02 February 2023

Wishing you all a happy start to 2023! 

We hope you like the new look AWAVA Round Up.

Alongside the perennially busy day-to-day work of the sector, there are many things on the near horizon that will be a focus. With a first action plan under the new National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children due, along with the first discrete Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action Plan, it promises to be a busy year. Already there are a number of consultation opportunities - see details below under ‘participate and advocate’ - on a range of relevant issues.

The May budget will be particularly important in terms of the federal government’s next steps towards the promised ‘gender responsive budgeting’. We hope, particularly, to see improved recognition and understanding of women’s specialist services and the central role they play in addressing and eliminating violence against women and children.

With this in mind, WESNET is inviting all AWAVA Round Up readers to join the first 2023 WESNET webinar:

Why women’s specialist services are critical to ending violence against women 

When: Wednesday, 15 February 2022, 2.30pm to 4.00pm

This webinar will examine the role of women’s specialist services and identify the core reasons why they are so important. It will help develop a collective narrative to take to governments ahead of the May federal budget and beyond. Urgent investment is needed - in the right places - to ensure women and children have universal access to the full suite of services they need to be safe in both the short and long term.

The interactive webinar will be facilitated by Julie Oberin AM, National Chair of WESNET, the national peak body for women’s domestic and family violence specialist services. Panellists will include Karen Bentley, CEO, WESNET, Amie Carrington, CEO, Domestic Violence Action Centre, Helen Campbell OAM, Executive Officer, Women’s Legal Services NSW, Michal Morris, CEO, inTouch Multicultural Centre Against Family Violence, Nicole Lambert, Vice Chairperson, National Association of Services Against Sexual Violence, and Mali Hermans, Senior Policy Officer, First Peoples Disability Network.

In recognition of the importance of this issue, WESNET is offering this webinar free to all AWAVA Round Up readers and other AWAVA friends and supporters. Please register here.

Australia Day honours

AWAVA congratulates Dr Heather Nancarrow, inaugural CEO for Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (2014-2021), on her Member of the Order of Australia, and Margaret Reynolds for her Companion of the Order of Australia recognising her eminent service to social justice and gender equality.

Around the Country

• The federal government is proposing an overhaul of family law aimed at stopping abusive partners manipulating the system. Domestic abusers will be barred from repeatedly dragging their victims through courts and a legal presumption of shared parenting responsibilities will be scrapped in what domestic violence campaigners say will prevent partners from weaponising the courts against their families.

• The federal government’s new National Cultural Policy will include the establishment of a new Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces to ensure artists, musicians and workers in the industry are fairly paid and have workplaces free from sexual harassment, bullying, and discrimination.

• Treasurer Jim Chalmers has revealed he will use the May budget to spearhead “a much bigger focus” on entrenched disadvantage in Australia’s most vulnerable communities to ensure people have better pathways to economic participation.

• One of the architects of the Uluru statement from the heart, Alyawarre elder Pat Anderson, says she remains confident of a successful yes vote in the Voice referendum with an Ipsos poll of about 300 Aboriginal and Islander people showing about 80% were in favour, 10% undecided and 10% firmly voting no.

• Victim-survivors of family violence in Victoria can now report crimes and seek justice more easily under a new $3.7 billion systemic reform. Six years after the Royal Commission into Family Violence, the state government has implemented all 227 recommendations, including amending the Family Violence Protection Act 2008.

• Less than two months out from the New South Wales state election, both major parties are promising to remove barriers for victim-survivors of domestic violence.

• Victoria's coroner has called for sweeping changes to the state's justice system following a five-week inquest into the death of an Aboriginal woman in custody. And Victorian coroner refers prison contractor to prosecutors over death in custody of Veronica Nelson.

• Workers will have access to 10 days of paid Family and Domestic Violence (FDV) Leave, as new laws come into effect from 1 February 2023 for businesses with 15 or more employees.

• Tinder and WESNET have launched a new safety feature to outline ‘house rules’ to protect daters. The guide can be found here.

• Almost 650 people have been arrested after a statewide blitz targeting the most "dangerous" domestic violence offenders in NSW.

Around the World

• The number of charges related to domestic abuse has halved since 2015, figures for England and Wales uncovered by the Labour party have revealed, while similar offences recorded by police have more than doubled.

