Australia is spending over $700m to curb domestic violence — but it's unclear if it's working

Updated

After almost a decade of action and more than $700 million in funding committed, a scathing review has raised concerns about the effectiveness of Australia's domestic violence strategy.

Key points: The report argued performance monitoring and evaluation of the plan had not been sufficient

It made five recommendations, which the Department of Social Services' has agreed to

The 12-year partnership is entering its fourth and final stage after its inception in 2010

Commonwealth auditor-general Grant Hehir reviewed the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children, arguing the Department of Social Services' effectiveness in implementing the plan had been reduced by a lack of attention to planning and performance measurement.

"Performance monitoring, evaluation and reporting is not sufficient to provide assurance that governments are on track to achieve the National Plan's overarching target and outcomes," the audit found.

"In order to assess and demonstrate the achievements of the National Plan as a whole, the department will need to develop new measures of success and data sources, plan for evaluations beyond the National Partner initiatives and improve public transparency."

The 12-year partnership with state and territory governments is now entering its fourth and final stage since being introduced by the Gillard Government in 2010.

The strategy's vision was that "Australian women and children live free from violence in safe communities".

According to advocacy groups, on average one woman a week is murdered by her current or former partner in Australia.

To measure this, the government set a target for "a significant and sustained reduction in violence against women and their children".

In the strategy's latest annual report, the department claimed the prevalence of violence against women in Australia had been falling since at least 1996.

"However, declining trends in the two forms of violence targeted by the National Plan — sexual violence and domestic violence — have recently reversed," the annual report said.

"In particular, the prevalence of sexual violence against women saw a statistically significant increase between 2012 (1.2 per cent) and 2016 (1.8 per cent)."

Data on the number of women murdered by her current or former partner since the plan began is difficult to ascertain.

'This is not a game'

The report argued the annual progress reports were not providing a sufficient level of information "for public transparency and accountability".

The audit also found that an implementation plan for the Third Action Plan was not completed before it began, reducing the transparency of government actions, what it committed to and its accountability on whether it delivered.

Mr Hehir made five recommendations including developing a national implementation plan for the final stage and the department develop new ways to measure the strategy's success.

The department has agreed to all five recommendations and said work to implement the changes was underway.

The new Families and Social Services Minister Anne Ruston said the department welcomed the insights and the findings would help to shape the final stage.

"The Australian Government will continue to work with key National Plan stakeholders to ensure women and their children are able to live free from violence now and into the future," Ms Ruston said.

The Coalition has committed $328 million for the next three years — the single largest Commonwealth contribution made to the plan since it began.

But the Shadow Minister for Families and Social Services Linda Burney has warned the strategy's implementation needs to be improved if the funding is to spent effectively.

"This is not a game," Ms Burney said.

"This is a serious business where the Government needs to demonstrate that they have in place the proper implementation and accountability plan for their fourth action plan on violence against women."

Topics: community-and-society, domestic-violence, men, women, family-and-children, australia

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