The Australian Gun Safety Alliance (AGSA) is a coalition of voices representing the interests of the community in ensuring that we maintain vigilance on issues of gun safety.

Stephen Bendle is the convenor of the Alliance and works with the Alannah & Madeline Foundation. The Foundation was established after the tragic mass shooting in Port Arthur in 1996 where young sisters Alannah and Madeline Mikac, along with their mother Nanette were killed by a single gunman.

Stephen says that “AGSA is not politically aligned and receives no corporate or individual donations. It is funded by philanthropic donations and in-kind services by members.”

He adds that “all States and Territories, along with the Commonwealth, signed the National Firearms agreement in 1996 and renewed their commitment in 2017. Unfortunately, nearly 25 years later, not a single jurisdiction is fully compliant with the Agreement.”

The AGSA understands that most gun owners in Australia are law-abiding, responsible people who are not criminals. However, Australian Governments must do everything in their power to avoid a slide towards an American culture of gun entitlement.

The AGSA believes that the onus of firearm laws and regulations should be on public safety and not for the convenience or commercial interests of a few. This is the overriding principle of the National Firearms Agreement which has served Australians well.

The role of firearms in family violence is well known.

According to the Women’s Legal Service Qld:

• gunshot wounds are the third most common cause of death in domestic homicide
• abusers who use or threaten to use a weapon are 20 times more likely to kill their victim
• violent intimate partners who have access to firearms engage in more severe domestic violence than those who do not.

Following the Port Arthur shooting in 1996, Australia’s gun reforms have been recognised by the Public Health Association of Australia as one of our top 10 public health successes of the last 20 years. At the time, 90% of Australians supported the bipartisan approach to the introduction of a National Firearms Agreement that established a national framework for the regulation of firearms.

The Australian Gun Safety Alliance continues to speak to governments in all jurisdictions, monitor amendments to firearm legislation and regulations, and speak on behalf of those committed to the health and safety of the community in policy discussions.

More information is available on the AGSA website or you can contact Stephen Bendle on info@gunsafetyalliance.org.au.

In particular, we are heartened by the government’s clear commitment to putting housing at the centre of Victoria’s response to family violence, with the big housing build of nearly $5.3 billion, ensuring the availability of long-term social and affordable housing that will support families to recover from family violence. This significant investment is supported by extended funding for emergency accommodation options, and $18.2 million across two years to support case management in core and cluster refuges.

We are also pleased to see continued funding for flexible support packages of $87.3 million over four years.

While we welcome the announcement of further funding for the implementation of the Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management (MARAM) framework and information sharing schemes, we know this will need to continue beyond the 12 months committed to today.

We look forward to working with government and our members to define specialist family violence service program requirements, to make sure implementation funding extends past 2021-22.

DV Vic and DVRCV also welcome the $8.2 million investment into building the family violence and sexual assault support workforces. However, we note that this is only a fraction of what is needed to grow and also retain the specialist workforce for an exhausted sector that continues providing services to victim survivors through the pandemic and beyond.

We look forward to engaging with the Victorian Government to ensure that additional funding for specialist family violence service delivery in the next budget, in order to respond to unrelenting and increasing demand, as well as to safeguard the health and wellbeing of this unique and specialist workforce.

We also welcome the government’s commitment to perpetrator accountability for family violence, with the promised investment of $10.7 million over four years.

We are pleased to see a focus on women’s employment and note women’s inclusion as a key group in the government’s economic recovery plans. Employment for women and all victim survivors escaping family violence is a critical element in their survival and recovery.

The Victorian Government continues to demonstrate leadership by investing in primary prevention. In particular, we welcome the further commitment of $37.5 million over four years to continue to deliver the Respectful Relationships initiative in Victorian schools, as well as $9.7 million over four years focused on preventing and responding earlier to family violence in multicultural and faith-based communities.

However, we are disappointed that more funding hasn’t been committed in this budget to prevention initiatives and the development of the prevention workforce. We know that the only way to stem the flow of family violence is to stop it from happening in the first place. Victoria is a world leader in this space and DV Vic and DVRCV look forward to working with the government to ensure this continues by providing additional funding in 2021-22.

Finally, we welcome extended funding of $1.6m for the Family Violence Reform Implementation Monitor for the next two years. It is critical this role continues until the reforms have been fully implemented and the coordinated family violence system is operating as envisioned by the Royal Commission.

I came into the organisation in July 2020 as CEO of both DVRCV and Domestic Violence Victoria and am honoured to be leading both organisations through the transition process and into the future as a newly merged entity.

I would like to acknowledge outgoing CEO Emily Maguire’s leadership of DVRCV over the last five years. It’s abundantly clear that DVRCV would not be the organisation it is today if it wasn’t for Emily’s dedication and I look forward to building on her legacy as we move into a new chapter.

Perhaps the most exciting development this year was the Board’s decision to merge with Domestic Violence Victoria. I feel privileged to be leading this phase and am excited about the potential opportunities it provides both organisations to come together to maximise their impact and influence.

I’d like to thank the DVRCV Board who governed the organisation through this time, particularly outgoing Chair Debbie King for her wisdom and expertise during the merge exploration process while continuing to lead the ‘business as usual’ governance of a dynamic and growing organisation.

Of course, preparing to merge was just one of many priorities. This financial year also saw DVRCV forge ahead in key program areas. We experienced an increase in demand for MARAM training and received further funding to expand our work in primary prevention to support the needs of an ever-expanding workforce.

And we continued to support the sector through capability building activities.

