A Monash University expert is available to comment on the Federal Government’s First Action Plans under the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032
Professor Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Director of the Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre
Contact: +61 412 339 243 or Kate.Fitzgibbon@monash.edu
Read more of Professor Fitz-Gibbon's work at Monash Lens
The following is attributable to Professor Kate Fitz-Gibbon:
“Today’s Action Plans comes at a critical time when advocates, academics and practitioners have been calling for an uplift in funding and real action to counter all forms of domestic, family and sexual violence.
“These Action Plans commit to developing and implementing age appropriate, culturally safe programs for children and young people. While the specific detail of how this will be achieved is unclear, the commitment is critical. Ending gender-based violence in one generation, necessitates a transformational focus on delivering improved outcomes for the next generation.
“The Actions Plans represent a much-needed next step in realising the objectives of the National Plan, which was released nearly a year ago in October 2022. The commitments made are welcome but the urgency to act is yet to be demonstrated. All governments across Australia must now move to fully fund and action these commitments as a matter of priority.
“This government has made an unprecedented funding commitment of $2.3 billion over the 2022-23 and 2023-24 budgets to address women’s safety and support delivery of these Action Plans. While this sounds impressive, it is not commensurate with the scale of the crisis of domestic, family and sexual violence in Australia. Increased funding to accelerate delivery of the very actions that have been agreed to is urgently needed at the Commonwealth, state and territory levels.”