Anthony Albanese announces $925 million funding to combat gender-based violence

[everybump]

Quote

National cabinet has met to combat gender-based violence after weeks of rallies. 

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced programs to help women escaping violence, as well as several measures to combat toxic male extremist views online. 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-01/national-cabinet-gender-based-violence-live-blog/103788646

[ContentedFleur]

I hope this is the start of a huge paradigm shift. I really do. 

[jojonbeanie]

I wish we would also include children in our discussions about gendered violence as there are very often damaged children left in the wake of family violence.

[Ernegirl]

Credit where it’s due. No sitting on (wringing) hands.

[WaitForMe]

“Toxic male extremist views online” - hmm I hope this doesn’t become a distraction to the actual issue. I can see pros and cons to including this.

[Darryl]

From the ABC:

Also announced today was an investment of $925.2 million over five years to permanently establish the Leaving Violence Program.

The program aims to help those fleeing violence:

• Receive financial support of up to $5000
• Safety assessments
• Referrals to support pathways

This comes on top of a previously announced $2.3 billion in measures to help address violence against women.

On top of this, the government has:

• Expanded eligibility for parenting payment single 
• Legislated ten days paid family and domestic violence leave
• Increased rent assistance 
• Invested in crisis accommodation and affordable housing for women and children escaping violence.

The Leaving Violence Program will be funded in the upcoming May Budget to support the aims of the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-32.

[Kiwi Bicycle]

21 minutes ago, WaitForMe said:

“Toxic male extremist views online” - hmm I hope this doesn’t become a distraction to the actual issue. I can see pros and cons to including this.

It's mainly about AI and deep fake sexually explicit content, as it will be banned. It's been chucked in there, at least it could stop ex partners creating content to blackmail women.

[amdirel]

3 hours ago, Darryl said:

 

The program aims to help those fleeing violence:

• Receive financial support of up to $5000

I wonder how many times one person is eligible for this 5k...

[Jolly_F]

It’s a start. The family law changes will be another move in the right direction, waiting to see them tested out over the coming months… 

I am tired of people saying Albo should change bail laws… ummm he can’t, that’s state law, he is at federal level. He can ask the states and I hope he has but he can’t make them do it. How do people not understand how it works?! 

[Ernegirl]

17 minutes ago, Jolly_F said:

It’s a start. The family law changes will be another move in the right direction, waiting to see them tested out over the coming months… 

I am tired of people saying Albo should change bail laws… ummm he can’t, that’s state law, he is at federal level. He can ask the states and I hope he has but he can’t make them do it. How do people not understand how it works?! 

I hope the federal initiative will nudge them into action for bail law reforms. NSW are already mooting it. Fingers crossed.

[Meepy]

I find it incredibly frustrating that people don’t understand the division of powers.  Criminal law is states jurisdiction.  
Didn’t people learn from the pandemic that the Federal government has limited powers?

[Crombek]

Do they even teach civics in high school anymore? That's where I remember learning this stuff. 

[Kadoodle]

7 minutes ago, Crombek said:

Do they even teach civics in high school anymore? That's where I remember learning this stuff. 

Yes we do. In year 9 in Victoria. I dare say many people were not paying attention though, because humanities isn’t sexy or important like STEAM.

[Crombek]

19 minutes ago, Kadoodle said:

Yes we do. In year 9 in Victoria. I dare say many people were not paying attention though, because humanities isn’t sexy or important like STEAM.

Ooh that explains it. The year the kids can't access their frontal lobe

[WaitForMe]

53 minutes ago, Crombek said:

Do they even teach civics in high school anymore? That's where I remember learning this stuff. 

I did Legal Studies in year 12 and loved it, but I often forget this stuff it was so so long ago now. As soon as Jolly_F said it I remembered.

We may have learnt it in earlier grades too but I have zero memory of most stuff learnt back then. 

[jojonbeanie]

3 hours ago, amdirel said:

I wonder how many times one person is eligible for this 5k...

The mother of some of my foster kids has told me she has had $5000 of furniture/white goods vouchers to assist with her resettlement costs at least twice. 

