About this document
This information is from the Expert Panel.
The information is about the review of what more could be done to stop violence of women and children.
It is written in a way that is easy to understand.
You can read more about this topic on the website.
Hard words are written in bold. This means the letters are darker and thicker.
The Rapid Review
The Australian Government has been working to end violence of women and children.
To end violence of women and children changes are needed to:
- how our society works
- how government and services work together
Some changes have helped to stop violence. But violence of women and children is still a big problem.
The Australian Government wanted to know what more could be done to end violence of women and children.
They asked for advice from an expert panel. An expert panel is a group of people that knows a lot about the topic.
The panel had 12 weeks to:
- talk with victim-survivors
These are people who have experienced violence. - talk to expert groups
- read reports given to them
- and talk with services.
This is called a rapid review.
What the review found
The review found 5 important ideas for Australia to follow in the plan to end violence of women and children. These are called principles.
Principles
- Make the experiences and needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples a priority.
A priority is something that is more important than other things. A priority is something that needs to be done.
- Understand that stopping violence at home and in families is part of a bigger problem.
Know that some people have it harder because of race, money, age, disability, sexuality or where they live.
- Make sure research is used to find new ideas to make things better.
Involve the people and communities in testing new ideas to make sure they work.
- Collect more data to better understand violence of women and children.
- Keep looking at how technology changes.
Look at both the good things and problems it might make.
What more can be done to end violence of women and children
The review provided a list of ways that the Australian Government could do more to end violence of women and children.
An ongoing national priority
Working to end violence of women and children needs to keep being a priority.
Other priorities are:
- make sure local supports respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures
- look into the information given by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, families and communities on people that have gone missing
- think about what other communities need, like refugees, women and children with disability, LGBTIQA+ people, older women and regional and remote communities.
Stopping violence by working with people
Australia should look at what is working in other parts of the world to stop violence.
This should include violence of LGBTIQA+ people, older women and regional and remote communities.
The Australian, State and Territory governments should work together to:
- speed up work to support children and young people who have experienced violence
- work with men and boys on stopping violence
- make changes so women can have and use money more easily
- educate the community on what to do if they see violence.
Stopping violence by services
The Australian, State and Territory governments should work together to:
- find out who is missing out on support they need
- provide more funding:
- to help with legal problems
- and for accommodation, travel and support for people leaving violence
- improve how doctors and other health professionals can help
- improve programs that try to stop men or boys being violent
- improve how services work together and share information.
Stopping violence by systems
The Australian State and Territory governments should work together to check how people are using government systems to hurt women and children.
Help to help stop violence of women and children could also happen through changes made to gambling, selling alcohol, reporting news, and who can see online pornography.
The Australian Government could also work with other agencies like:
- eSafety Commission
- Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education
- National Domestic Family and Sexual Violence Commission
Stopping violence by learning and using data
We need to know the facts about what works to stop violence of women and children.
The Australian government should improve data so we can:
- better understand violence of women and children
- know what works to stop violence
- know what doesn’t work to stop violence.