17 April 2026

No to Violence welcomes Paul Edbrooke MP as Victoria’s first Minister for Men and Boys, the first role of its kind in Australia.

No to Violence CEO Phillip Ripper said the appointment recognised the scale and complexity of the problem.

“We know that earlier identification of harmful attitudes and behaviour, and direct engagement with boys and men, is key to ending family violence in Victoria,” Mr Ripper said. “The new Ministry reflects a growing awareness of the drivers shaping attitudes and the need to intervene before harm escalates.”

Family violence remains one of Victoria’s most serious and costly public policy challenges, yet system responses continue to intervene too late, often after violence has escalated into crisis.

Recent data underscores the scale of men’s use of violence and its widespread impact. Findings from the Ten to Men study show that 1 in 3 men (35%) self-report using intimate partner violence, with an estimated 120,000 men beginning to use violence each year. Applied to Victoria’s male population of 3.2 million, this equates to more than 1.1 million men who may use violence over their lifetime.

The impact is reflected in victimisation data, with an estimated 999,300 Victorian women having experienced physical or sexual violence since the age of 15, while national research indicates nearly 40% of Australians were exposed to domestic violence as children.

Despite this scale, only a fraction of those identified are meaningfully engaged by the service system, highlighting a structural failure to convert identification into sustained intervention and behaviour change.

Mr Ripper said the state was at a turning point in its response to family violence.

“Victoria’s current family violence plan is due to run out next year, and there is still no dedicated whole-of-government strategy focused on people who use violence,” he said.

“With a State Budget approaching in an election year, there is a clear opportunity to invest in prevention and early intervention and avoid a growing budget black hole, where governments are forced to spend more and more on policing, courts and crisis responses without reducing violence.

“Without that investment, the budget shortfall between what is spent responding to violence and what is invested in preventing it will continue to widen, and we will keep seeing men identified but not engaged, and violence escalate.”

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About No to Violence   

No to Violence is the Australian peak body for organisations and individuals committed to ending men’s use of family violence.  We support specialist men’s family violence services and operate the national Men’s Referral Service, a 24/7 telephone and online counselling and referral service to link men to the support they need to get on a pathway of change and end their use of family violence.  We undertake research, training and advocacy and work with governments, employers and business to stop family violence at the source. 

Please list the Men’s Referral Service with all Domestic, Sexual and Family Violence stories: The Men’s Referral Service provides counselling and referrals for men who are concerned about their behaviour: 1300 766 491 

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