Australian National Cabinet reaffirms its commitment to National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032 & identifies a $4.7 billion funding package

 

Between April 2023 and March 2024 in New South Wales there were 36,513 domestic violence assault incidents recorded and the state rate for domestic-violence related assaults reported to police was 447.1 per 100,000 persons and the NSW regional rate was 596.7 per 100,000 persons.

Across New South Wales during the same time period there were 15,728 incidents where adult women were recorded as victims of intimate partner domestic violence along with 5,926 incidents where adult women were the victims of family violence.

From April 2004 to March 2024 there were 15 domestic violence-related female murder victims in NSW - 11 were murdered by an intimate partner and 4 were murdered by a family member.

Between April 2023 and March 2024 domestic violence-related assault rates per 100,000 population in the Northern Rivers local government areas were:

Richmond Valley - 772.1

Clarence Valley - 709.8

Lismore City - 496.9

Tweed - 324.6

Byron - 312.2

Ballina - 303.1

Kyogle - 37.9.

Three of the seven local government areas exceeded the state rate for domestic violence-related assaults reported to police, two exceeded the NSW regional rate & three also exceeded the Northern Rivers estimated overall rate of 422.3 incidents per 100,000.

Note: All statistics were found in NSW BOCSAR, Trends in Domestic & Family violence – quarterly March report 2024 & Domestic Violence Assault Regional Comparison Tool

Neither New South Wales nor the Northern Rivers region are unique in the level of domestic violence-related assaults and murders within their communities, violence against women and girls is endemic within Australia.

So it was heartening to see the Australian National Cabinet's detailed announcement at the end of last week which included a $4.7 billion funding package.

Meeting of National Cabinet

Media statement

Friday 6 September 2024

National Cabinet met in Canberra today to agree practical next steps to accelerate action to end gender-based violence in a generation and deliver on the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032.

First Ministers agreed that ending the national crisis of gender-based violence, including violence against children and young people, will remain an ongoing priority for National Cabinet. First Ministers acknowledged that a coordinated approach across all states and territories is required to address this national crisis.

National Cabinet is committed to maintaining a central focus on missing and murdered First Nations women and children and agreed that all government commitments on gender-based violence must explicitly consider the needs and experiences of First Nations people, and be delivered in genuine partnership with First Nations communities.

Today, National Cabinet agreed a comprehensive $4.7 billion package that harnesses important opportunities to work together to prevent violence and support legal services. It brings together efforts and funding to:

— Deliver much needed support for frontline specialist and legal services responding to gender based violence.

— Innovative approaches to better identify and respond to high-risk perpetrators to stop violence escalating.

— Address the role that systems and harmful industries play in exacerbating violence.

These actions are guided by the valuable contributions of the Rapid Review of Prevention Approaches. The recommendations of the review have guided immediate actions and First Ministers have agreed to use the review’s recommendations to inform strengthened efforts across all governments to deliver the National Plan. Governments will progressively respond to the review with the collective response overseen by Women and Women’s Safety Minister’s Meeting over time.

Today, National Cabinet signed the Heads of Agreement for a new National Access to Justice Partnership, including a critical $800 million increase in funding to the legal assistance sector over five years, with a focus on uplifting legal services responding to gender-based violence.

Under this agreement, the Commonwealth will invest $3.9 billion over five years from 1 July 2025 and for the first time will provide ongoing funding beyond the five year agreement so that the sector has long-term funding certainty.

National Cabinet agreed to negotiate a renewed, five year National Partnership Agreement on Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence Responses, to commence on 1 July 2025 and deliver over $700 million in new matched investments from the Commonwealth and states and territories.

The new agreement will support greater flexibility for states and territories to direct funding to meet local need, and will be accompanied by stronger transparency and accountability mechanisms. It will include a focus on nationally coordinated approaches to support prevention activities through frontline services, including funding for:

— Specialist services for women.

— Services to support children exposed to family, domestic and sexual violence to heal and recover.

— Working with men, including men’s behaviour change programs for perpetrators of gendered violence.

Delivering on commitments made at the May National Cabinet on gender based violence, First Ministers today agreed to deliver innovative new approaches to better identify high risk perpetrators, share information about them across systems and state boundaries, and intervene early to stop violence escalating.

First Ministers agreed to:

— Develop new national best practice family and domestic violence risk assessment principles and a model best practice risk assessment framework.

— Support enhancements to the National Criminal Intelligence System, which enables information sharing across jurisdictions, to provide a ‘warning flag’ that will assist police responding to high-risk perpetrators.