• 3,440 participants attended training
• 267 training sessions delivered in person and online
• 8,353 print resources sold and distributed
• 5.9M visits to our websites

It goes without saying that COVID-19 has had the greatest impact not just on DVRCV but on us all. Whilst recognising its unparalleled challenges, particularly on the provision of services and support to victims of family violence during this time, the pandemic has provided us with new opportunities. None of these could have been harnessed without the commitment of our exceptional staff – all of whom have not only adjusted to working remotely during this period but have successfully adapted our professional development and capability building activities for the online environment.

I would like to extend my gratitude to DVRCV’s Board, the Senior Leadership Team, and the phenomenal women I have had the privilege of working with and getting to know these last few months.

I’m excited for the future of this new organisation that we are building together!

Tania Farha
CEO

DOWNLOAD THE ANNUAL REPORT

We’ve also published financial statements and an accessible Word version of the report on our Annual reports page.

The Domestic Violence Victoria Annual Report is available on the DV Vic website.

With public health restrictions in place and people staying at home more, it’s harder than ever for people experiencing abuse to seek help.

To help support people who may be experiencing family violence and concerned family and friends, we’re distributing two cards through community services and retail outlets in Victoria.

We’ve also launched the Are you safe at home? website – a valuable source of information on how to recognise the warning signs, act safely, provide support, and where to find help.

Developed in partnership with Family Safety Victoria, the wallet-sized cards are available in IGA supermarkets and other services across Victoria.

Social media toolkit

You can help promote this important resource on your networks. Visit the Are you safe at home? toolkit page for a series of social media images and messaging you can use.

Male peer relations that emphasise aggression and disrespect towards women is one of these drivers.

What do male peer relations that emphasise aggression and disrespect towards women look like?

This gendered driver of violence against women is where men and boys seek to form relationships and bond with each other by proving their masculinity through actions that are sexist, disrespectful or hostile towards women. Examples of this include:

• Sexist ‘locker room talk’ that disrespects women and is viewed as harmless and normal.
• Fear of rejection by male peers if they take a stand against their friend’s disrespect of women.
• Believing it’s natural for a man to want to appear in control of his partner in front of his male friends.

When aggression, sexism and disrespect towards women is normalised and seen as an important part of being ‘one of the boys’, it creates a culture where violence against women is more likely to be used, supported, excused or ignored (Our Watch, 2017).

The socio-ecological model

Looking at how this driver of violence against women manifests within different settings where people live, learn, work, socialise and play can help plan your approach to addressing them. The socio-ecological model comes from the public health field and is used to help explain how violence is a product of multiple, interacting factors at the individual, organisational, systemic and societal levels.

The four gendered drivers exist at all of these levels and are the social conditions which predict, or ‘drive’, higher levels of violence against women.

Reinforcing factors interact with the gendered drivers at the individual and relationship level to increase the probability, frequency and severity of this violence.

Unhealthy male peer relations and disrespect towards women takes many shapes and forms

At an individual or relationship level unhealthy male peer relations and disrespect towards women can look like:

At an organisational or community level, unhealthy male peer relations and disrespect towards women can look like:

At an institutional or systemic level, unhealthy male peer relations and disrespect towards women can look like:

At a societal level, unhealthy male peer relations and disrespect towards women can look like:

What are some actions that you can do to challenge male peer relations that emphasise aggression and disrespect towards women?

Take action to strengthen positive, equal and respectful relations between and among men, boys, women, girls and people of all genders. This includes challenging peer relations between boys and men that involve disrespect or hostility towards women. For example:

• implementing a whole school approach to respectful relationships education
• delivering training programs to men and boys
• implementing organisational policies that send a clear message that gender discrimination and sexual harassment is not tolerated
• encouraging bystander action in highly masculine/male dominated work or peer environments

Male friends, colleagues, family members and other peers are best placed to encourage positive relations and expressions of masculinity. Whether it’s the office, the locker-room, the classroom or the street, the intervention of peers can have a powerful effect (The Man Box, 2020).

What you can do:

• DVRCV has developed a series of tip sheets on the four gendered drivers. This resource is a great primary prevention tool that can be used to increase understanding about how men’s control of decision making and limits to women’s independence drive violence against women. Read about the tipsheets.
• Check out Our Watch’s Men in focus: unpacking masculinities and engaging men in the prevention of violence against women.
• Read Our Watch’s Putting the prevention of violence against women into practice: How to Change the story.
• Check out the XYonline clearinghouse that has a huge range of articles and resources on men, masculinities and gender politics.
• Explore VicHealth’s suite of Masculinities and Health resources. You’ll find an extensive range of resources that unpack and challenge stereotypes of masculinity.
• Read Jesuit Social Services’ Unpacking the Man Box report and fact sheets. The report includes a range of recommendations to support young men to break free of the man box, live healthy lives and be their best selves.
• Read VicHealth’s How to be an active bystander. Here you’ll find a range of tools on how to act on sexist and sexually harassing behaviours

Cathy Oddie knows this all too well. In spite of this, her decision to become a victim survivor advocate has been one of her most life changing and rewarding experiences. Here she reflects on her advocacy journey and her recent appointment to the Victims of Crime Consultative Committee Victoria (VOCCC).

Cathy Oddie has been a family violence survivor advocate for 13 years. Her journey to becoming an advocate began as a result of experiencing life threatening abuse by her partner when she was 22.

“I endured every sort of abuse for three and a half years, and ongoing stalking once the relationship ended. What I didn’t expect was to be let down by the systems and services that were meant to support me. It made me angry. If someone with my white privilege finds the system that difficult, how much harder would it be for a person who is Aboriginal, or from a culturally diverse background, or who is living with a disability find it?”