• A spate of gender-based violence cases and the early release of several sex offenders has increased pressure on Spain’s leftist government, which touts its feminist credentials to do more to protect women from abuse.

• As the US Congress convenes, over 100 women’s groups have urged lawmakers to focus on gender equity.

• Also in the US, the secretary of the Air Force has directed a 90-day cross-functional review to comprehensively assess how domestic violence victims are supported in the Department of the Air Force.

• Sexual violence has surged in Haiti amid widespread gang killings and kidnappings, a political stalemate that has crippled most state institutions, and socioeconomic uncertainty across the Caribbean nation.

• FemLibrary is the first feminist library in Yerevan, Armenia, where thanks to a group of feminist and LGBTQ+ activists, hundreds of books written by women or about gender discrimination and gender equality are freely available.

• Czechia has been called out for its stance on violence against women and for the unequal position of Roma by the United Nations' Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of human rights.

• No transgender prisoner with a history of violence against women will be accommodated in a women’s prison, Scotland’s justice secretary has announced, as the country’s prison service announced an urgent review of all transgender inmates.

• A group of seven Civil Society and human rights organisations on Monday urged Somali lawmakers to repeal the use of religious beliefs to justify sexual violence against women and girls.

• Sexism remains at ‘alarming’ levels in France in all areas, according to an official report that found the situation is getting worse, particularly for younger women.

• Six women and a young girl have been murdered in Spain since the start of January, prompting the Spanish government to call a second emergency meeting of domestic violence experts in less than a month.

• Morocco’s Public Prosecutor office received over 96,000 complaints related to violence against women in 2021, a 50% increase from 2020.

Research and Reports

• Plan International’s Beyond Hunger: the gendered impact of the global hunger crisis presents new evidence on the gendered impacts of the current global hunger crisis from eight countries most affected.

• The World Health Organisation has released Improving the collection and use of administrative data on violence against women: global technical guidance.

• The Policy Lessons on Reducing Gender-based Violence (English) note is part of a series from the GIL Federation, a World Bank community of practice coordinated by the World Bank Gender Group.

• The Productivity Commission’s reports on government services have been released, including in relation to housing and homelessness and on justice.

• A report released by the US Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center analysed 173 mass attacks carried out over a five-year period from January 2016 to December 2020 in public or semi-public places such as businesses, schools or churches. The report calls for greater attention toward domestic violence and misogyny, noting that nearly half the attackers had a history of domestic violence, misogynistic behaviour or both.

• UNESCO has released a discussion paper The Chilling: Global trends in online violence against women journalists.

• CARE has published its assessment Improving lives of Rohingya refugees and host community members in Bangladesh through sexual and reproductive healthcare integrated with gender-based violence prevention, response violence prevention and response.

• In the UK a major new survey and report, commissioned by Crimestoppers, has revealed that one in six children face unwanted sexual harassment in public from the age of 10.

• Bukuluki, P., Kisaakye, P., Bulenzi-Gulere, G. et al. Vulnerability to violence against women or girls during COVID-19 in Uganda. BMC Public Health 23, 23 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14951-7.

Media

• The Conversation writes 3 in 4 people experience abuse on dating apps. How do we balance prevention with policing?

• The New York Times writes Women in South Korea Are on Strike Against Being ‘Baby-Making Machines’.

• Read two essays in Foresight Africa 2023 ‘Why addressing gender inequality is central to tackling today’s polycrises’ and ‘Strengthening fiscal policy for gender equality’.

• Outlook India reports Healthcare Comes At A Price For LGBTQ+ Community.

• The Conversation profiles ‘Have I just joined another cult?’: Daniella grew up in The Family, then joined the army – where she experienced toxic control, again.

• CNN reports Confidence in London’s police force crumbles as sex crime cases against officers pile up.

• Nacla writes about ‘chineo’ a term used in northern Argentina to refer to the racist colonial practice of raping Indigenous women and girls by non-Indigenous (often white) men.

• Rolling Stone reports Eight Women Say the Same Man Raped or Assaulted Them. Now They’re Out for Justice.

• SBS News reports These are the Australian occupations that continue to be segregated by gender.

• Jill Gallagher AO,a Gunditjmara woman, writes for NITV OPINION: Australians will see through the tricks and mind games of Voice naysayers.

• Listen to ABC PM about Concern over whether 'Right to Ask' scheme will address domestic violence.

