he Greens welcome the government’s review to improve prevention of violence against women, but frontline services remain underfunded and women continue to be killed by men’s violence.
Australian Greens leader in the Senate and spokesperson on women, Larissa Waters
“Prevention must be prioritised to stop women being killed by men’s violence and to dismantle our persistent rape culture. We welcome this review of existing prevention programs but are alarmed there is no funding in the Budget for whatever the review recommends.
“We need well-funded, effective national education campaigns for the prevention of violence against women, including efforts in sporting clubs, workplaces and other places where adults gather. Early evidence is that saturating local areas with prevention and behaviour change programs can reduce violence, so these local saturation programs should be evaluated and amply funded.
“For school aged children, consent and respectful relationships education is now mandatory in our national curriculum, but additional funding is needed to properly resource public schools and specialist third-party providers to deliver and implement this essential education.
“Stopping violence against women will take systemic action to tackle root causes and transform harmful social norms, but it also requires adequate funding of the organisations that do the hard work on the frontlines of this epidemic.
“Violence against women is a national emergency, but Labor refuses to fund it like one – crisis accommodation, accredited men’s behaviour change programs, trauma-informed training for first responders and judicial staff – all of these prevent women from being killed by men’s violence.
“Raising the rate of income support would be an immediate act of prevention, noting 60% of single mums have experienced abuse.
“Funding crisis housing and long term affordable housing is another crucial means of preventing violence against women by ensuring women aren’t choosing between violence and homelessness.
“Funding frontline responses services to meet demand is necessary if we are to have any chance of keeping women and children safe. The women’s safety sector has called for $1 billion per year for frontline services to be able to help everyone who seeks it, Labor has so far only committed less than two thirds of this amount.
“How many reviews will it take before Labor stumps up the funding for frontline services to ensure no one who needs help is turned away?”