Participating in the safe steps Survivor Advocate Program was a major turning point in Cathy’s life. The program supports victim survivors of family violence to get media training, to challenge victim blaming myths, and be able to tell their stories in the way they want them to be told.

Since completing the program Cathy has given many media interviews about her experience as a victim survivor and the need for system reform. She has also drawn upon her lived experience to help inform the production of early intervention resources for victim survivors.

In 2015, Cathy also found the confidence and courage to provide her own independent submission to the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence. As a result she was called upon to provide a witness testimony about her experience as a victim survivor and the difficulties she encountered navigating the service system.

Cathy’s submission and testimony helped result in two of the Royal Commission’s final recommendations – Recommendation 104 and Recommendation 106, which led to the 2018 review of the Victims of Crime Assistance Act.

“To know that just by putting my experience out there for the Commission to consider, that it could have such a lasting impact for victim survivors, that’s something I’d never want to change.”

What are some of the challenges and rewards you’ve experienced as an advocate?

“There’ve been points where I felt like walking away because, when you’re a victim survivor of family violence and sexual assault, the trauma doesn’t just end when the crisis ends. The impact that it has on you emotionally, physically, and financially is ongoing and really tough.”

“The advocacy work has kept me going forward in my life. It’s given me an opportunity to take myself outside of my own individual circumstances, to see the bigger picture and the need for broader reform and change.”

“By speaking up I’ve been able to be part of creating change. I’ve got a voice in this space that people are listening to. I also have a responsibility to use that voice in a way that amplifies the voices of those who are not being heard.”

Tell us about your recent appointment to the VOCCC and what this means to you?

“It means being part of informing policy and legislative changes that help improve the victim supports that people who’ve experienced serious violent crimes receive.”

As a representative on the VOCCC, Cathy will bring a lived experience lens of what women who experience family violence and sexual assault go through. This will include advocating for:

• the need for legal representation
• changes in court designs so that victim survivors are not placed at risk of encountering their perpetrators
• more specialised case management
• victim survivors not having to repeat their experience and story of abuse

For Cathy, this role gives her an opportunity to ensure victim survivors’ voices are central to any reform and system changes.

“Women’s homelessness is an issue of gender inequality, poverty and lack of affordable housing intersecting with other forms of discrimination and marginalisation. More than 75% of the women we see have experienced family violence.  On top of that, over 50% have a diagnosed mental health issue. We’re also seeing more women who were born overseas – over 40%.”

WISHIN’s clients have many multiple and complex needs and this often leads to them falling through the gaps. These are women who’ve been through the family violence system and felt like it hasn’t worked for them. They may have substance and child protection issues or have had lots of criminal justice involvement.

Many of WISHIN’s clients have previously presented to mainstream homelessness services, with active family violence issues and high risk safety concerns. Homelessness services aren’t always well-equipped to manage that risk and may refer the woman to a family violence service. Meanwhile, some family violence services may refer women to a homelessness service, if they see housing as their main issue. Jade points out that “this can lead to women bouncing backwards and forwards between those two systems and not getting an appropriate response from either.”

How does a small organisation provide housing to an overwhelming number of victim survivors, all on a shoestring budget?

“It’s a constant challenge for us but the uniqueness of our service delivery model means we’re better placed to catch many women who fall through the gaps,” says Jade.

WISHIN’s approach is to provide a holistic trauma informed response that includes initial assessment, safety planning, case management and a long term Wellbeing Program to help women transition out of the program at their own pace.

WISHIN have specialist family violence workers located at homeless access points, the places where women come to get homelessness support. These workers provide a direct response to women who come in with a current family violence crisis. This includes conducting MARAM assessments and developing safety plans, negotiating with police around intervention orders, and working with safe steps if the woman needs to access a refuge.

These workers also do a lot of advocacy between the two systems – working out the type of family violence response that women should be getting as well as the homelessness response.

WISHIN also do capacity building and training for the homelessness sector. They have staff members located at homelessness organisations such as VincentCare. This approach provides the benefit of supporting homelessness staff to develop skills in doing basic identification and risk assessments. “This has really improved the staff’s confidence and understanding in recognising and responding to family violence,” says Jade.

How has COVID-19 impacted WISHIN’s clients?

“The priority given to funding homeless people in hotels has been phenomenal. Over 2,000 households have been supported since COVID and it’s provided somewhere safe for a lot of people to stay in Melbourne’s north,” says Jade. (WISHIN’s catchment area covers the northern metropolitan suburbs of Hume, Moreland, Yarra, Whittlesea, Nillumbik, Darebin and Banyule.)

COVID-19 has exposed social inequalities with women disproportionately affected. A highly gendered casualised workforce has meant that many women have lost their jobs. WISHIN is finding that a lot of their clients who had previously moved forward and established themselves are now re-engaging with their service. As Jade points out, “they’ve lost their jobs and their options are tighter. Although there’s been a temporary increase in income for some with JobSeeker, the loss of work also creates an issue for their ongoing sustainability.”

WISHIN has also found that some women have chosen to move into private rental because the market is not as competitive as it has been, particularly for those on Centrelink and who have children. These women are willing to risk the private rental market even though they are still financially insecure.

The Victorian Government has announced a $1billion increase in social housing. How do you welcome that?

Jade acknowledges that this is a great outlay by the government but also cautions that it will take a long time to see the full benefits, especially given Victoria has the lowest percentage of public and community housing per capita in Australia.

The Victorian Government has also committed another $150 million to assist the homeless to find housing in the transition post COVID-19. Whilst this is highly welcomed, it will not in itself solve the long term cycle of homelessness for many women, especially given the ongoing high rates of family violence and poverty that many women will continue to experience.

