00:00I think it is a stark reminder that family violence remains one of the most significant
00:08crime and safety issues in Victoria and even though we are now 11 years since the horrific
00:14killing of Luke Batty which really skyrocketed this issue onto the political agenda and into
00:20the public conversation, these crime statistics show us that family violence continues to
00:26be a significant issue particularly for women and children across this state.
00:32Police responding to an incident every five minutes, do we have any sense of why we are
00:36seeing this rise?
00:38I think on a glass half full kind of day I would say it is fantastic that police are responding
00:44and that we are recording incidents of family violence.
00:46We know that decades ago that wasn't the case, this was seen as a private issue where victim
00:51survivors did not feel that they could call the police and report and police did not necessarily
00:56respond.
00:57What though with the glass half empty it certainly reminds us is we have a long way to go in
01:03terms of addressing the underlying causes of family violence offending and seeing a reduction
01:08in those rates.
01:09So we cannot take our foot off the pedal in terms of scaling up responses and prevention
01:16for family violence in Victoria.
01:19Do we know whether this worrying trend in Victoria is being mirrored nationally?
01:24We certainly know that across the country family domestic and sexual violence is a national
01:29crisis.
01:30We saw the Prime Minister declare that last year.
01:32Our national plan to end violence against women and children recognising recognises the
01:38breadth of this problem.
01:40It's impacting every single corner of the Australian community.
01:44Encouragingly, we have seen states and territories introduce different plans, frameworks, strategies
01:50to address it.
01:51What these crime statistics as well as others in each of the states and territories remind
01:56us is we need to act and we need to fund at a scale commensurate with the problem.
02:03And we've never done that.
02:04Kate, you talk about these plans and frameworks, but what interventions do we know work in bringing
02:10down domestic and family violence rates?
02:13Look, there's a range of different initiatives, promising initiatives and evidence-based initiatives
02:18that are underway in Victoria and across Australia and that really sit across the spectrum of prevention,
02:24early intervention, response and then critically, recovery and healing.
02:29And we know that we won't address this crisis without doing that full breadth of work.
02:34As you mentioned, I have the tremendous honour of sitting as chair of Respect Victoria and
02:39we were in Ballarat late last week to announce the launch alongside Minister Hutchins of Respect
02:44Ballarat, which is a whole of community people powered prevention initiative that is working
02:50alongside the community of Ballarat to use community based initiatives, education programs, early
02:58intervention programs with boys and men to target and ultimately drive down gendered violence
03:03in that city.
03:04Kate, we've got the AFL grand final on this weekend, the NRL finals the week after.
03:09And unfortunately, we know that that comes with a significant spike in domestic violence.
03:15Does that mean that extra support services are going to be made available?
03:18How are we preparing for that?
03:20It does, Ruby.
03:21We know that this weekend across Victoria, the specialist family violence sector will be gearing
03:26up for an increase in reported incidences.
03:29Isn't that terrifying?
03:31You've just mentioned the Victoria Police statistics and yet specialist services anticipate that family
03:36violence incidents will go up by up to 20% over this three day long weekend.
03:43The really important message to stress for anyone who feels that their safety may be at risk
03:49or who is experiencing violence is those services are available to you.
03:53If you're at immediate risk, you should always call Victoria Police, triple O.
03:58If you need crisis accommodation or support, safe steps, 1800RESPECT are also really important
04:04avenues for you.
04:06And what about everyone else, Kate?
04:08Like on an individual level, not people who are at risk, what can other people do to ensure
04:12that they're playing their part in combating domestic and family violence?
04:17I think a really important part of the conversation that we're starting to talk about more, but we
04:21haven't always, is speaking to men.
04:24This is predominantly, although not exclusively, men's violence.
04:28And so heading into the grand final weekend, I'd put a call out to men that if you are aware
04:34that you may have problematic behaviour, if you are using violence, there are supports
04:38available for you, get help, seek advice heading into this weekend, knowing that you may be
04:44at higher risk of using those problematic behaviours over the three day weekend.
04:49The men's referral service and the men's line are both available to support people who are
04:53concerned about their use of family violence.
04:57And then for family and friends, you know, call out bad behaviour if you can do so safely.
05:03Encourage your friends, your family members to be better, to be respectful and to treat people
05:08in a way that doesn't compromise their safety.
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