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Strong Foundations: building on Victoria’s work to end family violence

[Text on orange background] In 2015, Victoria established Australia's first Royal Commission into Family Violence.

It made 227 recommendations.

[Tania Farha, Safe and Equal] The Royal Commission itself was a significant achievement. No other state and territory or even at federal level has had such an enquiry.

[Joe Ball, Switchboard] From my perspective, you know, the establishment of LGBTIQA+ specific services to respond to our community needs for family violence.

[Nadia Mattiazzo, Women with Disabilities Victoria] We're able to engage with disability services and social services to bring the perspective of women with disabilities.

[Muriel Bamblett, Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency] The coordination and the better working together. The relationships now that we have.

[Conor Pall, Victim Survivors' Advisory Council] The implementation of the Orange Doors across Victoria but also the recognition that there's still more work to be done.

[Text on orange background] The Victorian Government has now implemented all of the Royal Commission's recommendations.

But our task is not yet done. We are working to end family violence in Victoria. Looking forward, we will focus on where we can make the greatest difference.

We must drive down family and sexual violence

[Tania ] I think the best way to drive down family violence in Victoria is to really stop it before it starts.

[Joe] We need to have a keen understanding of the drivers of family violence amongst targeted communities and the community at large. 

[Muriel] It's important to understand that it's not going to be solved by a service system. It's a societal issue and we need to engage more broadly in communities, in schools, in neighbourhoods.

[Text on light pink background] We are focussing on children and young people

[Joe] Every child regardless of who they are, should feel safe and secure in their home.

[Muriel] Violence perpetrated between mum and dad impacts on children in their schooling and sets them up for a life of living with that trauma. They carry that for the whole of their lives and tend to take it into relationships.

[Nadia] Some of those children may or may not have disabilities. So, it's important for them to feel safe. 

[Conor] If we're not supporting children and young people to heal and recover from the impacts of family violence, how are we supporting them to break the cycle of family violence?

[Text on yellow background] We will continue to strengthen support for victim survivors.

[Tania]We need really good recovery processes for people who are experiencing violence.

[Nadia] We need to be more cognisant of individuals and that not everybody is the same.

[Muriel] I think in reality we also need to do the work with perpetrators, the critical element is coordination and better understanding. So no wrong door to be able to address family violence.

[Text on dark pink background] We will respond to change.

[Muriel] I think the key, to me, lays in young people in the future.

[Conor] We need to bolster the foundations that we've built since the 2016 Royal Commission and ensure that the systems that we've created are fit for purpose for all victim survivors.

I think this work is continuous and it's work that is forever evolving.

[Text on blue background] We will better understand and demonstrate our impact.

[Tania] If we can't determine what is happening for a client in their journey and we can't measure whether or not we're driving down violence and whether or not we've got less people experiencing violence. We will never know if we're successful. Measurement and data is such a critical part of this work.

[Joe] We need to listen to victims survivors, that's the best thing we can do. They need to be in every strategy, informing every strategy, from the beginning to the end.

[Text on orange background] We cannot afford to step back from this challenge.

[Tania] Ultimately, we want a healthy and well society and if we have people experiencing these forms of violence, we're not going to achieve the type of society where everyone can feel safe, where everyone is well, and where everyone can reach their greatest potential.

End transcript.

Updated