National Plan to End violence against women and children in Australia: Lessons for Nigerian Legislators
Introduction
Social policy encompasses standards and ideas set out by the government to achieve in a country within a specified timeframe (Carson & Kerr, 2020); Australian Institute of Family Studies (2023). It encompasses the national interests of States just like what is obtainable in Australia with respect to the National Plan to reduce violence against women and children. Based on the foregoing, this essay seeks to critically evaluate the workings of the National plan to reduce violence against women and children within the timeframe – 2010 – 2022. Furthermore, it will discuss the ideas behind the policy and also evaluate the achievements and challenges of the policy so far.
Rationale for the National plan to End Violence against women
As a country and a continent, Australia could be envied for everything else apart from its record of a high rate of cases of violence against women and children. A further adumbration on this assertion is as presented as follows. In the year 2012, Australia marked a low rate of poverty (11%), with the fifth – largest per capital income globally (Eslick, 2014). Furthermore, when it comes to the maintenance of quality life, education, protection of civil and political liberties and rights economic freedom and quality healthcare, Australia ranks top 5% given the government’s commitment to prioritizing her citizen’s overall welfare.
Nonetheless, irrespective of these good records, the country has an appalling rate of violence against women partly because of the non-inclusion of a non-discrimination clause in the Australian constitution as well as the constitution’s inability to guarantee equal rights of all Australians (Eslick (2014)
Statistically, record shows that one in every three women in Australia has been physically violated since age 15 and 85% of them were assaulted by their former or present partner, friend or other known male; one in five women in Australia has experienced sexual violence since age 15; at least one woman is killed by her former or present male partner in Australia; Aboriginal and Torres strait Islander women become victims of domestic violence, and are 35 times more likely to be taken to the hospital; violence against women and children costs the Australian government over $13 billion annually and women from refuge and immigrant background face domestic violence, and are unable to access adequate assistance from services on account of their attempt to quit their violent relationships (Human Rights Law Centre, n.d); Australian Human Rights Commission, n.d); Australian Human Rights Commission, 2012); Time for Action, 2009).
Thus, it is against this backdrop that the minister for the status of Women, Kate Ellis and the Attorney General Robert McClelland, on 15th February 2011, announced the National plan to reduce violence against women and children 2010 – 2022 – a twelve-year plan approved by the commonwealth and all states and territories, to deal with domestic violence and sexual assault (UN Women Global Database on violence against women, 2023).
The National plan was organised to be executed though a three-year action plan with the approval of the National plan implementation panel. The expected results to be delivered by the National plan are to ensure that:
- Indigenous communities and states are empowered
- Communities are free and safe from violence
- Relationships between men and women are respectful
- Services meet the needs of women and children experiencing violence
- Justice responses on cases of violation of women’s rights are unbiased and effective
- Those who engage in the violation of the rights of women and children must be stopped and held accountable (Andrews & Bonta, 2010).
In another event, it was agreed that the supporting National implementation plan will work out a strategy on how the commonwealth states and Territories would collaborate to implement the national initiatives. And having been built from evidence in line with research and consultation with experts, the National plan to reduce violence against women and children was designed to address issues bordering on the impact of violence and assault on women and children as well as how it can be prevented (Commonwealth of Australia, 2013).
Theoretical Explanation of Violence against Women and Children in Australia
In this section, the Social Control Theory will be used to explain the rationale behind the subjection of women to domestic violence and sexual assault in Australia.
Social Control Theory
Propounded by Thravis Hirschi in 1969, the social control theory opines that people, right form birth, are controlled by rules and regulations that are meant to keep the society in check and people who have a weak bond with social control end up becoming deviant, refusing to be law abiding (Crawford, 2014). The author went ahead to disclose that there are four basic types of bonds that people develop which determine whether or not people would get involved in violent or criminal activities. As highlighted by Hirschi, these bonds include: Attachment, Involvement, Belief and Commitment (Pratt & Franklin, 2011). While the Attachment and Involvement bonds refer to the degree and institutions as well as the implications of being idle, the Belief and Commitment bonds refers to the level at which an individual keep to the values associated with attitudes that conform to the law as well as the essence of social relationships that people prioritise and would not went to ruin by engaging in violence and deviant acts (Pratt, Grau & Franklin, 2011).
