Today the Commonwealth Government announced full membership of its specially convened Advisory Panel to reduce violence against women.
As previously announced, former Victorian Police Commissioner Mr Ken Lay will Chair the Panel with domestic violence advocate and Australian of the Year, Ms Rosie Batty as Deputy Chair.
The Government is pleased to announce that Ms Heather Nancarrow has agreed to join the Panel and will serve as joint Deputy Chair with Ms Batty.
Ms Nancarrow is the current CEO of the Australian National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) and brings over 30 years’ experience of work on the prevention of violence against women.
The experts included in the panel have been nominated by each state and territory and have specialised knowledge across domestic and family violence, sexual assault, online safety, violence within Indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse communities, and people with disabilities.
The purpose of the panel will be to advise the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) on the issue of domestic and family violence and make recommendations on how Governments can best respond.
The Advisory Panel will run for up to 18 months and will immediately begin advising COAG on practical ways to address violence against women. The panel will report back to COAG by the end of 2015.
The Advisory Panel’s formation follows the Commonwealth Government’s decision on 28 January 2015 to elevate the issue of violence against women and their children to a national level at COAG.
By the end of 2015, COAG will:
- agree a national domestic violence order (DVO) scheme, where DVOs will be automatically recognised and enforceable in any state or territory of Australia;
- develop national standards for how we intervene against perpetrators and hold them accountable; and
- enact a national approach to dealing with online safety and the misuse of technology, so we can protect women against newer forms of abuse.
In Australia, one in three women over the age of 15 experiences physical violence in their lifetime and the statistics in relation to women murdered at the hands of a current or former partner are abhorrent. This is a scourge in our society that this Government is committed to addressing.
The Government’s commitment to provide appropriate resources to address the scourge of domestic violence is clear, as evidenced by our $100 million contribution to the Second Action Plan under the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and Children.
The Commonwealth will also deliver a $30 million national campaign, jointly funded by the state and territory governments. Education is fundamental to changing attitudes and achieving the cultural change that is required to eradicate domestic violence in Australia.
The full membership of the COAG Advisory Panel is as follows;
- Mr Ken Lay APM (Chair)
- Ms Rosie Batty (Deputy Chair)
- Ms Heather Nancarrow (Deputy Chair)
- Ms Julie Oberin
- Ms Tracy Howe
- Mr Ed Mosby
- Dr Vicki Hovane
- Ms Maria Hagias
- Commissioner Darren Hine APM
- Ms Sue Salthouse
- The Hon Bess Price MLA
14 May 2015