Speaker 1: I would wake up at four point thirty in the morning.
Speaker 2: It was really the only thing I thought about and
Speaker 2: focused on for that entire time.
Speaker 3: Jess Hill hasn't been sleeping much lately.
Speaker 2: I just would be crunching through trying to get to
Speaker 2: the nub of what needed to be done throughout the
Speaker 2: day and night.
Speaker 3: For the past three months, she's been working on a
Speaker 3: plan to try and end violence against women and children.
Speaker 2: This report really came about because of the sharp escalation
Speaker 2: in domestic homicides.
Speaker 4: Were the government of acknowledge that the national emergency, and
Speaker 4: the horror expressed by the Australian public about why this
Speaker 4: was happening and how can we stop it.
Speaker 3: The alban Easy government has assembled an expert panel to
Speaker 3: conduct a rapid review into domestic violence the panel and.
Speaker 2: When I was finally they asked to be part of it,
Speaker 2: I knew that this was going to be a herculean task,
Speaker 2: especially when they said you've got twelve weeks.
Speaker 3: Now that plan is out, it looks beyond the education
Speaker 3: campaigns that we've come to understand as domestic violence prevention
Speaker 3: and calls for a complete overhaul to the way government
Speaker 3: responds to men killing women and their children From Schwartz Media.
Speaker 3: I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven AM Today, journalist and
Speaker 3: co author of the rapid review Jess Hill on what's
Speaker 3: in the report and whether we're going to see any change.
Speaker 3: It's Wednesday, August twenty eight. Jess, twelve weeks ago you
Speaker 3: were appointed to this panel to look at how violence
Speaker 3: against women and children can be prevented. That time is up,
Speaker 3: your review is published, So what did you find?
Speaker 2: So essentially, what we did is we started off with
Speaker 2: kind of an endless blue skyscope, right, and then we
Speaker 2: had to crush it down into something that could be
Speaker 2: achievable for the federal and state and territory governments. So
Speaker 2: what we decided was to zero in on what ended
Speaker 2: up being twenty one recommendations, and we wanted to look
Speaker 2: for the big leavers, like what are the big things
Speaker 2: that haven't been taken full advantage of? To start with,
Speaker 2: it was really critical that the review foreground Aboriginal and
Speaker 2: Torres Straight Islander women and children, and to recognize that
Speaker 2: there is already enormous work underway to get the standalone
Speaker 2: First Nation's National Plan finished and that this review needed
Speaker 2: to support that.
Speaker 1: So the primary finding of this review was.
Speaker 2: That the potential for prevention exists in more areas than
Speaker 2: Australia has previously recognized. We need to be looking at
Speaker 2: how do we prevent violence once it's already occurring, how
Speaker 2: do we prevent violence once it's already at severe stages
Speaker 2: and before it becomes fatal?
Speaker 1: And also how.
Speaker 2: Do we go back to an area that we have
Speaker 2: neglected for so long.
Speaker 1: Which is the experiences of children and young people.
Speaker 2: When we've talked about prevention and children and young people,
Speaker 2: a lot of it has been about teaching them how
Speaker 2: to have respectful relationships.
Speaker 1: But where has been the emphasis.
Speaker 2: On helping children young people recover from trauma of experiencing
Speaker 2: family violence or sexual violence themselves. To really respond to
Speaker 2: this area and to unlock the prevention potential within children
Speaker 2: and young people requires a massive pivot from every level
Speaker 2: of government and serious investment into creating services that simply
Speaker 2: do not exist right now.
Speaker 3: Okay, So it's about having supports in place in schools,
Speaker 3: for example, and so embedding I guess our response to
Speaker 3: violence anywhere that it seems like it might be able
Speaker 3: to meet need.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's essentially a lot of people.
Speaker 2: When we talked about oh, we're doing this review into prevention.
Speaker 2: They were like, oh, so you mean like looking at
Speaker 2: attitudes and education and we're like, no, prevention goes beyond that. So,
Speaker 2: for example, one of the recommendations that we've made is
Speaker 2: we need to activate the health sector. Right there are
Speaker 2: hundreds of thousands of healthcare workers across Australia. Often we're
Speaker 2: seeing gps not give the right response, not refer on
Speaker 2: to a service, and leading from this, we're seeing that
Speaker 2: victim survivor not get the help that they need and
Speaker 2: that then leading to homicide. So one of our recommendations
Speaker 2: is to mandate training for gps and psychologists because at
Speaker 2: the moment we don't have a coherent strategy for how
Speaker 2: to bring that health.
Speaker 1: Sector into view and how to.
