STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER. THE HON P J KEATING MP
VIOLENCE PREVENTION AWARDS
The Prime Minister today announced the results of the inaugural Australian Violence
Prevention Award. The Award, for a total of 100.000. is~ jjointCommonwealth, State
and Territory iaitiatim~. established by all Australian Heads of Government in late 1991,
following the Strathfield massacre, as one of the initiatives to address the problem of
violence in our society.
The Award is administered by the Violence Prevention Unit in the Australian Institute of
Criminology, under the direction of a Selection Board consisting of distinguished
T-eeii-niatves of the Australian Heads of Government. Professor Duncan Chappell,
Director of the Institute and previously Chair of the National Committee on Violence, is
the Prime Minister's representative and Chair of the Selection Board for the Award. Other
members of the Selection Board are: the Hon Dr Marlene Goldsmith ( New South Wales);
Ms Judith Dixon ( Victoria); Dr Chilla Bulbeck ( Queensland); Ms Pat Morris ( Western
Australia); Mr David Rathmann ( South Australia); Commissioner John Johnson
( Tasmania); Ms T~ ina Stubbs ( Northern Territory); and Mr Ken Begg ( Australian Capital
Territory). The Prime Minister commended the work done by the Selection Board and the
Australian Institute of Criminology in organising the large number of nominations
received for the new Award.
The interest in the Award, and the standard of nominations for 1992 was excellent', Mr
Keating said. ' The Selection Board received numerous inquiries and almost 200
nominations, and had considerable difficulty deciding between some of them. it decided
for this year that, in recognition of the wide variety of valuable projects addressing
violence in many different ways, the Award should be divided between 13 nominations'.
Three nominations were outstanding. They are:
the Julalikari Night Patrol from the Aboriginal community of Julalikari in the
Northern Territory, which was awarded $ 40,000 for its innovative, community
based approach to breaking the cycle between excessive alcohol consumption and
violence; 6727'
the West End Forum, which was awarded $ 20,000 for its success in reducing
violence in the nightclub centres of the West End of Melbourne through integrated
community action and server intervention programs; and
the Brisbane-based Kids Help Line, awarded $ 20,000 for its unique telephone
counselling service for children, which addresses many of the problems caused by
violence by and against children both in the short term through counselling and in
the longer term through its data base.
Awards of $ 1,000 will also be made to 10 highly commended projects.
These are: the Western Australian Aboriginal Driver Training Program, in the category
Adolescents at Risk, for its imaginative and successful approach to the prevention
of young Aboriginal involvement in police car chases;
The Eastlakes Community Network Committee, in the category of Community
Action, for its development of an effective, coordinated program. on limited
resources, dealing with a variety of problems involving young people;
the Sherbrooke Action Group for Community Safety, in the category of
Community Action, for the way in which the community brought together and
managed a wide range of initiatives, showing how fear of violence can be turned
into positive action at local level;
the Doveton-Hallam-Endeavour Hills Family Violence Program for Perpetrators
and Survivors of Abuse, in the category for its sensitivity to the needs and
problems of families at risk and its development of a system which assists all
members of the family unit in the prevention of family violence;
Project Turnaround, a joint Western Australian Community Policing and Youth
lnsearch Foundation project, in the category Justice Systems and Institutions, for
its development of a innovative and cost-effective approach bringing together
police, other authorities and young people at risk, in a constructive way;
the Campbelltown Cottage Community Care Project, in the category Protective
Behaviour Strategies, for its development of strategies and programs to protect
young children at risk of violence, abuse and neglect;
6" 72 8
the South Australian Holistic Defence Program, in the category Protective
Behaviour Strategies, for its use of a variety of strategies to develop skills to
diffuse and cope with violence and potentially violence situations for the elderly,
the disabled, young people and women;
the Arabic/ English project Family and Society, in the category Projects for Non-
English Speaking Background Commnunities, for its cost-effective use of audio
technology in a cross-cultural way, to raise the awareness of isolated minority
groups about strategies for the prevention of domestic violence;
the South Hedland Sobering Up Centre, in the category Public Violence, for its
effective, community-based approach to preventing drunkenness from leading to
violence in public or at home, and for clogging up the police and judicial systems;
and the Australian Capital Territory concert project Metal for the Brain, in the category
Violence and Entertainment, for the innovative way in which several young people
in the ACT responded to a violent incident, contributing to the prevention of
violence effecting young people by using drug and alcohol-free heavy metal
music concerts to convey the message of the link between alcohol and violence.
Mr Keating said that the value of the Australian Violence Prevention Awards goes far
beyond the token monetary prize they receive. That a project has been nominated for the
Award is in itself a great honour for the projects concerned, all of which have been
recognised as contributing to the reduction or prevention of violence in Australia.,
HOBART/ CANBERRA
26 February 1993
For further information, contact
Violence Prevention Unit
Australian Institute of Criminology
PO Box 2944
CANBERRA CITY ACT 2601
Dr Jo Herlihy ( 06) 274 0218
Ms Anita Scandia ( 06) 274 0279 67 2U