“We’ve been carrying a long history of very poor [housing] investment and women have suffered because of it. Social housing is a major part of the solution. Working with an integrated model of support is another.”

Donate to WISHIN’s emergency appeal to raise urgent funds for homeless women and their children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is an excerpt from DVRCV’s eNews from June 2020. Subscribe here.

What does condoning violence against women mean?

Condoning violence against women is excusing, downplaying, justifying or denying violence, or blaming the victim rather than the perpetrator.

VicHealth expands on this definition to include attitudes and behaviours that:

• excuse violence by attributing it to external factors (such as stress) or proposing that men cannot be held fully responsible for their violent behaviour (for example, because of anger or sexual urges);
• justify violence against women, based on the notion that its legitimate for a man to use violence against a woman;
• trivialise the impact of violence, based on the view that the impacts of violence are not serious or are not sufficiently serious to warrant action;
• minimise violence by denying its seriousness, denying that it occurs or denying that certain behaviours are indeed violence at all; and
• shift blame for the violence from the perpetrator to the victim or hold women at least partially responsible for their victimisation or for preventing victimisation.

The socio-ecological model

Attitudes that condone violence against women play a major role in shaping the way individuals, organisations and communities respond to violence. The socio-ecological model comes from the public health field and is used to help explain how violence is a product of multiple, interacting factors at the individual, organisational, systemic and societal levels.

The four gendered drivers exist at all of these levels and are the social conditions which predict, or ‘drive’, higher levels of violence against women.

Reinforcing factors interact with the gendered drivers at the individual and relationship level to increase the probability, frequency and severity of this violence.

Rates of family violence and violence against women are higher when societies, institutions, communities or individuals condone this violence. Looking at how this driver manifests within different settings where people live, learn, work, socialise and play, can help you to plan your approach to addressing it and prevent violence against women before it occurs. The more areas across society where violence-supportive attitudes, behaviours and structures are challenged and rejected, the more we will be able to prevent violence against women before it happens.

Condoning violence against women takes many shapes and forms.

At an individual or relationship level condoning violence against women can look like:

At an organisational or community level, condoning violence against women can look like:

At an institutional or systemic level, condoning violence against women can look like:

At a societal level, condoning violence against women can look like:

What are some actions you can take to challenge attitudes and behaviours that condone violence against women?

• Download and share DVRCV’s condoning violence against women tip sheet. This resource is a great primary prevention tool that can be used to increase understanding about how condoning violence drives violence against women.
• Keep your gendered driver lens on. Always ask or have in mind: “What gendered drivers are present and how do they operate across norms, practices and structures to create the conditions in which violence against women is more likely to occur?”
• Read Change the Story, and How to Change the Story, Australia’s national framework for the prevention of violence against women and their children.
• Check out #FixedIt. Jane Gilmore’s website shows how the media plays a powerful role in condoning violence against women through its use of language that victim blames and excuses and justifies violence.
• Take active steps in your workplace. Our Watch has an excellent range of ‘Workplace Equality and Respect’ tools and resources to help take action.
• Call it out. Women’s Health West has developed a great tool for anyone looking to start conversations about violence but is unsure where to begin.
• Read and learn about how to take action at a community level. Women’s Health West’ Act to prevent men’s violence against women details practical prevention actions you can do within your community.

Men’s control of decision making and limits to women’s independence in public life and relationships is one of these drivers, where women’s autonomy in both public life and private relationships is constrained. This can include undermining women’s decision making and leadership in public life, or relationships where men control a woman’s personal, financial or social independence.

Findings from the National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey (2017) support and reinforce this driver of violence against women. For example, many Australians:

• agree that men make better leaders, decision makers or are more suited to holding positions of responsibility (14% agree).
• agree that men have greater ‘natural’ authority, decision making and control in the private realm of intimate relationships and should have the ultimate say over what happens in a relationship or how a family and household are run (25% agree).

Men’s control of decision making and resources in the home, workplace or community can have serious consequences for women. Within public life, the overrepresentation of men in leadership positions and their control of decision making in the workplace has a flow on effect for women, whereby women:

• continue to be overlooked for leadership roles, and
• continue to be underrepresented in business.

Women in professions such as STEM, banking and finance, law, medicine and emergency services face strong cultural and institutional obstacles to leadership. This is despite the fact that women often have far higher postgraduate qualifications and are more likely to be overqualified for their work and wage than men in the same work.¹

Men’s control over decision making within the private realm of heterosexual relationships and the family can limit women’s participation in public life. For example, the ‘man of the house’ can have the power to determine whether or not a woman can work and have economic independence. Women’s financial dependence on men is a barrier to them seeking safety from violence.²

Normalised control of decision making in relationships can also normalise controlling behaviours that increase the risk of intimate partner and family violence. This imbalance in power means that men have more opportunity to abuse that power with violence. Women, in turn, have less power to stop violence, call it out or leave.³

The socio-ecological model

Men’s control of decision making and limits to women’s independence play a major role in shaping the way individuals, organisations and communities respond to violence. The socio-ecological model is used to help explain how violence is a product of multiple, interacting factors at the individual, organisational, systemic and societal levels.

The four gendered drivers exist at all of these levels and are the social conditions which predict, or ‘drive’, higher levels of violence against women.

The socio-ecological model helps us understand how men’s control of decision making and limits to women’s independence manifest within different settings where people live, learn, work, socialise and play. Understanding this can help us plan prevention approaches to address violence against women within these spheres of life.

The more that women’s independence and decision making is promoted in public and private life as well as across society, the more influence and positive change we will see.

Men’s control of decision making and limits to women’s independence takes many shapes and forms.

