Why is Domestic Violence prevention on the scrapheap?

An open letter to the people of Australia

At the end of February cuts will come into force that will shut down the great majority of support for those women and children stuck in abusive relationships. A Fairfax Media investigation has uncovered more than 50 different services across Australia that are cutting staff, closing entirely or slashing programs. The groups provide victims of domestic violence with services ranging from applying for intervention orders to obtaining emergency food and medical supplies.

This is only the first wave of cuts, with more due to come into force at the start of July. How can we, as a nation, say we are fighting domestic violence when we are destroying the only support network the women and children suffering this abuse have? Everything is under threat, from the most basic food and medical supplies, to legal help to keep the abuser from re-offending, to the very refuges which are often the only places that these victims have to go.

All of the services are already stretched to breaking point and now many will be lost completely as the only funding available to them is callously removed as a part of this brutally unfair budget. $300 million in cuts to these most essential of services, at a time when we are paying mining companies $2 billion – 6.6 times the amount we are cutting from the desperately needed services – so that they can make more obscene profits on the coal that should never have been mined.
This is something we must stand against. To allow these cuts to take place without a fight would be criminal negligence.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE STATISTICS

The vast majority of dangerous, abusive and violent behaviour that occurs in the privacy of people's homes is committed by men against women. The most recent information on violence in Australia comes from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Personal Safety Survey (national survey of 16,400 adults in Australia aged 18 years and over) conducted in 2005. The first issue of this survey was conducted in 1996. The 2005 survey found:

• Just under half a million Australian women reported that they had experienced physical or sexual violence or sexual assault in the past 12 months.

• More than a million women had experienced physical or sexual assault by their male current or ex-partner since the age of 15 (some women may be counted twice if they experienced both physical and sexual assault).

• 37.8% of women who experienced physical assault in the 12 months before the survey said the perpetrator was a current or previous male partner and 34.4% said the perpetrator was a male family member or friend. Most incidences of physical assault against women in the 12 months prior to 2005 were committed in a home (64.1%).

• 33.3% of women had experienced physical violence since the age of 15.

• 19.1% of women had experienced sexual violence since the age of 15.

• 12.4% of women had been sexually abused before the age of 15, compared with 4.5% of men, between 1996 and 2005. There was an increase in the reporting of sexual assault to police from 14.9% to 18.9% between 1996 and 2005 and there was an increase in the reporting of physical violence to police from 18.5% to 36%.

• 64% of women who experienced physical assault and 81.1% of women who experienced sexual assault still did not report it to police. The proportion of women aged between 18 and 34 who reported experiencing physical violence has decreased but the proportion of women who reported experiencing physical violence after 45 increased over the same period. The percentage of women who reported that their children had witnessed partner-related violence either from a current or ex-partner was lower than in 1996.

• The majority of violence against men is committed by other men. Of men who reported that they had experienced physical violence in the 12 months before the survey, 73.7% said that the perpetrator was a male.

Source: http://anrows.org.au/sites/default/files/Violence-Against-Australian-Women-Key-Statistics.pdf

So what can we do? I ask you all to send this to your MP’s, especially those who have newly-elected MP’s. Let them know that this is not an issue that can be ignored, that it must be reversed and wherever possible additional funding, not cuts, should be made to these essential front line services.

Do not stand by while the most vulnerable in our society are denied even that little help, and hope, they currently have. This is the time. Use it. Say “No!” to cuts to the community services, refuges and charities that are the only source of hope and aid to so many.

For more information on how to prevent violence against women, or for media comment visit www.preventviolence.org.au 

For more information and research about violence against women visit www.anrows.org.au

If you are experiencing domestic and family violence, or have experienced sexual assault, seek support, call 
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732).