Violence and sexual assault against women and children is utterly unacceptable. Today we launch the Second Action Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children and send a strong, united message that violence is reprehensible.
The Commonwealth Government has allocated more than $100 million over the next four years to support the Second Action Plan. These proposals have the support of all States and Territories across Australia.
Around $200 million has been committed to address violence against women and their children under the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children between 1 July 2009 and 30 June 2017.
The new initiatives the Australian Government is funding to support the Second Action Plan include:
- $3.3 million for CrimTrac to develop and test a prototype for a National Domestic Violence Order (DVO) Scheme, to strengthen the identification and enforcement of DVOs across state and territory borders.
- $1.7 million to take the next steps in developing a national data collection and reporting framework by building a more consistent basis from which to gather, analyse and use data on all aspects of violence against women and their children. This includes $300,000 for the Australian Bureau of Statistics to augment data sets on victims and offenders.
- More than $1 million for 1800RESPECT, Australia’s first national professional telephone and online counselling service, to expand its service. The new funding for 1800RESPECT is in addition to the Government’s investment of $28 million over the next four years to support existing services.
The Commonwealth Government will continue to work with States and Territories, with the business and community sectors, and across all of our society to build on the success of the First Action Plan and achieve better outcomes for women. As policy makers, we have a responsibility to ensure that perpetrators should have nowhere to hide, nor victims reason to hide.
Today we stand together as a nation and take a crucial step together to reduce violence against women and children. We still have much work to do, however the Second Action Plan is a vital step in the right direction.
27 June 2014