The Orange Door network has delivered ground-breaking family violence system reform. It operates as one of a kind in Australia.
The commencement of all The Orange Door areas represents a milestone in our efforts to address the issue of family violence for all victim survivors and improve the wellbeing of children and young people through the delivery of critical services to clients and families needing support across the state.
The Victorian government has led with an unprecedented commitment to tackle family violence, investing more than $3.86 billion since 2016.
The first Orange Door was established in Bayside Peninsula May 2018. Within four years, all eighteen locations were operational throughout metropolitan and regional Victoria.
The network has supported more than 368,000 Victorians, including 149,000 children. As an integrated system, The Orange Door operates with the support of community leaders, advocates and partner agencies. As a service system, it represents our determination to respond consistently to family violence and to child wellbeing across our state.
In January 2023, the Victorian Government announced that all recommendations of the 2016 Royal Commission into Family Violence had been implemented.
This track record of commitment, reform and investment also serves as recognition in Victoria that our work is not yet done. Intimate partner violence is perpetrated at high rates with devastating and at times tragic consequences. Victorian women are victims of family violence related murder, occurring at more than one death a week nationwide. Family violence remains the greatest contributor to early death, disability and illness in women aged between 15 and 44 years. Children and young people continue to suffer at unacceptably high rates, as illustrated by the Australian Child Maltreatment Study that found two thirds of Australians have been abused, neglected or exposed to domestic and family violence as children.
However, unlike many other jurisdictions, and after eight years of family violence reform, we now find ourselves in Victoria at a point of reflection following the publication of Strong Foundations: Building on Victoria’s work to end Family Violence and other rolling action plans.
We must now measure progress against service access, service inclusion and consistent standards of service delivery particularly in relation to risk assessment, risk management and safety. Self-determined responses to family violence must continue to be a statewide priority.
We are committed to public reporting of these outcomes. Shared information, data and reviews are opportunities for all of us to reflect on this unique era of advancing Victoria’s reform agenda. It is an opportunity to identify what more needs to be done, drawing on the determination that has brought us this far. This is how we will continue to review the unique operation of the Orange Door network in Victoria and the reform of the family violence service system across the state.
Dr Melanie Heenan
Deputy Secretary
Updated