At an individual or relationship level, men’s control of decision making and limits to women’s independence can look like:

At an organisational or community level, men’s control of decision-making and limits to women’s independence can look like:

At an institutional or systemic level, men’s control of decision making and limits to women’s independence can look like:

At a societal level, men’s control of decision making and limits to women’s independence can look like:

What are some actions you can take to promote women’s independence and decision making in public life and in their relationships?

To address men’s control in decision making and limits to women’s independence we must promote women’s independence and decision making in public life and in their relationships. This means supporting women’s leadership (in all its forms), autonomy and social connectedness, and challenging the norms, practices and structures that enable and perpetuate men’s control and dominance across different levels of society. Promoting alternatives could include:

• offering leadership training and mentoring programs for women both in communities and in workplaces
• providing opportunities for women to establish social networks
• implementing workplace gender equality strategies, such as promoting flexible work arrangements for both men and women
• introducing workplace gender quotas for leadership.

What you can do:

• DVRCV has developed a series of tip sheets on the four gendered drivers. This resource is a great primary prevention tool that can be used to increase understanding about how men’s control of decision making and limits to women’s independence drive violence against women. Read about the tipsheets.
• Australia has a national framework for preventing violence against women and their children, published by Our Watch, ANROWS and VicHealth in 2015. Read Change the Story and How to Change the Story.
• Our Watch has an excellent range of ‘Workplace Equality and Respect’ tools and resources including standards for workplaces to implement.
• Get connected. DVRCV’s Partners in Prevention network connects people working in the primary prevention of violence against women and family violence in Victoria.
• The Equality Rights Alliance is Australia’s largest network advocating for women’s equality, women’s leadership and recognition of women’s diversity.
• Learn about women’s financial capability. Wire and Women’s Health in the North have developed many resources aimed at increasing women’s financial literacy and independence.
• Read Victoria’s statewide gender equality strategy: Safe and Strong: A Victorian Gender Equality Strategy.
• Build your knowledge. DVRCV is soon set to launch its free foundational elearning package. Stay tuned!
• Strengthen your skills. DVRCV offers a range of training in the primary prevention of violence against women, all catered to where you’re at in your prevention career.

[1] Victorian Government, Department of Premier and Cabinet, 2016: Safe and Strong: A Victorian Gender Equality Strategy

[2] Our Watch, 2018: Workplace Equality and Respect Standards

[3] ibid

Fortunately, Eastern Community Legal Centre (ECLC) has a proven track record of rethinking, redesigning and employing early intervention approaches to address family violence which has eased some of the current challenges in providing legal assistance remotely.

Marika Manioudakis from ECLC tells us how their innovative approach to legal service has provided leverage to help reach women during the recent pandemic.

Marika:

Almost three-quarters of our work directly involves family violence, so it’s critical for us to respond sooner and integrate services to reach women before crisis point. A key question for us is always:

For example, we know that high risk periods for experiencing family violence are during pregnancy and the time after a woman gives birth. With almost 99% of women visiting their local Maternal and Child Health (MCH) centres during those first months, these services provided an obvious starting place for us to design programs to reach and engage mothers.

To develop the program required a high level of trust and support from other organisations who had relationships with women at that critical time. So our Mabels program was developed as a Health Justice Partnership (HJP) between:

• MCH services
• local councils
• Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations.

These partnerships are unique. They provide an opportunity for legal services to work directly within healthcare settings. For us, that means our lawyers get out of their offices and into the community.

“It helps break down the silos that have made responding and preventing family violence so difficult.”

Mabels’ early intervention approach involves having both a family violence lawyer and family violence advocate attend clinic appointments at an MCH site. This sounds simple, but a lot of work is needed to build trust and develop solid relationships.

Having that level of trust and coordinated approach has produced some fantastic results. Between 2015 and 2018, we helped 357 women and 480 children.

Given the success of Mabels, we decided to apply the same practice principles to support women during the antenatal phase, another a high-risk period for women. We developed the Women Engaging in Living Safely (WELS) program. This program focuses on women accessing maternity services prior to giving birth. One day a week, the WELS lawyer is based at the hospital’s antenatal services making it possible for them to be more responsive to women needing legal advice for family violence or any other legal problem.

We have also directed our response to the more complex legal and support needs of women. Our SAGE (Support. Advice. Guidance. Empowerment) program was developed for women who would not ordinarily engage with the legal system. We coordinate a specialist community lawyer with an advocate to collaborate on intensive legal and family violence support; and link women into wraparound support services as well as co-case management.

That’s the kind of integrated approach we’re committed to establishing and embedding into everyday practice.

The interactions of clients through these programs, and the relationships with and expertise of the practitioners have taught us a lot about how to prepare and implement policies that mitigate the risk to women accessing our service. More recently, due to COVID-19 we have needed to adapt these policies for our broader service, including our intake and legal teams. Having relationships like Health Justice Partnerships in place has meant we’ve been able to respond to some of the challenges of providing family violence legal assistance remotely. For example, this has made developing risk assessment tools and ways to mitigate risk for our clients much easier. We now have a series of resources that other legal services can use when delivering family violence work remotely.

An earlier version of this article featured in the December 2019 edition of the Advocate.

This will bring the peak body for the specialist family violence sector together with Victoria’s only specialist family violence Registered Training Organisation, combining our strength, energy and resources for greater impact.

A vote by Members of Domestic Violence Victoria was declared in favour of the merger on 26 March, marking the final approval required following earlier decisions by the Boards of both organisations to proceed with a merger. The vast majority of Members represented at the meeting voted in support of the merger.