— Extend and increase nationally-consistent, two-way information sharing between the family law courts and state and territory courts, child protection, policing and firearms agencies.

— Strengthen system responses to high-risk perpetrators to prevent homicides, by trialling new focussed deterrence models and Domestic Violence Threat Assessment Centres. These centres will be able to use intelligence, monitor individuals and intervene with those at high risk of carrying out homicide.

The new risk assessment principles and trials of focussed deterrence models will be developed in close consultation with First Nations people and communities and will give specific consideration to application and implementation of approaches for First Nations people and communities.

Acknowledging the role that systems and industries can play in exacerbating violence, State and Territory First Ministers agreed to review alcohol laws and its impact on family and domestic violence victims to identify and share best practice and reforms and to report back to National Cabinet on progress.

This builds on commitments by the Commonwealth at the May National Cabinet to deliver a range of measures to tackle factors that exacerbate violence against women, including violent online pornography. The Commonwealth will announce a comprehensive response to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Online Gambling in due course.

To help break the cycle of violence, the Commonwealth will start comprehensive work with sector experts to identify gaps in supports for children and young people who have experienced or witnessed FDSV, to inform the design and implementation of new and revised initiatives and interventions. This work will include a specific focus on First Nations children and young people through culturally safe consultation and expertise.

While this comprehensive work is underway, the Commonwealth will provide an over $80 million boost to enhance and expand child-centric trauma-informed supports for children and young people.

The Commonwealth will also provide funding to establish national standards for men’s behaviour change.

The Commonwealth will immediately commence an audit of key Commonwealth government systems to identify areas where they are being weaponised by perpetrators of family and domestic violence.

This media statement has been agreed by First Ministers and serves as a record of meeting outcomes.

Counting dead, battered & violated women and girls in 2020 to September 2021

 

“Counting Dead Women Australia 2021. We count every known death due to violence against women in Australia: 32 by September 26.”  [This count relies on publicly available information published by media outlets.]

In June 2021 the Australian Bureau of Statistics released Australian crime statistics for 2020. 

A total of 396 homicides and related offences occurred between between 1 January and 31 December 2020. 

• 131 of those or an est. 33 per cent of all victims were females.

• Most of these homicides & attempted homicides occurred in a residential setting, including the family home.

• A total of 99 of those 396 homicides and related offences occurred in New South Wales.

• 25 of those 99 or an est. 25.25 per cent of all NSW victims were females.

• Most of the women and girls were either related to the perpetrator or otherwise knew them.

The number of police recorded victims of family and domestic violence related sexual assault increased by 13 per cent in 2020, according to an Australian Bureau of Statistics media release.

Close to two in five victims of sexual assault recorded by police throughout 2020 were FDV-related and, almost three quarters of FDV-related sexual assault victim-survivors were aged under 19 years at the time the incident occurred (71 per cent) and the majority were female (86 per cent). 

In NSW 81 per cent or 9,120 victims of sexual assault in 2020 were female and, around two in five (38 per cent) sexual assault incidents were FDV-related (4,288 victims).

NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOSCAR), June 2021 Update:

Additionally, in NSW in 2020 an est. 30,506 females were the victims of assault and, a higher proportion of females (54% or 16,430 victims) were assaulted by a family member compared with males (24% or 8,263 victims).

 

Is Scott Morrison's response to the National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces genuine? Or is it just busy work to hold the line until after the next federal election?

 “The Australian Government has agreed to (in full, in-principle, or in-part) or noted all 55 recommendations in the Report.” [Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, media release, 8 April 2021]

“are either agreed wholly in part or in principle, or noted where they are directed to governments or organisations other than the Australian government” [Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, quoted in Sky News online, 8 April 2021]

So after ignoring the National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces Final Report for over 12 months, what do Morrison’s weasel words in the quotes above indicate?

Scott Morrison & Co say they are proceeding to:

* order a survey every four years to provide data on sexual harassment;

* provide educational resources for young people of working age on workplace rights and sexual harassment;

* educate and train staff at the Fair Work Ombudsman, Fair Work Commission, Safe Work Australia, WHS regulators and workers’ compensation bodies concerning sexual harassment;

* lead a new collaboration by government, unions, employers and employer associations called Respect@Work aka the Workplace Sexual Harassment Council; and

* the Workplace Sexual Harassment Council is charged with:

a. providing high-level advice on development of guidelines and resources to ensure that all services providing information, advice and support in relation to sexual harassment can provide accurate information, make appropriate cross-referrals, and collect consistent data

b. after three years, considering the need for a centralised, accessible service to provide information and advice in relation to workplace sexual harassment;

* develop a Respect@Work website to provide the general public, employers and workers with free information; and

* Advise all state governments that they should ensure that relevant bodies responsible for developing training, programs and resources for judges, magistrates and tribunal members make available education on sexual harassment. 

