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Working towards a national plan that embeds safe and accessible legal services for women and children

In coordination with key partners across the legal and family violence sector we provided feedback on the draft national plan to end violence against women and children.

Published:
Monday, 7 March 2022 at 9:26 am

The next national plan to end violence against women and children should embed the importance of accessible and sustainable legal services for women and children.

‘The national plan is the key document developed by the Australian Government laying out the steps we need to take as a community to end intimate partner violence. It should set the agenda to drive systemic change and improve our prevention of and response to violence’, said Joanna Fletcher, Executive Director of Family, Youth and Children’s law.

‘In our work, we see victims of family violence are most at risk of danger after they leave their partners, and that timely access to legal assistance in the family law system can help cases to resolve faster and more safely,’ said Joanna.

In coordination with key partners across the legal and family violence sector we provided feedback on the draft national plan to the Department of Social Services.

Our feedback covered key themes we want to see further incorporated into the plan:

1. The need to embed safe, accessible and sustainable legal services

While the draft plan references legal services, we urged greater acknowledgement that legal assistance for family law is a fundamental part of either responding to or continuing family violence, and that legal services must be resourced to meet demand. We also pointed out that the interlinked nature of legal assistance with wider parts of the justice system such as courts, policing and child protection means expanding or changing one part of the system inevitably has flow-on effects for other parts. The National Plan should require consultation and coordination between agencies and services, before major reforms are made or funding provided to one part of the system.

2. Expanding access to federal safety net services to enable better response and recovery

The Commonwealth delivers pivotal safety net services that affect women’s day to day economic security and ability to leave unsafe relationships. The national plan should commit government to reviewing the adequacy of federally delivered supports and making necessary changes to promote women’s safety. It should also recommend expanded access to a social safety net for temporary visa holders.

3. Responding to sexual violence and violence perpetrated by children in the context of family violence

Sexual violence is viewed throughout the plan as a discrete issue instead of within a context of, or intersecting with, family violence. The plan should emphasise that most sexual violence is perpetrated by family members or people known to the victim and outline the ways that an interlinked and coordinated service system response is necessary. The national plan should also outline a trauma-informed response to adolescent violence in the home (AVITH), including the provision of earlier intervention for children at risk of or experiencing family violence.

4. The need to more strongly reflect the complexities of intersectionality

It is important that the national plan identify and highlight key groups most in need of protection, to ensure initiatives and recommendations are survivor-centred and appropriately tailored.

5. The need for a separate plan for First Nations women and children

We support the advocacy of First Nations specialist services that have pointed out the need for a targeted national plan for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, in keeping with respecting rights to self-determination.

6. The need for clear targets and meaningful consultation throughout further planning, implementation, and evaluation phases

We pointed out that the current draft contains few clear targets and accountability benchmarks or mechanisms, that will allow for monitoring and evaluation and proposed how these could be included.

7. Implementing all the Sex Discrimination Commissioner’s Respect@Work recommendations

We strongly support the findings of the Sex Discrimination Commissioner’s ‘Respect@Work’ report, which provided 55 solutions to prevent and address sexual harassment and gender inequality in workplaces. As part of its prevention and response pillars, the national plan should commit to implementing all the report’s recommendations.

‘Further consultation with specialist services and victim-survivors of family violence must take place, to ensure the credibility and effectiveness of this plan’, said Joanna.

‘We look forward to being part of further planning, the development of action plans and a detailed outcomes and evaluation framework that will ensure this national plan achieves its aims and delivers better and safer futures for women and children’, she said.

More information

Read our feedback letter.

Updated

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