The prospect of merging has been discussed a number of times in the past decade and DVRCV and DV Vic already work in close partnership. Our respective roles in the Victorian family violence system are highly complementary; our functions are informed by each other’s skills and expertise, and we frequently take shared positions in advocacy and campaigning.

Both organisations enter this merger with the bigger picture in clear sight: Driving the social and cultural change required to end all forms of family violence and violence against women demands new ways of working and joined-up resourcing.

Under a new name and united purpose we will extend our reach and engagement with members and stakeholders alike, and will build the capability of current and emerging workforces to prevent and respond to family violence. Our specialist expertise in family violence and violence against women remains critical to the effective delivery of the Royal Commission’s reforms and we will be positioned to lead and create the transformative change required.

The decision to merge follows 12 months of consultation and due diligence. There is a plan for a staged transition in 2020-21, including development of a new organisational name and brand. We will continue using our existing organisation names until the merger is formalised.

For updates on the merger, sign up for our enewsletter.

Audre Lorde’s famous quote resonates well with me. It means different things to people, depending on your level of privilege. In our sector, it is something we are constantly confronting.

On a pragmatic level, part of the challenge of self-care for people working in small non-government organisations is that they are funded at rates not aligned with self-care. The administrative costs of running an organisation are often not included in funding. Money needs to go to service delivery but the reality is, in order to support staff to deliver those objectives, you need a certain amount of administrative capacity. Without that, keeping a work-life balance becomes an enormous challenge.

Because our sector is highly gendered there’s been an expectation that, as women and carers, we can work until we completely deplete ourselves. That doesn’t wash with me. We’ve got to care for ourselves.

How have you held the space and care for yourself whilst advocating to end family violence?

Personally, self-care has been a real challenge. Early in my career I experienced a lot of stress public speaking, doing media and having challenging conversations with politicians and public servants. My anxiety and stress were related to being negatively perceived by others, about making a fool of myself. What helped me manage those stress levels was to think:

This would take me out of myself and give me hope and the courage to say things I’d never be able to say on my own behalf.

How does leadership and organisational culture and values impact on self-care?

What’s really critical is that we focus on the responsibility we have to those who experience violence at much higher rates because of the barriers that discriminate beyond gender. We can’t do that work externally with credibility if we’re not walking the talk internally in how we operate and treat one another.

I am really proud of the values we carried at Domestic Violence Victoria – values that have been contributed to by all the women worked there. It’s wonderful to have worked in an organisation where you’re able to live and embody the values you hold dear.

What self-care words of advice can you share?

Make a real commitment to being disciplined about your work habits is crucial. It’s not easy!

Work collaboratively and support one another. That’s been one of my biggest learnings. The reality is, no one person can achieve anything.

This article features in the December 2019 edition of The Advocate.

Women experience increased violence after disasters like this summer’s terrifying bushfire crisis. The evidence which supports this link is strong. However, for many this violence remains a mere ‘hidden disaster’; silently afflicting women and communities long after the fire front has receded.

But what exactly causes this increased violence?

We spoke with gender and disaster expert Dr Debra Parkinson on why violence against women increases in the aftermath of bushfire disasters and what role the gendered drivers of violence have to play in the surge.

From a primary prevention standpoint, we know that there is no single cause of violence against women, but there are certain social conditions that predict, or ‘drive’ it. The evidence identifies four underpinning gendered drivers of this violence:

• Condoning violence against women
• Men’s control of decision making and limits to women’s independence
• Stereotyped construction of masculinity and femininity
• Male peer relations that emphasise aggression and disrespect towards women[1]

During times of extreme crisis, such as the recent bushfires, each of these expressions of gender inequality plays out in complex ways that further compound women and children’s vulnerability and experiences of abuse.

Gender roles, violence and bushfire disasters

Research undertaken by Dr Debra Parkinson after the 2009 Victorian bushfires showed gender roles and norms, particularly stereotypes of masculinity, become more rigid and reinforced both during and after disasters. This increases the risk of men using violence against women and their children.

According to Dr Parkinson, one example of this is how men are often mythologised as ‘heroes’ and ‘protectors’ in the post-disaster context, while women are expected to put their own needs last, behind those of husbands, partners and children – even to the extent of ‘putting up’ with family violence. The research concludes that women’s and children’s right to live free from violence is conditional upon the suffering men face post-disaster.

The result of communities reverting to traditional gender roles and looking to male “hero” figures for authority is that women become silenced and powerless. Meanwhile, men suffer under unrealistic expectations to live up to the idealistic stereotype of a strong and silent protector and provider. All of this combined creates a context and dynamic in which violence is more likely to occur.

Condoning of violence against women

In the aftermath of disasters such as bushfires, violence against women is also often minimised, downplayed or outright denied. This was the case during the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires. Despite evidence showing that family violence spiked in the aftermath of the fires, figures appeared to be recorded low at the time. Dr Parkinson said this was “probably because many women felt there was a taboo around revealing their partner was violent towards them”. Additionally, many of the bushfire relief case workers were not trained in family violence so did not know how to appropriately respond to disclosures of violence.

Violence was also frequently excused in the aftermath of Black Saturday. Members of the community, among them family, health, community and legal professionals, did not want to acknowledge that some people who had been held up as heroes were perpetrating violence against their loved ones. They chose to ignore it and look away. In other cases, men’s behaviour was excused as they were seen as the key victims of the fires who had their own trauma to deal with.