Speaker 2: Bring the government departments of health and the government departments
Speaker 2: look after women and children's safety to work much more
Speaker 2: closely together. So that's a big part of what we're recommending. Similarly,
Speaker 2: you know, we need to do much more to bring
Speaker 2: together the mental health but also alcohol and other drug
Speaker 2: sectors into closer collaboration with domestic and family violence. So
Speaker 2: there's a large percentage of men who show up to
Speaker 2: alcohol and other drug services will also be perpetrating domestic
Speaker 2: family and sexual violence. Similarly, there'll be a large percentage
Speaker 2: of women who show up to these services who have
Speaker 2: experienced it, and if they don't get a response that
Speaker 2: is domestic violence informed.
Speaker 1: Again, we miss this opportunity for prevention.
Speaker 3: And one of those opportunities that you wrote about is
Speaker 3: the idea of meeting men and boys where they're at.
Speaker 3: So what would that actually look like, That.
Speaker 2: Would look like actually codesigning these sorts of interventions with
Speaker 2: men and boys in such a way that does not
Speaker 2: just highlight their deficits and how those deficits need to
Speaker 2: be overcome, but actually steps right into what are the
Speaker 2: healthy masculinities, What are the ways in which men and
Speaker 2: boys thrive, and how are they feeling set upon by
Speaker 2: online influencers, the growing rates of misogyny that are really
Speaker 2: targeting disaffected young men online, the sorts of things they're
Speaker 2: seeing at their schools, which is for a lot of
Speaker 2: young men and boys extremely upsetting seeing things like their
Speaker 2: fellow female students being targeted by deep fake porn, experiencing
Speaker 2: themselves their own masculinity being policed by some other young
Speaker 2: men and boys who are picking up on these sorts
Speaker 2: of really aggressive alpha style influencers, so really acknowledging that
Speaker 2: a lot of what is happening to make the lives
Speaker 2: of women and children more precarious is also harming young
Speaker 2: men and boys.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you mentioned deep fake porn, and it does seem
Speaker 3: like there are just so many new avenues for abuse
Speaker 3: or what have you found out about the new ways
Speaker 3: of which perpetrators are targeting their victims.
Speaker 2: So we are seeing whole new areas open up in
Speaker 2: ways that are quite unprecedented, particularly technology facilitated abuse, different
Speaker 2: types of financial abuse. Essentially, the scope of coersive control
Speaker 2: and family violence is rapidly expanding, and a lot of
Speaker 2: what we're seeing in terms of the new frontiers.
Speaker 1: Of abuse is that the abuse is.
Speaker 2: Being conducted through government systems like family law, child support,
Speaker 2: child protection.
Speaker 1: Now that's both.
Speaker 2: Terrifying and overwhelming, but also presents this huge opportunity because
Speaker 2: government cannot be in the kitchen with every couple when
Speaker 2: the physical violence or the coercive control occurs, but they
Speaker 2: can be in the child support system and they can
Speaker 2: be at the centering end to stop those perpetrators ueeing
Speaker 2: those systems to further their abuse and so one of
Speaker 2: our big recommendations is the governments to stop perpetrators weaponizing
Speaker 2: systems and you reform them so that they are safe
Speaker 2: for users instead of being just an absolute playground for
Speaker 2: perpetrators to plane.
Speaker 3: Coming up after the break, when will the government respond, Jess,
Speaker 3: So just want to come back to this idea. You
Speaker 3: mentioned the importance of foregrounding the views of Indigenous women,
Speaker 3: but one big criticism of the review was the fact
Speaker 3: that there were no First Nations women who were selected
Speaker 3: to take part in that review process. Did that limit
Speaker 3: your work?
Speaker 2: Yes, So we prioritized consultations with the Aboriginal Torrest Trade
Speaker 2: Islander Advisory Council on Family, Domestic and Sexual Viles and
Speaker 2: also the First Nation's National Plan Steering Committee. We also
Speaker 2: had doctor Todd Fernando or Adarie Mann, who's also the
Speaker 2: former LGBTQI Commissioner for Victoria. Now, consultation is incredibly important
Speaker 2: and there's absolutely no doubt that the composition of a
Speaker 2: panel has a big influence on the result. But we
Speaker 2: were so keenly aware of the need to foreground Aboriginal
Speaker 2: Torrostraight Islander women and children, not just because that's what
Speaker 2: they deserve, but also because if you're looking at this
Speaker 2: through the lens of homicide and feel aside, the rates
Speaker 2: for Aboriginal Torrostraight Islander women and children is far higher
Speaker 2: than any group in Australia, and so that's what really
Speaker 2: led to us fore grounding that in the report.
