Domestic violence response needs same urgency as terrorism

Courts, police and services on the frontline of Australia’s domestic violence crisis are “causing harm,” the nation’s top expert has warned, in a plea for more resources to protect vulnerable women and children.

Calling for the scourge of abuse to be taken as seriously as “terrorism”, Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner Micaela Cronin on Wednesday handed down the first report card into the national response.

The report highlighted an alarming 43 per cent spike in the rate of police recorded DV-related sexual assaults for women between 2014 and 2022.

Meanwhile, the federal government will on Thursday introduce changes to the family law system that would ensure family and domestic violence can be taken into consideration in property settlements for separating families.

It can be exclusively revealed that National Legal Aid is calling on Labor to invest $317m in domestic violence legal services to meet demand and stop women being turned away.

“I think that what we need is for the community to take as seriously threats of domestic, family and sexual violence as they take terrorist threats, act on them as urgently and recognise that they are different,” Ms Cronin said.

She said Australia needed to be using all of the tools that are available for tackling terrorism, including monitoring social media, to end violence against women and children.

The first annual report into the 10-year national plan states that “serious concerns have been raised that government systems, including the family court and child protection system, are causing harm, and that police too often misidentify women as the primary aggressor – with terrible consequences – when they are the person most in need of protection”.

It calls for increased accountability for people who use violence and reinforces that “frontline and crisis services need to be better and more sustainably resourced”.

The government also needs to prioritise new data, improve workforce training, boost support for people with lived experience, as well as trauma-informed interventions for men concerned about their behaviour.

But Ms Cronin said she was hopeful because it was all “within our control to change”.

Attorney General Mark Dreyfus said the government’s proposed family law changes would put the “best interests of children at the heart of a simple, safe and fair family law system”.

“Leaving a violent relationship often means relying on the family law system to make parenting and financial arrangements after separation,” he said.

“Victims and survivors of family violence can struggle to achieve a fair division of property after a relationship breakdown, and often suffer long-term financial disadvantage.”

Melanie Alexander, who is a domestic violence unit senior solicitor at Legal Aid NSW said there was a “clear increase” in demand for services, with 60 women on waiting lists for assistance calls daily.

“As a duty solicitor, on any given day I see between six to ten clients, and most of these women present with a real risk of being harmed,” Ms Alexander said.

“I have noticed women presenting with more and more complex issues – often requiring help with an apprehended violence order, as well as housing, debt and parenting issues.”

Speaking in parliament on Wednesday, Assistant Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence, Justine Elliot, reinforced the government’s commitment to the issue saying “one death is one death too many”.