Men’s loss of control

The chaos and loss caused by disasters lead to a breakdown of social norms. Homelessness and unemployment may result, co-existing with the demands of recovery and reconstruction. Increased contact between families, sometimes in shared accommodation, increases tension, and loss of control can threaten men’s sense of their role as provider and protector[2]. This loss of control, accompanied by a breakdown of social norms and reverting to stereotypical gender roles, heightens the risk of family violence. Judy – a victim survivor interviewed by Dr Parkinson following the Black Saturday bushfires – describes the link between the loss of power her partner felt and the subsequent abuse she experienced:

Keeping everyone safe during bushfire disaster management extends to recognising that men are vulnerable and need help, and being willing to hear women speak of emerging family violence. These are not matters to be swept aside as we revert to traditional gender roles – such as the strong, silent men and nurturing, sacrificing women narrative.

Now is the time to take stock and learn from the lessons of Black Saturday. Only then will women, their children and communities be able to safely recover and not be further victimised by another disaster – violence against women.

For more information on violence against women and bushfire disasters visit the Gender and Disaster Pod.

1 https://www.ourwatch.org.au/What-We-Do/National-Primary-Prevention-Framework

2 B. Phillips, Jenkins, & Enarson, 2009 cited in Parkinson D. The Way He Tells it, 2011

Read the full statement to our federal and state women’s safety ministers:

Dear Women’s Safety Ministers,

As specialists with years of experience working with and for women and children subjected to violence, we know that long-term, major reforms are needed over the coming months and years to achieve lasting improvements to safety and justice.

We also know there are key changes your governments can make immediately that will dramatically improve the safety of many women and children within weeks.

As well as committing to comprehensive reform to prevent all forms of violence against women, we urge you to action these five desperately needed changes at your meeting on Friday:

1. Fully fund the specialist services that improve women’s safety, and hold men who use violence to account, including:
   The safety planning, risk assessment and wrap-around individual support provided by specialist women’s services,
   The safe at home programs and emergency accommodation services provided by specialist homelessness providers working specifically with victim-survivors of violence,
   The legal assistance and representation provided by specialist women’s legal services, Family Violence Prevention Legal Services, community legal centres, Aboriginal legal services, and Legal Aid,
   The perpetrator intervention, men’s behaviour change programs and fathering programs provided by accredited men’s behaviour change experts,
   The specialist and culturally-safe services that are best able to assist Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and women from migrant and refugee backgrounds,
   The disability advocacy and domestic violence services needed to support women with disabilities to overcome the barriers to achieving safety after violence from a partner, carer or in an institutional setting,
   The safe phones program, which has been found be effective in delivering victims/survivors greater technology safety,
   LGBTIQ+ services and LGBTIQ+-specific resources, programs and targeted community education campaigns,
   Supporting community-based services to lead the conversations needed to change the attitudes and behaviours that enable violence, including empowering bystanders.
2. Remove the presumption of equal shared parental responsibility and emphasis on shared parenting in the Family Law Act 1975, to ensure a child’s safety and wellbeing are the key considerations, so that courts are determining the best parenting arrangement for their needs and circumstances.
3. Initiate a standard screening, risk assessment and referral process nationally, to ensure public health, social and community services are trained to identify key safety risks early for people experiencing violence in their relationships, and able to refer them to the services that can help them achieve safety and recover.
4. Agree to institute improved AVO standards to make clear what is expected of police, magistrates and courts to hold perpetrators accountable, and ensure women and children subjected to domestic and family violence are able to rely on these orders to achieve safety and justice.
5. Ensure victims/survivors seeking help can access free translating and interpreting services, so that regardless of their disability, cultural or language background, or geographical location, any woman reaching out for help to build a safer future is able to access the assistance she needs.

As with all initiatives for improved community safety and wellbeing, these urgent steps must be taken in a way that responds to the factors that shape people’s experiences of violence and encounters with institutions. These can include: the ongoing impacts of colonisation, race, class, sexual orientation and gender identity, ethnicity, nationality, religion, dis/ability and age, as well as the community attitudes, geographical isolation and the poor connectivity experienced by women in remote, rural and regional areas.

Further to these five immediate interventions, we note that the national alliance tasked with bringing together organisations to develop solutions, Australian Women Against Violence Alliance (AWAVA), has presented comprehensive advice on the major long-term reforms needed including the Blueprint for Reform for women on temporary visas experiencing violence, and that Women’s Legal Services Australia has mapped out the steps required for Safety First in Family Law. These solutions will require meaningful and sustained investment. AWAVA, its members and allies stand ready to work with governments to design and implement these reforms together.

This national crisis cannot be solved overnight. But actioning these five changes will bring immediate and substantial improvement to the safety of many women and children currently at risk, and will save lives. We urge you to do your part.