Speaker 3: I think the point that some Indigenous advocates are making
Speaker 3: those that consulting is different to having an actual seat
Speaker 3: at the table, particularly when you are the group of
Speaker 3: people who are disproportionately affected by the issue that's being discussed.
Speaker 2: I totally agree, and this is all I can say
Speaker 2: is that I'm not I wasn't in charge of the
Speaker 2: composition of this panel, so so you.
Speaker 1: Know, that's a question that has to go to government.
Speaker 1: I could just say that in the absence.
Speaker 2: Of that, we did our absolute best to make sure
Speaker 2: that those experiences were fore grounded and in our discussions
Speaker 2: they were often the first consideration in terms of how
Speaker 2: we've shaped those recommendations.
Speaker 3: And on September sixth, the National Cabinet will meet and
Speaker 3: respond to the review. What would you like to see
Speaker 3: come from that cabinet meeting?
Speaker 2: One hundred percent support for every recommendation, Like, realistically, I
Speaker 2: want to see a schedule for how they are going
Speaker 2: to implement what has been recommended, and a big part
Speaker 2: of that is the government needs to finally accurately calculate
Speaker 2: how much is this going to cost to adequately resource
Speaker 2: every year, because we actually don't know, and it's time
Speaker 2: to actually take this issue seriously and say, if we're
Speaker 2: going to end gendered violence in a single generation, which
Speaker 2: is the commitment of all governments, then you need to
Speaker 2: get serious about how much it's going to cost, and
Speaker 2: develop workforce strategies for employing the people that are going
Speaker 2: to be required to service this instead of just kind
Speaker 2: of hoping on a wish and a prayer that an
Speaker 2: overburdened workforce that is dealing with incredible vicarious trauma is
Speaker 2: just going to continue to make it work on a
Speaker 2: shoe string.
Speaker 3: I think obviously the work that's being done is important,
Speaker 3: but I do think that there is a sense in
Speaker 3: the community that at times it does feel like the
Speaker 3: government's solution is another review or a summit. And at times,
Speaker 3: as a journalist doing these interviews, I can feel lost
Speaker 3: in the admin of all of this, in the suggestions,
Speaker 3: in the recommendations. As someone who's inside all of that,
Speaker 3: I mean, how does it seem to you? Do you
Speaker 3: feel like this work is leading somewhere.
Speaker 2: I can say that I would not have gone to
Speaker 2: the wall for the last twelve weeks if I didn't
Speaker 2: think that it was worth it. This is not just
Speaker 2: the thoughts and ideas of six people. We reviewed consultations
Speaker 2: that have gone on for years. The sector is consulted
Speaker 2: out a lot of this. You just need to have
Speaker 2: a look at what are the recommendations that have been
Speaker 2: made for the last ten years that haven't been actioned.
Speaker 2: How can we look at the way that those recommendations
Speaker 2: could unlock the potential of prevention across this country, and
Speaker 2: who is responsible for making this happen. This is what
Speaker 2: we tried to focus on in this report is to say,
Speaker 2: here's what the frontline has been saying four years. This
Speaker 2: trained public is done with empty promises. It's done with
Speaker 2: seeing horrific homicides happen and people wringing their hands afterwards
Speaker 2: apologizing for their failings. It wants to see proactive action,
Speaker 2: which says we understand that this is one of the
Speaker 2: most corrosive social issues of our time and that if
Speaker 2: we are going to properly address it, we need to
Speaker 2: take a nation building approach to this.
Speaker 3: Jess, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Beete pleasure, Ruby, thank you.
Speaker 3: If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic or
Speaker 3: family violence, you can call one eight hundred. Respect. Also
Speaker 3: in the news today, the federal government has proposed to
Speaker 3: cap the enrollment of new international students to two hundred
Speaker 3: and seventy thousand for the next calendar year. The move
Speaker 3: is part of the government's wider effort of reducing net
Speaker 3: migration levels, which boomed following the COVID nineteen pandemic. In
Speaker 3: the first half of this year, almost eight hundred and
Speaker 3: eleven thousand international students had enrolled to study in Australia.
Speaker 3: Education Minister Jason Clair said the proposed cap will put
Speaker 3: Australia's international education sector on a more sustainable footing. And
Speaker 3: Coles announced a profit of one point one billion dollars
Speaker 3: for the twenty twenty four financial year. The supermarket giant
Speaker 3: attributed the revenue jump to significant growth in its supermarket
Speaker 3: sales and improved theft management systems. I'm Ruby Jones. This
Speaker 3: is seven am. Thanks for listening.