The federal government recently released a report from the independent Rapid Review of Prevention Approaches to help stop gender-based violence.
An expert panel was established to lead the rapid review after a national cabinet meeting on gender based violence in May.
Complied by the expert panel, the report, Unlocking the Prevention Potential: accelerating action to end domestic, family and sexual violence, was released on August 23 and acknowledged the crucial work underway through the National Plan to end Violence Against Women and Children and highlighted the importance of leveraging all prevention opportunities in order to stop the violence.
The Rapid Review highlighted a number of areas of priority including:
– Responding to children and young people’s experiences of domestic, family and sexual violence
– Engaging with men and boys in violence prevention, including meeting them where they are at
– Better understanding pathways into perpetration to improve targeting of early intervention initiatives, with the aim of preventing violence from occurring.
This advice is intended to build on the considerable work already underway including more than $3.4 billion in Commonwealth investment for women’s safety across three budgets and 85 initiatives with funding attached that underpin the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032.
Minister for Women Katy Gallagher said preventing violence was complex and the report would help government build on the national plan.
“This report builds on the extensive work underway across the women’s safety sector and provides important insights to guide our prevention efforts to ensure they continue to be effectively targeted, with the highest possible impact,” she said.
Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) welcomed the review report.
ANROWS chief executive officer Tessa Boyd-Caine said there was a loud and urgent call for an immediate end to this violence.
“As the review highlights, domestic, family, and sexual violence is a deeply complex issue that requires hard work and sustained, coordinated effort to address it effectively,” she said.
“While we must not lose the momentum for change, we need to ensure that our directions are informed by evidence.”
Dr Boyd-Caine said the report underscored the need for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People to have a voice when it came to ending domestic and family violence in their communities.
She also welcomed the review’s recognition of children and young people as victim-survivors in their own right and highlighted the important work ahead in understanding the people who use violence and the systems that enable it.
“We need to pull every lever available to respond to the experiences of violence for victim-survivors, who are mostly women and children, and to address the use of violence by perpetrators, who are mostly men,” she said.
“This is why a robust National Plan to end violence against women and children is crucial, leveraging every touchpoint in peoples lives, from services to systems, to identify, respond to and prevent this violence.”
The review can be found online at pmc.gov.au/resources/unlocking-the-prevention-potential