Somehow in this 7-item list I don't see any immediate, hands-on, practical actions by the Morrison Government that will see the rates of sexual harassment, sexual assault, physical assault and/or murder by a partner or former partner, of women and girls in any state or territory decrease in the next few years.

I sincerely hope I am wrong.

 

Up to 29 September 2019 the Australian media have reported 44 women died by violence so far this year

Forty-four women were murdered in this country in just 272 days - that's the equivalent of one death every 6 days.

https://twitter.com/JointDestroyer/status/1178133707225387008

With rare exceptions women who die violently are usually killed by male acquaintances, partners, husbands or other male family members.

The journey towards a name change for Coutts Crossing begins.....

In November 1847 Clarence Valley grazier Thomas Coutts disgruntled by what he thought was a failure of local authority to act on his complaints, angry that his cattle herd had diminished over the space of eight years allegedly due to cattle theft and irritated at the size of his wages bill - all of which he blamed on local Aboriginal family groups living on 'his' property - decided to take action.

According to media reports at the time it soon became common knowledge that Coutts "had poisoned some aborigines" and this was eventually reported to the Commissioner of Crown Lands who, after visiting the group who had been given poisoned flour, hearing their account, arrested Thomas Coutts based on an affidavit sworn by one of his servants. 

On the 17th January 1848, Thomas Coutts was committed for trial by Forster and Mylnes, local Justices of the Peace, on a charge of wilful murder, and was sent to Sydney for trial before the Supreme Court.…… On the 10 May the Attorney General decided not to proceed with the case due to lack of evidence and Coutts was discharged.

Stating; "there is not sufficient legal evidence to sustain the prosecution although I am sorry to say that the suspicion is very strong that the prisoner is not guiltless of the dreadful deed charged against him.....This is one of the many cases from which the defect of the present law, in excluding altogether the evidence of the Aboriginal natives, is apparent."

One hundred and seventy year later on13 June 2018 The Daily Examiner reported:

Coutts Crossing could have two names and a memorial to the 23 Aboriginal people murdered by the man the town is named after, following a meeting called to discuss proposals to rename the village.

Prospects for a name change for the village have gathered pace since Daily Examiner indigenous columnist Janelle Brown’s article two weeks ago detailed how colonial settler Thomas Coutts murdered 23 Aboriginal people with arsenic-laced flour he gave as payment for work on his property at Kangaroo Creek in 1848.

Yesterday, about 40 people – indigenous and European – met at the Gurehlgam Centre in Grafton to discuss the next steps in proposing a name change for the village. The meeting did not produce formal resolutions, but the debate uncovered key areas to work on.

These included a proposal to include a traditional twin name for the village and to build a memorial in the village for the victims of the atrocity.

“I didn’t know I would get the amount of kick back from the article,” said Ms Brown, who led the meeting.

“But it’s good. It’s time to have these conversations and look at things like a name change for Coutts Crossing.

“What happened at Kangaroo Creek was a horrendous thing and not good for the Clarence Valley.

“It’s not good for a town to be named after a mass murderer.”

She said research into Gumbaynggir language revealed the original name for the area had been Daam Miirlarl, which meant a special place for yams.

However, she was reluctant to push this name as an alternative until there was further discussion among indigenous people about it.

Coutts Crossing resident Cr Greg Clancy said yesterday’s meeting was an initial step to move toward a name change.

“It’s not something that is going to happen next week,” he said.

Cr Clancy also made an apology for the deputy mayor Jason Kingsley, who was also the council’s delegate to the Aboriginal Consultative Committee. He said working through the council committee could be the best way to bring the push for a name change to the council.

Cr Clancy said the work of local historian and environmentalist John Edwards left no doubt Thomas Coutts murdered the 23 Gumbaynggir people with poisoned flour.

“In his book The History of the Coutts Crossing and Nymboida Areas, the chapter on the Kangaroo Creek massacre has all the transcripts from the court case,” he said.

“Its evidence is conclusive, but the case could not go ahead because the court at the time could not hear evidence from Aboriginal witnesses.”

The current owner of the property on which the massacre occurred, John Maxwell, had nothing positive to say about the original owner.

“What he did was cynical beyond belief,” Mr Maxwell said. “To poison 6kg of flour and give it to people, knowing they would take it home and kill a huge number more of their family, is too terrible to consider.”….