This theory explains that violence takes place because its outcome outweighs its implications. This is evident as in Australia, the right of women and child are often being violated by men because there are no laws to sanction them. However, the theory however suggests that in order to reduce domestic violence against women, the implications of such act must be increased.
Successes and Failures of the National Plan to reduce Violence against Women and Children
Having enumerated the expected outcomes of the national plan in the beginning section of this essay, it is important to note that these outcomes were designed to be delivered through a four-year Action Plan namely: First Action Plan (2010 – 2013) – creating a strong foundation, establishing ground work and creating momentum in primary prevention; Second Action plan (2013 – 2016) – moving ahead, consolidating the evidence base for the effectiveness of the strategies and actions executed and ensuring that the programmes are being strengthened; Third Action plan (2016 – 2019) – delivery of formidable progress in best practice policies and fourth Action Plan (2019 – 2022) – anticipation of the delivering of tangible results in terms of indicators of change (Time for Action, 2009). Furthermore, the next paragraph of this essay will focus on the successes, achievements of the National Plan.
Successes
The First Action Plan
In 2013, Australia’s commonwealth, states and territory governments liaised to create a national research body to develop a research on domestic violence. This national body is called National Research organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) and its role is to build a formidable evidence base that will drive critical reform, and develop policies that would reduce violence against women and their children.
In order to support the collation of the data of domestic violence and sexual assault in Australia, many jurisdictions had a consensus to create a National Data Collection and Reporting Framework, to help in monitoring the National plan. Furthermore, the Australian Bureau of statistics collaborated with governments in the beginning part of developing the National Data and Collection Framework (Progress Review of the first Action plan, 2014) and this resulted in the birth of two documents with one, defining the challenge for domestic violence by placing it in a measurable context and two, narrowing the data gap for domestic violence, to evaluate existing data to note data gaps and priorities.
In this Action Plan, it was agreed that the National Community Attitude towards violence Against Women Survey (NCAS), was to be conducted every four years in order to provide current information about peoples’ attitude towards violence against women across different communities in Australia. Other progress that was made in the First Action Plan (2010-2013) include: the launching of an innovative social marketing campaign called “The Line” in 2010 to transform attitudes that spurred violence. This innovation was designed to motivate young people to deliberate on issue bordering on relationships and come up with their own conclusions on which behaviour is better and which is not. Furthermore, governments agreed on a national approach for working with the media to positively transform reporting of violence against women and children. This approach comprises the development of media guides and national resources.
In addition to the progress that had already been made, the commonwealth financed three relationship projects in the country. This is evident as by November, 2019, about 63,000 youths participated in respectful relationships education through these projects. Also, the Australian Bureau of Statistics created the Australian Gender Indicators to provide credible evidence for policy making and development of gender equality and report on relevant information sources to evaluating the achievements of the National Plan (Progress Review of the First Action Plan, 2014).
The Second Action Plan
Progress was also made in the Second Action plan (2013 – 2016). These include: the establishment of a partnership between the Victorian governments and Australia called ‘Our Watch’, an initiative that was aimed at causing attitude and cultural transformation through community engagement; the provision of support for the line campaign to ensure the youth are consistent in the deliberations on relationship issue; the passing of the Enhancing Online Safety for Children Act 2015 in March, 2015 to provide a complaints channel for reporting cyber-bullying actions against children (National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children: 2014-15 Annual Progress Report, 2015) among others.
The Third Action Plan
Some of the achievements of the Third Action plan (2016 – 2019) include: the Australian government’s $100 million investment to improve frontline legal assistance and family law service, assist women and children living in indigenous communities to carry out intervention programmes immediately, support frontline services and prevent sexual violence in the country (Commonwealth of Australia, 2019).