• Read a UN Women interview with Anjeza Bojaxhiu Addressing violence against women requires long-term commitment, capacities, and human and financial resources.

• The University of Melbourne’s Professor Cathy Humphreys writes Domestic violence linked to alcohol use is a national emergency. 

• The Mandarin writes Victoria has implemented all 227 recommendations from its royal commission into family violence. So was it a success?

• Independent Australia reports on Tennis star Jelena Dokic's fight against abuse, exploitation and vile trolls.

Grants

• The Queensland government has opened applications to access a new $3 million grant program to support the new national plan to end violence against women and children. Applications can be lodged until Friday 24 February with successful submissions announced in March 2023.

Surveys and Consultations

• Consultation - by way of a survey - for Australia’s first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action Plan to End Violence against Women and Children is now open until 23 February 2023. This survey seeks input on topics being considered for the Action Plan and views on the foundations the Framework provides. The survey should be completed after reading the consultation guide.

• Deakin University and WESNET are inviting domestic and family violence workers to participate in a survey that is exploring the impacts of using home CCTV with victim-survivors of domestic and family violence. Participants will not be remunerated for completing the survey but will be provided an honorarium donation to their organisation.

• Have you experienced tech-facilitated coercive control? Has a partner abused you using text messages or Facebook? Have they tracked you using GPS tracking apps? If you have experienced this type of abuse and sought safety and justice support, researchers from Monash, RMIT and WESNET would like to speak to you. Contact [email protected]

Submissions

• The Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme is accepting submissions from members of the public. Submissions can be made via phone, email, or with a paper form, and will be accepted up until 3 February 2023.

• The Senate Inquiry The extent and nature of poverty in Australia is seeking submissions by 3 February 2023.

• The Department of Social Services is inviting comments from people with disability, their family, carers, advocates, service providers, peak bodies and organisations on a new Disability Services Act by 12 February 2023.

• The Joint Standing Committee Inquiry into the operation of the National Redress Scheme is seeking submissions by 27 February 2023.

• The Australian Government is seeking comments on the draft Family Law Amendment Bill 2023 by 27 February 2023.

• The Senate Inquiry Current and proposed sexual consent laws in Australia is seeking submissions by 2 March 2023.

• Parity Magazine is seeking contributions for their an edition focussing on how Safe at Home responses support life outcomes for victim-survivors of family violence, including how principles are put into practice and how this is measured. Deadline for submissions is 10 March 2023.

Events

• In Adelaide on 4 February 2023 10.00am to 11.30am, Pay Our Respects invites members of the community to gather for a fifth year on the steps of Parliament House to ‘Pay Our Respects’ to the Australian murdered women of 2022 and shine a very important spotlight on the prevalent yet preventable issue of violence against women.

• The Queer Displacements is the first and only conference (22-23 February 2023) in the Asia Pacific designed to comprehensively foreground protection and settlement challenges of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) forcibly displaced people. Registrations are now open, visit the conference website for more information.

• The National Aboriginal Child Safety and Domestic Violence Summit 2023: Strong Families, Safer Children is being held on 29-31 March 2023 in Adelaide and will bring together guest speakers to stimulate new and innovative pathways to address the national issue of child safety, domestic and Aboriginal family violence across Australia.

Resources and Guidelines

• WESNET has been working with Tinder Australia to create a Dating Safety Guide that will help survivors and the general population with learning about the safety features available in the Tinder Dating App.

• Our Watch’s latest resource - the Prevention toolkit for local government - shows the key role that local government across Australia can play in preventing violence against women.  

• The Settlement Services International 'In My Voice' campaign consists of six brief (4 minutes on average) film clips that illuminate different aspects of domestic and family violence, shared by women leaders from different migrant communities - Africa, South East Asia, East Asia, South Asia, Middle East and Regional Australia. This campaign hopes to spark conversations, encourage understanding and contribute to change.

Training and Education

• WESNET is offering technology safety training for SADFV professionals, for dates and training descriptions please visit https://techsafety.org.au/training.

• Applications are now open to study the Graduate Certificate in Domestic & Family Violence at RMIT University in 2023. Co-designed with a sector advisory committee, and a recognised qualification in the Victorian family violence sector - this Graduate Certificate is open to people who either have: 5-years relevant work experience, or an undergraduate degree.

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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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We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.