolation and economic uncertainty made it harder for victims to get help. 

• New research from Oxford University has found that registration of cases on crimes against women in India increases significantly in police stations with dedicated women’s help desks (WHDs).

• Research by the Commission for Gender Equality has found that while cases of gender-based violence (GBV) are increasing across South Africa, there is also a concerning rate of criminal cases being withdrawn. Cases are withdrawn for reasons including court delays, the slow finalisation of DNA tests, and a shortage of police vehicles. 

• Based on data collected between November 2019 to February 2020 from 1,042 Filipino women and their partners, the World Bank affirmed “extensively researched” consensus that “cash transfers are most likely to reduce intimate-partner violence.”

• Closson, K., Zharima, C., Kuchena, M. et al. “I feel like it is asking if he is a stalker … but I also feel like it is asking if he cares”: exploring young South African women and men’s perceptions of the Sexual Relationship Power Scale. BMC Public Health 22, 1368 (2022). 

• Cook, E. A., Walklate, S., & Fitz-Gibbon, K. (2022). Re-imagining what counts as femicide. Current Sociology, 2022.

Resources and Guidelines

• Research by the United Nations shows that ‘home’ is the most likely place for women and girls to be killed worldwide. The Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre invites exploration of their interactive website that draws back the curtains to go inside homes affected by family violence during the first year of the COVID-19 lockdowns in Victoria. 

• Safe and Equal and the Expert Advisory Panel have developed a series of resources and templates to support other services and organisations in their engagement with survivor advocates. Safe and Equal has also released an issues paper, seeking to define and explore different sources of lived experience which inform the work of the family violence sector.

• The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has uploaded a website article Family, domestic and sexual violence containing facts and data, drawing from a range of statistics and research.

• Harmony Alliance has developed a grant writing guide which includes the steps to prepare grant proposals, what a proposal should consist of, and a practical example. 

• The Victorian Women’s Trust has launched Rural Women Online for women living and working in rural and remote Victoria. The program is designed to provide online help with computers, phones, and the internet, and is also a place to learn new digital skills, find a nearby workshop, access technical support, and sign up to be mentored.

• The Essential Services Package (ESP) for Women and Girls Subject to Violence is a global guidance supporting national systems to respond to gender-based violence across four key sectors: health, social services, justice and police. The ESP guidelines include sector-specific modules for service provision, as well as a module on coordination, on implementation and a costing tool.

• The UK Government has released statutory guidance issued under section 84 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, intended to increase awareness and inform the response to domestic abuse. It also conveys standards and promotes best practice.

• As part of the Women with Disabilities Australia (WWDA) LEAD project, WWDA has developed a fact sheet to support women, girls, feminine identifying, and non-binary people with disability in understanding, applying for and navigating the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
• CARE has released guidelines relating to Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies.
• Our Watch and Senior Rights Victoria have produced a new resource for practitioners seeking to build their knowledge and practice on preventing violence against older women.
  

• The Victorian Women’s Trust has launched Here She Is! is a directory of woman and gender-diverse professionals for use by media, recruiters, event and conference organisers.

• Elder abuse awareness bookmarks and posters have been translated into 15 languages by the Australian Human Rights Commission to increase community awareness of the National Elder Abuse phone line. Additional languages will be rolled out this year.

• Violence against women increases at times of disaster. Gender and Disaster Australia have compiled some useful resources to ensure first responders consider violence against women as they set up and staff evacuation centres and work in communities impacted by disaster. Find the interactive webpage here.

Media

• The National Indigenous Times talks to Victoria’s new Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People, Meena Singh, who wants to see the day her role is no longer necessary, and says elevating the voices of those with troubled childhoods will be critical to making it happen.

• The Conversation discusses The Hannah Clarke inquest reveals, yet again, significant system failures. Here’s what’s urgently needed for women’s safety. 

• The Wire features a story on Coronial Inquest into Violence Against Women released. 

• ABC Radio National discusses Domestic violence: Australia's silent epidemic.

• A USA Today podcast discusses how pregnant people could face greater risk of domestic violence after abortion bans.

• Open Democracy analyses how the international arms trade kills women in Brazil.

• Professor Alison Young, University of Melbourne, writes that Japan has a hidden number of violent crimes – particularly against women.

• The Diplomat argues that the CCP has tacitly encouraged cyber bullying of Chinese feminists to prevent the movement from gaining ground.

• The Hill writes on how climate change could drive violence against women and minorities.

• The Spokesman Review discusses how the ‘right to life’ will end up killing women.

• In a long read, The Guardian writes ‘Thank the lord, I have been relieved’: the truth about the history of abortion in America.

• The New York Times reports that NFL Players Pay a Small Price When Accused of Violence Against Women.

• Inkstick argues that US nuclear ambitions led to gendered violence in the Pacific.

• Women’s Agenda presents an article Birth injuries are a feminist issue. An obstetrician explains why. 

