1 May 2024

We cannot stop family violence without stopping men’s use of violence.

Women, children, and communities deserve to live safe and dignified lives free from the threat of family violence. But they are not safe in the current system. There needs to be radical change.

“Today was a missed opportunity to recognise that what we’ve been doing is not working to keep women and children safe from family violence,” said Phillip Ripper, CEO of No to Violence (NTV), the largest peak body of organisations working with men to end family violence.

“We need radical change to focus on the real problem, and that is men using family violence.”

“While we welcome the Prime Minister’s national leadership, ending family violence requires a focus on the men who use family violence. The Albanese Government has a clear mandate to end family violence in a generation.”

To stop men’s use of family violence, NTV is calling for a national perpetration strategy to focus on the source of the family violence, men’s use of violence.

We need a National Perpetration Study

• Very little is known about men using violence. We need to develop a deeper understanding of pathways into and pathways out of using family violence.

We need innovative new ways of ending men’s use of violence 

• We can’t police our way out of family violence due to the scale of the problem, the inequitable impact of criminalisation on marginalised communities, and the lack of evidence that incarceration is effective in the long term.
• Non-carceral responses predominantly focus on Men’s Behaviour Change Programs (MBCPs), which require increased resourcing to deliver best practice standards.
• But there is no one-size-fits-all model as MBCPs are not suitable for all men using violence. The diversity of men using violence necessitates diverse responses to ensure meaningful behaviour change.
• We need a broad suite of targeted, effective, and timely interventions that must include trauma-informed therapeutic 1-1 work, whole-of-family responses, and targeted interventions for specific cohorts, such as high-risk men, men with complex needs, like drug and alcohol problems, and culturally appropriate pathways out.

• Community responses must be supported. 50% of women experiencing family violence don’t tell anyone; and of those who do, 67% tell trusted people. What families, friends, neighbours, and bystanders do matters.

We need government leadership

Government leadership must focus on:

• Ending systems abuse: Government systems enable men using violence to weaponise the justice system, child protection, family law, and child support. Systems abuse disproportionately impacts marginalised people. The loopholes in government systems that enable this abuse must be closed.
• Creating a coordinated and integrated systems response to men’s use of family violence across police, justice, child protection, housing and homelessness, health services legal services, mental health, alcohol and other drugs services amongst others.
• Supporting services and the skilled and passionate practitioners on the frontline.  To do this government funding must reflect the real cost of delivering innovative and effective services and build a highly qualified workforce.

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.