Signed,

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Alliance
Embolden – Alliance for Women’s Freedom, Equity and Respect (South Australian peak body for women’s domestic and family violence services)
Women’s Legal Services Queensland
Women’s Legal Services Tasmania
Ruby Gaea Darwin Centre Against Sexual Violence
Sexual Assault Support Service Tasmania
Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Women’s Legal Service North Queensland Inc.
Emma House Domestic Violence service
Women’s Council for Domestic and Family Violence Services WA
North Queensland Women’s Legal Service
Equality Rights Alliance
WESNET – The Women’s Services Network
Annie North Inc
Domestic Violence NSW
Women’s Legal Service NSW
economic Security4Women
Limestone Coast Family Violence Action Group
National Rural Women’s Coalition
CASA Forum – Victorian Centres Against Sexual Assault
Ending Violence Against Women Queensland
Seras Women’s Shelter Inc.
Mackay Women’s Services
Association of Women Educators
National Council of Single Mothers & their Children
YWCA Canberra
Women’s Safety NSW
Mitcham Family Violence Education and Support Service
Centre for Non-Violence
Eastern Region Domestic Violence Services Network Inc – Koolkuna
Communicare Women’s Support Services
Carnarvon Family Support Services
WRISC Family Violence Support Inc
Women’s Centre Far North Queensland
Migrant Women’s Support Program of Women’s Safety Services SA
Lucy Saw Centre Association Inc
Penrith Women’s Health Centre
Australasian Centre for Human Rights and Health
Macleod Accommodation Support Service Inc.
inTouch Multicultural Centre Against Family Violence
North Shore Women’s Benevolent Association Limited
Mid Coast Women’s Domestic Violence Court Advocacy Service
safe steps Family Violence Response Centre
Darwin Aboriginal & Islander Women’s Shelter
Harmony Alliance – Migrant and Refugee Women for Change
Accountability Matters Project
DVConnect
Domestic Violence Action Centre Toowoomba
Gold Coast Domestic Violence Prevention Centre
Domestic Violence Crisis Service Canberra
Immigrant Women’s Support Service
Sonshine Sanctuary Association
Beryl Women Inc.
Edon Place and Centre for Women & Co
Lou’s Place
Cairns Regional Domestic Violence Service
Women’s Information, Support and Housing in the North
Settlement Services International
Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health
Northern Territory Council of Social Service
Domestic Violence Victoria
Project Respect
Melaleuca Refugee Centre
Dawn House Inc
Western Women’s Domestic Violence Court Advocacy Service
Bramwell House (Salvation Army)
Domestic Violence Resource Centre Victoria
WASH House Inc.
Immigrant Women’s Speakout Association Inc.
Immigration Advice and Rights Centre
Australian Women’s Health Network
Centre Against Sexual Assault Central Victoria
Open Support
Women’s Legal Service (South Australia)
Family Violence Prevention Legal Services National Forum

Between 2012 and 2017, the Victorian female prison population doubled. Believe it or not, this makes it one of the fastest-growing incarceration rates for women in the Western world. At the moment, the government’s response is focused on building more prisons in Victoria, when a more effective response would be ensuring that women are not being adversely impacted by bail laws that imprison them unnecessarily and that they have access to more secure housing and specialised services which are delivered with a high level of trust and a gender-sensitive lens.

These issues are compounded by entrenched, systemic racism that sees Aboriginal women account for the largest growth in the prison population. Although only 0.8 per cent of Victoria’s population, Aboriginal women are 11 per cent of its prison numbers. Flat Out’s Project Lead, Rei Alphonso, sums it up like this:

When we see more First Nations women in prison than we would see on a main street it begs the question: why is the system increasingly failing them?

This is the challenge for Flat Out; to consider how to engage with a broken system without further victimising those already traumatised by family violence? Given that an estimated 80 per cent of criminalised women have experienced intimate partner and family violence (and that this figure is likely underreported) why are they so underserviced in terms of support? The recommendations from the Royal Commission into Family Violence recognised this urgency. As a specialised service that has been working with and advocating alongside criminalised women for decades, Flat Out have the foundations crucial to bridging the gaps in the service sector and are best placed to begin this restorative work.

One of the biggest barriers to accessing support services is women’s lack of trust which leads to disengagement with family violence services. In order to protect themselves and their families, women self-exclude from services. As Rei explains: ‘this comes from a conscious or unconscious belief that services won’t be able to respond to them.’ She goes on to say that: ‘we know women [who are experiencing family violence] are experts in how risk operates in their relationships, and they know how to respond to that.’ Many women prefer the known and familiar risk of staying in a violent relationship to an inconsistent, unknowable service system that can exacerbate their trauma.

For women who have been convicted with a criminal offence, however minor, the risk of engaging with services can be huge. Perpetrators are often fluent in using the criminal justice system to their advantage by leveraging it as an effective measure of power and control against women. Women with children fear child protection services becoming involved because of the real risk of losing their children. And when police become involved women can easily become incriminated. Women, especially Aboriginal women, can be misidentified as the primary aggressor which then sets off a chain of detrimental events leading to them being imprisoned. Such victim blaming only adds further insult to their injury and needs to be replaced with a genuine understanding and awareness of the barriers oppressing criminalised women.

This is where Flat Out’s expertise and specialised approach can improve criminalised women’s access to family violence services and response. To date, their focus has centred on training and capacity building in four specific actions for change:

• delivering tailored workshops and presentations
• facilitating two practice forums
• presenting at panel discussions
• producing best practice guidelines and an advocacy handbook.

In addition to these education and capability building activities, Flat Out is currently sitting on the Police Accountability Project (PAP) working group. Led by Flemington & Kensington Community Legal Centre, this partnership not only focuses on research and capacity building but also offers referrals and response to women seeking police accountability for duty breaches in responding to family violence.

This is only the beginning of the inroads being made into the breadth of reform needed. While Flat Out’s Family Violence Justice Pilot Project is due to finish in early 2020, there is still a lot of work to be done.

Contingent on securing funding for a second phase, plans are in place to implement a specialised Community of Practice (CoP) to respond to an identified need for more specialised support. Flat Out envisions the CoP being a foundation for two working groups — one focused on systemic advocacy and another on developing a specialised assessment tool for criminalised women experiencing barriers to service access.

To ensure women and children are safe, these initiatives need a long-term commitment by government, mainstream services, police and the criminal justice system.

‘We’re fighting an uphill battle,’ implores Rei, ‘until the government puts more money into housing than prison expansion, women and children will continue to remain unsafe.’

The evidence backs her claim, showing that more prisons do not automatically create a safer community, but what does is more specialised services, more active compassion and more than anything else, secure homes.

This article originally appeared in the Advocate, Victoria’s industry magazine providing news, interviews, articles and expert review for family violence specialists, prevention practitioners and allied professionals. Read about the December issue of the Advocate.