• Chinaworker.com writes Vilification of Amber Heard should be a concern of all who oppose gender-based violence.

• The Guardian reports that ‘Sexual abuse is normalised’: Uganda struggles with #MeToo.

• TalkingDrugs undertakes an in-depth analysis Villain Or Victim? Understanding The Role of Women In The Latin American Drug Trade.

• PassBlue writes The Women, Peace and Security Agenda Is Not Yielding Results, Diplomats Say.

Calls for Submissions, Surveys, and EOIs

• The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is inviting manuscripts for a special issue ‘Engaging Men and Boys in the Prevention of Violence Against Women and Girls’. Deadline for submission is 31 July 2022.
• The Melbourne Women’s Fund Grants Program distributes a Signature Grant ($75,000) and a Nurturing Grant ($40,000) each year to two bold, often smaller, non-profit organisations striving to do outstanding work in education, employment and economic empowerment, homelessness, family violence. Applications close on 4 August 2022 at 6pm AEST.
• Grants of up to $15,000 are on offer for community organisations who focus on initiatives that address the unique issues faced by Queensland’s women and girls. Submissions for round two close on 5 August 2022.
• The Productivity Commission has released an issues paper supporting its inquiry examining the economic and social impacts of allowing informal carers to take extended unpaid leave from their work to care for older people who are frail and living at home. Initial submissions are due by Wednesday 24 August 2022.
• Now is the time to share your experience of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation with the Disability Royal Commission. Submissions close on 31 December 2022. Find more information on the DRC website.
• Have you or a client have experienced tech-facilitated abuse or coercive control? Has a partner abused you using text messages or Facebook? Have they tracked you using GPS tracking apps? If you or a client of yours have experienced this type of abuse and sought safety and justice support, researchers from Monash, RMIT and WESNET would like to speak to you. For more information, please contact [email protected]

• The Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre is seeking survey participants who sought family violence support during the COVID19 lockdowns. They want to hear about your experiences of accessing support remotely. Please complete our short anonymous online survey. 

• In another Monash study, participants are sought for a study on young women's experiences of online gender-based violence. The survey is designed for anyone who identifies as a woman or non-binary, is aged between 18 to 25 years old and living in Australia. Complete the survey here.
• If you work in family violence or other related services, such as legal and family services in Victoria, the Australian Institute of Family Studies invites you to share your experiences of how your client service needs changed and how your services adapted to meet their needs during COVID-19. Take the survey: Future-proofing Safety Project Information Sheet (aifs.gov.au).
• The Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre Centre has launched a study on LGBTIQ+ family violence victim-survivors' experiences with Victoria's intervention order system. The focus of this study is on access to justice and safety outcomes. To complete the survey, click this link. Please feel free to share the survey widely.

Events

• SAVE THE DATE: WESNET will be convening the 4th Tech Summit on 20-22 September 2022. Register your interest here.
• Register now for the ANROWS webinar Technology-facilitated abuse: Extent, nature and responses in the Australian community on Thursday, 28th July 2022 from 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM (AEST).
• A recording of the online launch of Our Watch and Women with Disabilities Victoria’s Changing the landscape: A national resource to prevent violence against women and girls with disabilities is available on the Our Watch website.
  

• No to Violence Conference 2022: Shifting the Burden is on at the Adelaide Convention Centre from 1 to 4 August 2022.

• The AHURI National Homelessness Conference 2022 is being held in Canberra on 8 August 2022.
• The 2022 Philanthropy Australia National Conference, ‘For the Love of Humanity: People, Place and Planet’ will take place from 6-8 September at the International Convention Centre in Sydney. The conference will explore insights emerging from First Nations philanthropy, impact investing, global funding, and more.

Training and Further Education

• WESNET is offering Technology Safety Online Training for SADFV professionals, for dates and training descriptions please visit https://techsafety.org.au/training

• ACON has recently launched three online training modules: The Trans Vitality: Trans Affirming Practice eLearning; Trans and Gender Diverse Sexual Health ELearning, in collaboration with ASHM; and Recognise and Respond, in collaboration with the Black Dog Institute.

• The RACGP Family Violence GP Education Program assists GPs in developing skills and knowledge to respond to domestic and family violence. The program is open to all Victorian GPs and practice staff and offers two training pathway options – beginner and intermediate/advanced.
  

• RMIT’s Graduate Certificate in Domestic and Family Violence provides an exciting opportunity for current and future family violence practitioners, with subjects in gendered violence, responding to family violence, primary prevention of violence against women and specialist case coordination and management. The program is offered online and part-time to support work/life/study balance. Applications can be made online here, or for more information, visit the Program Overview.

• Harmony Alliance has developed a free online course on 'Financial Literacy for Women' available in English, Arabic, Dari, Simplified Chinese, Vietnamese, Nepalese, Punjabi, Hazaragi, Thai, Karen, and Korean.

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*Articles published do not necessarily reflect the views of AWAVA or WESNET and are included as items of interest only.

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