Australia’s national violence prevention organisation, Our Watch, has published its submission to the South Australian Royal Commission today, outlining the steps the state can take to lead the charge to end gender-based violence.
In its submission to the South Australian Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence, Our Watch outlines opportunities that the state government can build on ahead of the Royal Commission handing down its final recommendations.
They include, prior to the conclusion of the Royal Commission:
Other opportunities outlined in the submission included:
Our Watch CEO Patty Kinnersly said the Royal Commission was an opportunity for South Australia to be a national leader and will provide a blueprint for action moving forward.
“It will provide an important context for the South Australian experience, but many of the solutions are relevant to all Australian states and territories and are laid out in the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and their Children.
“Recruiting and training a prevention workforce takes time. Starting now will ensure a fully qualified workforce is in place to immediately start implementing the Royal Commission’s findings when they are handed down,” Ms Kinnersly said.
“We know speed is of the essence with two in five South Australian women having experienced physical and/or sexual violence since the age of 15, and rates of violence being much higher for Aboriginal women.”
A central action to preventing violence against women is funding and implementing whole-of-school respectful relationships education in all South Australian schools.
“This includes teaching and modelling respectful relationships, starting in primary school with age-appropriate content such as asking for consent to give a friend a hug. It is about teachers and staff modelling respect and positive masculinity, and providing the tools for young people to critically analyse the often harmful content they are bombarded with online.”
The submission outlines the key drivers of violence against women including attitudes that condone violence, harmful and rigid gender stereotypes and disrespect towards women.
“Australian men who hold rigid ideas of what it means to be a man are 17 times more likely to say they have hit an intimate partner,” Ms Kinnersly said.
“While these factors drive the violence, issues like alcohol, drug use and gambling can increase the frequency and severity of violence among men choosing to use violence against an intimate partner.”
Ms Kinnersly said Our Watch will continue to work with the state government to help prevent and end violence against women.
Experience of violence in South Australia:
More broadly, one in four Australian men say they have used violence against an intimate partner.
Please contact media@ourwatch.org.au or call 0448 844 930.
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1800RESPECT is the national domestic, family, and sexual violence counselling, information and support service. If you or someone you know is experiencing, or at risk of experiencing, domestic, family or sexual violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, chat online via www.1800RESPECT.org.au, or text 0458 737 732. Men’s Referral Service: 1300 766 491
Access guides for reporting about violence against women and their children.
Our Watch is a national leader in Australia’s work to stop violence against women and their children before it starts. The organisation was created to drive nation-wide change in the practices, norms, and structures that lead to violence against women and children. Read more about Our Watch here.