Until every Victorian is safe: Third rolling action plan to end family and sexual violence 2025 to 2027

Tania Farha (CEO, Safe and Equal)

• The Royal Commission gave Victoria a once-in-a-generation opportunity for change.
• Over the past decade, Victoria has made significant progress in implementing the vision of the Royal Commission to prevent and improve responses to family violence.
• The Third Rolling Action Plan continues this important journey. But for that vision to be realised:
  • Services must be properly resourced,
  • the workforce needs to be supported, and
  • the system must be available and responsive to everyone who needs it.
• We must continue to embed Aboriginal self-determination to ensure community led solutions are prioritised and mainstream services can respond in a culturally responsive way.
• We need sustained investment from prevention and early intervention to response and recovery. And we must uplift our responses to sexual violence
• This is an ongoing effort and we must stay the course. We need to keep working together until every Victorian is safe from family and sexual violence.

Conor Pall (Deputy Chair, Victim Survivors’ Advisory Council)

• The Royal Commission made clear that children and young people are not just witnesses to family violence – they are victim survivors in their own right with unique needs.
• Since then, we’ve made progress – Victoria has led the way in our nation-leading reforms to address family violence. But there is still more to do.
• Children and young people need tailored support that reflects their unique experiences.
• We need more dedicated case management for those escaping violence, safe and stable housing, and access to recovery and healing that is child- and young-person centred.
• And we need to make sure that systems work together to keep children and young people safe and supported. We need to focus on early intervention to support children and young people to break cycles of violence.
• The Third Rolling Action Plan is a chance to progress what was started – staying bold, rooted in hope, backed by action, and led by victim survivors, including children and young people.

Matt Tyler (Executive Director –The Men’s Project, Jesuit Social Services)

• The third Rolling Action Plan highlights the need to find more ways of working with men and boys to address family and sexual violence.
• Jesuit Social Services Man Box research, which was completed in partnership with Respect Victoria, found 28% of 18 to 30-year-old men have used at least one form of physical or sexual violence against a current or former intimate partner.
• Mindful of the scale of the challenge, we’ve made significant progress in Victoria. But we need to continue involving men and boys as part of the solution.
• This includes intervening earlier by better responding to boys who have been victims of violence, confronting online forces like violent pornography, embracing technology to promote help seeking, and equipping those in a position to prevent violence with the knowledge, skills and confidence to be effective.
• We must bring a practical focus on program level evidence attending to behaviour change and continue to build our understanding of what works to end family and sexual violence.

Rivka Martin (Chair, Victim Survivors’ Advisory Council)

• The third Rolling Action Plan will keep us focused on supporting Victorians experiencing family and sexual violence.
• Prevention is essential and starts with understanding the signs of coercive control, calling it out and supporting each other from unsafe to safe.
• The Rolling Action Plan makes every effort through policy, legislation, lived experience expertise, and collaboration to support Victim Survivors to heal rather than just “survive after surviving”.
• This involves the whole system and every touchpoint keeping people who use violence in view and supporting victim survivors in ways that reflect their choices and needs. We can do this by working together.
• We need to understand and recognise the sum of all the different parts that make us Victorians who we are. This means taking an intersectional lens, so no one is left behind.
• It’s going to take all of us to end family and sexual violence – government, services, and communities. We need to work together until every Victorian is safe and thriving.