Up to three times as many Australian women have experienced family violence than are current smokers. It is both a credit to the success of the 30-year old quit smoking strategy and a damning indictment of the decades of “turning a blind eye” to family violence in our community.



The national tobacco control strategy has shown us that a sustained and relentless national investment and focus on public education, social change campaigns, regulation and legislative reform can deliver systemic change in community behaviour. In the case of Quit, it has led to a 60% decline in smoking rates since 1985.

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Family violence needs a national approach the size and scale of Quit if we are to alter community attitudes, change the behaviour of the men who commit acts of violence, and stop violence against women.

Following the royal commission into family violence in Victoria, there has been growing political will and groundswell of community support to end family violence in that state. Much of the effort and funds have rightly focused on supporting women and their families but an area that has received limited attention is prevention.

Some may think it is impossible to prevent a man from being violent. But it is possible. Success lies in changing attitudes towards women so that violence is never considered an option.

As with the decades-long and well-funded national Quit strategy, ending family violence will not happen overnight. It requires deep commitment and considerable funds nationally and in every state over the long term. It will take a multi-targeted approach including changes in police practice and laws, policy change, education for people in all age groups and ethnic backgrounds, programs in our schools, universities, sporting clubs and workplaces. It will take acknowledgement across our entire community that equality and respect across gender is not only a right for all, but fundamental to tackling the scourge that is family violence.

It should not take watershed moments like the murder of my son Luke or Jack and Jennifer Edwards before people call for the violence to stop

Research has shown that the strongest predictors for holding violence-supportive attitudes were men who have low levels of support for gender equity. These include condoning violence against women; men controlling decision-making and limiting women’s independence; acceptance of rigid gender stereotypes and roles; and having peer relationships that focus on aggression and disrespect towards women. It is these beliefs that must be challenged and changed.

Tackling gender stereotypes and inequality is a significant challenge. The prevalence of many of these beliefs is extensive among both men and women. One in five Australians think men should take control of relationships and be the head of the household and one in four thinks men make better political judgements.

Intimate partner violence contributes to 5% of the disease burden in Australian women aged 18 to 44 and is the leading preventable contributor to illness, disability and death. Violence against women costs an estimated $21.7bn a year to the Australian economy. But despite this and the impact of family violence on the physical and mental health of millions of women and children, governments, institutions and workplaces are still slow to respond.

Victoria is leading the way in Australia and potentially the world. It has committed a substantial investment – $1.9bn over four years – to tackle family violence, and last week it announced a bill to enshrine gender equality in law – a great start. Perhaps a damning indictment to the rest of the country – Victoria’s investment in family violence exceeds all the other states, territories and national commitment of funds combined.

We need a national approach and more than tokenistic funding at the commonwealth level in order to deliver real change. Quit was successful because it was a national campaign, with consistent messaging and programs led by one organisation delivering the campaign across all states. While great efforts and advances are taking place in Victoria, it is fragmented and in only one state. Family violence is happening across the country. It is apolitical and requires all sides of politics to make it a priority and fund it properly.

Today, I am presenting at the Royal Women’s Hospital’s statewide family violence forum. Leaders across the Victorian health sector are coming together to assess the progress on implementing the new ‘Strengthening Hospital Responses to Family Violence’ strategy, which has a focus on supporting both workers and patients who experience family violence.

As one of the state’s biggest employers of women, the hospital is implementing a behavioural change and intervention program – retraining its workforce on understanding the causes of family violence and giving them the tools to identify and support colleagues and patients experiencing family violence and connecting them to support services. By all accounts, this is an effective and worthwhile program. But it’s interesting to note that, even in a sector dominated by women, behavioural change training is needed. There is still a strong patriarchal culture in health where men are often in senior leadership roles, gender inequality still exists, and bullying is a known problem – particularly among young doctors. Even among our frontline staff dealing with the devastating impacts of family violence, culture needs to change.

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Efforts to address family violence have been dismissed by some as another example of “political correctness gone mad”. I passionately reject that view. What we have today is a world where the root-cause of violence – gender inequality – goes largely unchallenged and where a third to a half of women in some sections of the community have reported experiencing family violence.

It should not take watershed moments like the murder of my son Luke or Jack and Jennifer Edwards before people call for the violence to stop. How quickly we end violence against women and how many women and children can be saved from death, disability and despair, will depend on the political will, financial commitment and priority placed by all levels of government, business, education and individuals.

• Rosie Batty is a family violence campaigner. She is the keynote speaker at the Strengthening Hospital Responses to Family Violence Statewide Forum on Tuesday 28 August

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