24th September, 2015
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has unveiled a $100 million package of measures to tackle domestic violence, saying that he wants to make it ‘unAustralian’ to disrepect women.
The funding, which will be used to provide frontline support and services for women including new the use of technologies to help keep them safe as well as providing education resources to change attitudes, comes as figures show 63 women in Australia have died so far this year as a result of domestic violence while one in six women has experienced violence from a current or former partner.
Announcing the package along with domestic violence campaigner and Australian of the Year Rosie Batty, Mr Turnbull said violence against women is "one of the great shames of Australia", labelling it a "national disgrace".
He said that while disrespecting women did not always result in violence against women, "all violence against women begins with disrespecting women".
"Disrepecting women is unacceptable," he said. "It is unacceptable at every level. At home, at the workplace, wherever…Now, of course, the majority of men do respect women. But many do not. And we have to make it as though it was unAustralian to disrespect women. We must become a country which is known for its respect for women."
Under the package, $17 million will be used to expand programs which enable women to get CCTV, panic buttons and better security systems to help keep them safe and $12 million will be used to trial the use of GPS tracking technologies for perpertrators in conjunction with the states.
Funded measures also include providing mobile phones to women, expanding a national telephone and online counselling and information service, further resourcing initiatives to prevent perpetrators reoffending, increasing training for frontline staff responding to domestic violence incidents and the trialling of integrated service models. The sum of $5 million will be spent expanding the Safer Schools website in a bid to help change the attitudes of young people towards violence.
– DAVID ADAMS
