Given that Australia may be only just beginning to understand the scale of the challenge, the imperative to supercharge our prevention efforts is clear. To work towards the aims of the National Plan, we must widen our approach, as well as the lens we apply to the problem – zooming out to see the connections and this state of emergency’s full dimensions. This report has recommended ways to unlock the prevention potential along a spectrum of intervention, as well as within mechanisms that can be enabled to do more.

At the outset of this Review, the panel insisted that each of this report’s recommendations must be tested with the full range of communities that it is likely to impact. Implementation of these recommendations also requires a dismantling of siloed ways of working – overcoming the barriers of federation, where feasible, in the spirit adopted when facing other threats presenting on a national scale.

The Review’s recommendations are intended as an acceleration – a surge of attention and energy on a journey which many have travelled for years. Its purpose has been to spotlight some obvious investment needs while opening doors to new possibilities, both immediately and over the longer term.

The Review had the privilege of examining evidence and receiving briefings from a wide range of existing bodies, statutory authorities, communities, practitioners and advocates with lived experience. The Review panel was struck by the generosity and commitment of all those who participated, despite the extremely rapid timeframes – and we thank them for their time and for recognising the window of momentum that the Review represents.

The fact that the Review process quickly identified so many areas ripe for meaningful reform, is also a sign of promise. Put simply, there is a lot more that can be done if we draw on lessons available across multiple sectors and approach the task in an expansive and collaborative way. That in itself should be a cause for energy and action.

By commissioning this Review and outlining broad Terms of Reference, the Commonwealth has recognised that prevention of violence can be seen as core business for every workforce, community and individual. Similarly, by commissioning this Review and recognising DFSV as an issue of truly national significance, governments at all levels will have a mandate for bold action – a prevention potential that the Review now invites them to seize.