The Fourth Action Plan
In the same vein, some achievements were also made in the fourth Action plan (2019-2022). These include: the passing of the Gender Equality Statement of Commitment to provide a common approach to advocating for the cause of equality for women, men and individuals with gender identities; support of “Our Watch No Excuse for Abuse Campaign” to take place across many platforms in May and September 2020.
Failures
According to Patrick (2021), more than $3 billion invested on the National Plan initiative over the past decade failed to cut down the rate of domestic violence and sexual assault against women in Australia. The author reported that the national plan has not achieved its aim of a tremendous decrease of violence against women and their children. What this means is that while a lot of money has been spent so far on the initiative it has yielded little or no effort thus leading to waste of resources.
There is also the case of political influence. On this note, Patrick (2021) reported that violence against women became a powerful political force, given the numerous reports of sexual harassment and rape as well as the selection of survivor of sexual assault – Grace Tame as ‘Australian of the year’. However, while this gesture might be seen by many as a good one, it, on the other hand, ridicules other people that have suffered the same fate. Such awards can end up enraging victims of domestic violence who do not want their identity or case disclosed.
Also, the fact that the National plan to end violence against Women and Children (2022-2023) ignores one-third of victims of domestic violence as well as the half of victims of emotional abuse who are males, makes it a biased initiative that lacks the capacity to carry everyone along in its mission (The Mirage, 2022). Arguing that the biggest risk factors for sexual assault is boys, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveals that boys between the ages of 0 to 17 are exposed to the risk of sexual assault when compared to adult women (The Mirage, 2022).
Conclusion
The essay critically examined the workings of the National plan to reduce violence against women and children between 2010 to 2022. Split into five segments, the first segment provided an introduction to the essay while the second segment explained the rationale behind the nature and concept of the National Plan. The third segment focused on a theoretical explanation of why women and children are exposed or subjected to violence. This segment highlighted the social control theory while the fourth segment critically analysed the degree of progress made by the National plan, from the First Action plan, to the fourth Action plan as well as the challenges witnessed so far.
photo credit: https://embolden.org.au/resource/national-plan
References
Australian Human Rights commission. (n.d). National Human Rights Action Plan. https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/rights-and-Freedoms/national-human-rights-action-plan.
Carson, Ed & Kerr, L. (2020). Australian Social Policy and the Human Services. https;//doi.org/10.101719781108657815
Commonwealth of Australia. (2019). 2017-18 Annual Progress Report. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.
Crawford, M. A. (2014). Social Control Theory. https://www.researchgate.net/ publication/275/54441_social_control_Theory
Eslick, N. (2014). Violence against Women in Australia and the National Action Plan to Reduce Violence against women and their children. https://projects.1q.harvard.edu/file/violenceagainstwomen/files/vaw_in_australia_and_the_national_action_plan_to_reduce_violence_against_ women_and_their_children_march_2014.pdf
Fourth Action plan of the National Plan Reduce violence against women and their children 2010-2022. (2019). https://plan4womenssafety. dss.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/fourth-action-plan-progress-report.pdf
Human Rights law Centre. (n.d) National Human Rights Action Plan. http://www.humanrightsactionplan.org.au/
National plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their children: 20 14-15 Annual progress Report. (2015). https://plan4womenssafety.dss.gov. au.wp-content/uploads/2015/04/annual_progress_report_2014_15.pdf
Patrick, A. (2021). $3b domestic violence effort has failed: report. https://www.afr.com/politicsfederal/3b-domestic-violence-effort-has-failed-report-20210401.
Progress Review of the First Action Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010-2022. (2014). https://www.dss.gov.au/sites/ default/files/documents/05_2013/final_edited_report_edit.pdf
The Mirage. (2022). New National Plan Ignores one third of domestic violence victims.https://www.miragenew.com/new.national-plan-ignores-one-third-of-domestic-877353/
Time for Action: The National Council’s Plan for Australia to reduce violence against women and their children 2009-2021. (2008). http://www.dss.gov. au/sites/defciult/files/documents/05_2012/the_plan.pdf.
UN Women. (2023). National Plan to reduce Violence against women and their children 2010-2022. https://evaw-global-database.unwomen.or/en/ countries/oceania/australia/2010-2022
Other Articles