[MB530]

I always have mixed feelings about multiple claims. In a previous work role some years ago families were able to access 12 weeks of free full time childcare under certain crisis situations. This was limited to a maximum of once every 12 months. We had a parent who came back (almost to the week when their 12 months had passed since the last claim) suddenly in crisis again and claiming another 12 weeks of free childcare. 
They usually had 3 days a week of care but went to full time when it was free. Probably did that at least 4 or 5 years in a row that I was aware of. 

[Tess32]

13 hours ago, Crombek said:

Do they even teach civics in high school anymore? That's where I remember learning this stuff. 

They do.  They've already covered some in my son's humanities class in first term in year 7.

[Iamferalz]

What I would like to see is what they have in the UK - called Clara’s Law, where you can make an application to the police to find out if a potential partner has a history of DV.  
It could assist in ending relationships before the sunk costs of having joint property, kids and SAHP losing access to earned wages come into play.

I imagine though that the Federal / State layers make it difficult.  It used to be a problem with WWCCs as well, which until recently were just State based.

[katpaws]

I think the assistance should go towards keeping women and their children in their home and removing the perpetrator.

There needs to be a specific division of the police devoted to domestic violence, like the units that look after sexual assault. This should also be a referral hub for legal and other support.

Victims of DV should have access to free legal advice/representation that is not means tested.

Family Court should take into consideration IVOs, AVOs etc.

Victims of DV should have access to free divorce; if there is an order in place the application fee should be waived.

I really don't think focusing on porn etc is really going to  help.

The issue at hand is the response of police to DV incidents, services that ensure women and children are safe (keeping them in their home), increasing penalties for DV perpetrators (actual jail terms for substantive periods of time), IVOs etc should be on criminal records, people who are convicted of DV related assaults should have WWCC (etc) removed, there needs to be a specific DV police unit, all police officers need to be educated about DV etc. All DV victims need access to free legal representation and this should be available in regards to IVO etc applications in court; there should be a DV prosecution unit.

[Kiwi Bicycle]

4 minutes ago, katpaws said:

I really don't think focusing on porn etc is really going to  help.

 

It was a law that was going to happen anyway, they just included here as it was good to go, plus there has been cases of revenge deep fakes. It is an issue, so don't  dismiss it. It's a cherry to the package. Nice to have, not that a big impact but will help and needed to be done.

[amdirel]

20 minutes ago, katpaws said:

I think the assistance should go towards keeping women and their children in their home and removing the perpetrator.

 

There is a program for this already, it's called Staying Home Leaving Violence.

Edit- in NSW anyway. Not sure about other states.

Edited May 1 by amdirel

[Jolly_F]

1 hour ago, katpaws said:

I think the assistance should go towards keeping women and their children in their home and removing the perpetrator.

There needs to be a specific division of the police devoted to domestic violence, like the units that look after sexual assault. This should also be a referral hub for legal and other support.

Victims of DV should have access to free legal advice/representation that is not means tested.

Family Court should take into consideration IVOs, AVOs etc.

Victims of DV should have access to free divorce; if there is an order in place the application fee should be waived.

 

Most women (in my experience) don’t want stay in the home, they generally never feel safe there again. So they are happy to leave and start fresh, hopefully when they cannot be found. 

The family court does take family violence orders and will even more so with the new changes! 

A divorce really isn’t the issue. Thats the least of the worries after leaving. A property settlement is far more important and Legal Aid in many states are now assisting with that. Also you can get a divorce cheaper if eligible! 

[Crombek]

It would also be nice if there was some way to flag FV notifications when a child enrols in a school. Starting school is another push point for FV escalation, as the perp can't easily hide anymore. 

We get them once children are enrolled but so many times kids turn up at kinder and then suddenly there are all these issues and police turning up and we had no idea at all the family was vulnerable. And we would probably have done a lot of things different from the get go.

[nom_de_plume]

I'll add to the list of wants - a national database for convicted violence against women offenders (like the sex offender register) and enforcement of DVO/IVO conditions and breaches. 

In my lived experience the police were quick to attend and apply for an IVO on my behalf, but did absolutely nothing to enforce the conditions and breaches. The offender was still showing up at my work, social events, sports games etc (clearly still monitoring my movements) and then trying to get other people to pass messages onto me on his behalf. I reported this to the police every single time it happened and they refused to do anything because they didn't deem his behaviour as risky/threatening.