All Australian governments are working to eradicate a ‘national disgrace’ with the announcement of the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032, and rural Australia has finally made the cut. 

The plan is designed to address a problem of ‘epidemic proportions’ in Australia, where one woman dies every ten days at the hands of their former or current partner, where one in three women have experienced physical violence since the age of 15, and where one in five have experienced sexual violence.

The National Plan will be underpinned by four priority areas, including prevention, early intervention, response and recovery and healing. 

For the first time, the plan will also engage men and boys, a crucial conversation shift to hold perpetrators to account. 

Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth said the release of the plan marks an important step in addressing violence against women and children. 

“This National Plan gives us a clear blueprint for the next ten years to end gender-based violence in one generation,” Ms Rishworth said. 

The solution is not imminent, however, with two five-year action plans only just beginning development, and set to be delivered in 2023. 

So far, experts including Director of the Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre Kate Fitz-Gibbon have conducted consultation around what the plan should include and needs to provide.

“This National Plan represents a much-needed decade long commitment to eliminate the national crisis of domestic, family and sexual violence,” Professor Fitz-Gibbon said. 

“The voices of victim-survivors have been embedded into the Plan’s development. It is essential that the commitment to valuing the expertise of lived experience continues over the life of the Plan,” she said. 

The challenge resounds with the rural community of Western NSW, where according to the Western NSW Community Legal Centre (WNSWCLC), people in remote and very remote Australia were 24 times more likely to be hospitalised for family or domestic abuse than people in major cities in 2016-2017. 

In 2020, WNSWCLC Solicitor Hannah Robinson wrote within a submission for the federal inquiry into family domestic and sexual violence that the former and current National Plans didn’t do enough to address the factors of geography. 

“It’s not a title that any region wants to have, but the Far West and Orana Region is the worst in NSW for family and domestic violence,” Ms Robinson said. 

“No mention is made in the National Plan of the rates or severity of family and domestic abuse against women and children in regional, rural and remote communities. Only fleeting mention is made of geographic isolation as a driving and reinforcing factor of family and domestic abuse,” she wrote.

In the newly announced National Plan, however, regional and remote experiences rate a mention not only in terms of higher rates of violence, but in recognition of service gaps available to victims. 

For the plan entering the next decade, extensive consultations were held with victim-survivors, advocacy groups, specialist services, researchers, representatives from the health, law and justice sectors, business and community groups, and state and territory governments. 

From the findings, it was concluded that the plan will focus on a myriad of factors including advancing gender equality, changing attitudes to stop violence and embedding early intervention approaches. 

A standalone Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander National Plan will also be developed in recognition that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children experience unacceptably high rates of violence. 

If you or someone you know is impacted by family, domestic or sexual violence, call 1800RESPECT 24 hours, seven days a week on 1800 737 732 or visit www.1800RESPECT.org.au