Safe and Equal’s response to the Victorian Government’s Women’s Safety Package

Since the release of the Victorian Government’s 2024-25 budget earlier this month, we have been eagerly awaiting further announcements to comprehensively address family and gender-based violence in our state. 

With today’s ‘Women’s Safety Package’ announcement from Premier Jacinta Allan, we now have a clearer picture of what’s on the table. 

Broadly, the package includes announcements categorised into three areas: family violence prevention, response, and perpetrator accountability. 

We are pleased to see several announcements to support the immediate safety of victim survivors, including support for the Safe at Home pilot and the Personal Safety Initiative, as well as more support for core and cluster refuge models. 

Encouragingly, the package also includes support for a Justice Navigator pilot for victim survivors of sexual assault, who can also be victims of family violence. We are also pleased to see the needs of at-risk communities kept in view, with the inclusion of therapeutic interventions for children and young people, and a boost for legal services providing support victim survivors from First Nations communities and multicultural communities.  

We are also heartened to see the government support further interventions to keep perpetrators accountable for their behaviour, with a boost to perpetrator case management and men’s behaviour change programs, and improvements to the Central Information Point. 

The package also includes several announcements that aim to address the effectiveness of Family Violence Safety Notices (FVSNs) and Family Violence Intervention Orders (FVIOs), including increased police powers to issue longer FVSNs and increased minimum lengths for FVIOs. 

While both FVSNs and FVIOs can play a significant part in keeping victim survivors safe, we firmly believe any changes in this space should be in consultation with and, prioritise the agency of, victim survivors, who are best placed to make decisions about what will keep them safe.  

While we recognise these small wins for the overall sector, there is little investment and support for the specialist family violence services who work on the front line every day to keep victim survivors safe, and who are experiencing higher levels of demand than ever before. We’ll continue to advocate for adequate and enduring funding for these services, so they can continue their critical work. 

We know there is no quick fix to family and gender–based violence, but we must remember it is preventable. Meaningful change will take time, but we must stay the course. This is a national crisis that requires increased investment and ongoing commitment from all levels of government, and support from all parts of the community. 

We look forward to working with the Victorian Government to better understand the amount of funding that will be allocated to each of the announcements made today.  

 

Update: Safe and Equal’s response to the Victorian Government’s investment in Ballarat

Published Friday 31 May 2024

We were pleased to hear the Victorian Government’s announcement today of ongoing investment and commitment to primary prevention for the Ballarat region.

Investment in primary prevention means we can work to change the attitudes and behaviours that drive the type of violence that has led to 31* murders of women in Australia so far this year, including three from the Ballarat region.

Safe and Equal CEO Tania Farha says that while this week’s announcements are welcome, we are yet to see additional funding for specialist family violence services, including in Ballarat.

“It’s great to see a focus on delivering stronger referral pathways between prevention programs and specialist response services, but we need to ensure that those services are adequately funded so that people experiencing violence can access the support they need when they need it,” said Ms Farha.

“If we are to end family violence, primary prevention initiatives need to work in concert with response and recovery services, to support people experiencing family violence on their journey to safety”.

Safe and Equal welcome the investment in primary prevention initiatives for Ballarat and continue to advocate to ensure that we can effectively work across the continuum of prevention, early intervention, response and recovery services for a well-supported system that can holistically and effectively drive down violence against women.

* Many deaths go unacknowledged as family violence or gender-based violence, including missing people or deaths that are still being investigated – so the number of women killed this year is likely much higher than 31, which is the figure currently published by Destroy the Joint.