Australia has announced the launch of its next National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children (2022-2032) – a milestone strategy that charts a comprehensive path to eliminate violence against women and children within a decade.
The new plan is both ambitious in its goal to end violence against women and children in 10 years and reformative in its approach. It takes a comprehensive “whole-of-system” response, with emphasis on multi-sector cooperation. It lays out how Australia’s media, schools, justice systems, tech companies, health sector and perpetrators themselves could act and function to improve violence prevention and response.
The plan focuses on four broad areas – prevention, early intervention, response and ‘recovery and healing’. It is guided by a set of key principles, primary among which is a focus on addressing “gender-inequality” and “closing the gap” in gender. This includes eliminating gender-based violence, domestic violence and sexual violence, with a focus on “centring victim-survivors” and addressing the root causes that lead to violence and discrimination.
The plan calls for better support for men and boys to challenge sexist, homophobic or transphobic views and recommends addressing community mindsets and attitudes that are allowing violence to exist.
The plan also stresses adequate investment in the various pillars of action. According to national statistics, violence against women and children is costing the economy AUS $26bn a year. Investment in prevention and addressing violence will reduce this cost.
Building a robust framework
The new strategy bolsters the diverse efforts Australia has been undertaking to end violence. In 2021 Australia announced a 10-year national strategy for the prevention of child sexual abuse. A commitment of $146 million was pledged for the first four years of the plan, which includes strengthened law enforcement measures and support for survivors.
Australia has also been a leader in children’s online safety. This year, the country rolled out the eSafety Strategy 2022-25 to protect children from all forms of harm online. At the Together to #ENDviolence Leaders’ Event on 14 June, 2022, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant spoke as an End Violence Advocate alongside one of the most diverse and influential groups to ever come together to focus solely on ending violence against children.
In her remarks on keeping children safe online, she stressed the importance of “prevention, protection and proactive change” and called for global cooperation amidst the fast-evolving and global scale of technological shifts in our societies.
We need to work together not only across sectors, but across the globe to make sure that we are on the same trajectory and working together to keep children safer online.
The new National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children commits to two separate five-year action plans that will outline specific activities. There is also a dedicated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action Plan to address the specific needs and challenges of the community,
Read Australia’s new National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children here.