14 May 2024

Important steps were made in the Federal Budget tonight towards ending men’s use of family violence, but they need to be integrated under a broader strategy, according to No to Violence, the largest peak body for organisations and people working to stop men’s use of family violence. 

“Tonight the Government highlighted the number of women dying as a result of men’s violence and in recent weeks the Prime Minister and Attorney-General have both emphasised the crucial need to address men’s violence,” said Phillip Ripper, CEO of No to Violence. 

“But right now we have a fragmented approach to this, and this is reflected in this Budget. We desperately need a commitment to developing a comprehensive National Perpetration Strategy that ensures a co-ordinated national approach to ending men’s use of family violence.”

Mr Ripper said there were some important initiatives announced in tonight’s Budget. Improved collaboration and information sharing across state and territory law enforcement agencies, increased crisis accommodation, extension of the leaving violence payment, new placement payments for social work students, the implementation of the National Higher Education Code, the provision of trauma‑informed local outreach healthcare for victim-survivors, and support for temporary visa holders, among others, are all welcome announcements.

“A number of new initiatives did highlight to the need to end men’s use of violence, but we need these to be co-ordinated to ensure maximum impact,” said Mr Ripper. “So, it was great to see the $3.9 million in resourcing to support whole-of-government coordination efforts through the Office for Women.”

“However we were disappointed by the lack of investment is front line services working with men to change their behaviour.”

“We were pleased to see an independent expert panel will undertake a rapid review in coming months on additional efforts to end the cycle of violence (with focus on high‑risk perpetrators and prevention of homicide) and significant research funding has been invested to further build the evidence base needed on pathways into and out of perpetration to ensure we develop targeted and effective interventions to end men’s violence.”

“But these initiatives need to be integrated. For example, the NSW government announced $5 million for perpetration research last week and there is a parliamentary inquiry underway in Victoria right now on better understanding the nature and scale of men’s use of family violence, as well as an ANROWS grant round on people using violence due to be announced this month.”

“An over-arching national perpetration strategy would ensure we didn’t waste much needed resources with duplication.” 

Please contact David Sutherland at davids@ntv.org.au or 0405 354 343.

About No to Violence  

No to Violence (NTV) is Australia’s largest and only national peak body for organisations that work with men who use family violence, providing training, sector development and advocacy across the sector.

NTV also operates the Men’s Referral Service, providing a counselling service and referral pathways directly to men who use violence.