Action Plan: Policy Changes to Combat Domestic Violence in Australia

This report presents a detailed action plan for policy changes to address domestic violence, sexual violence, and family violence against women in Australia. It emphasizes the importance of a human rights approach, incorporating international norms and treaties like CEDAW. The plan highlights the need for government and political institutions to actively engage, coordinate with NGOs and other stakeholders, and review existing legislation to ensure coherence across different jurisdictions. Community involvement, exemplified by campaigns like White Ribbon, is crucial for effective implementation. The action plan addresses the decentralization of current programs and advocates for cross-cutting strategies to improve coordination, resource utilization, and awareness programs, ultimately aiming for a more consistent and effective approach to combating domestic violence in Australia.

RUNNING HEAD: Action Plan for Change 1
Action Plan for Change
Student Name
Student Code
Date

Action Plan for Change 2
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Action Plan 4
Guiding Principles 5
Governance structures 5
Legislation and policy reviews5
Community involvement 5
Summary 4
References 4

Action Plan for Change 3
Introduction
Domestic violence has become a raging issue affecting millions around the world. Eradiating a
serious social issue like domestic, sexual and family violence against women requires a
sustainable and focused approach not just by the government and legislation, but also active
collaboration and participation of the community as a whole. With respect to policy changes for
domestic and family violence against women specifically in Australia, the most important
recommendation is to subject regional and international policies to greater flexibility in order to
implement them for addressing new and emerging issues (Healey, 2017). Domestic violence
takes place in varied forms. In Australia, considering the mix of natives, Aboriginal and
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, domestic violence has been segregated into
domestic violence, sexual, violence, and family violence. The National Plan of Australia
identifies sexual and domestic violence against women on the basis of three aspects to secure
women across all groups of people living in the country. However, the most common type of
violence in Australia is domestic violence, and the same is referred to as family violence for the
Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander groups (COAG, 2010).
In a survey conducted on 1400 Australian women highlighted the root and underlying causes of
violence embedded in the domestic community. With respect to violence, it was found that at
least nine out of 10 women get harassed publicly on the streets, almost 87 percent of Australian
women have suffered from domestic or sexual violence from their partners, and almost 90
percent of the women have changed their attitudes and behavior owing to their personal safety in
the country (ABS, 2013). This report includes a detailed action plan framework that can
necessitate reducing violence against women in the next 10 years.

Action Plan for Change 4
Action Plan-
1. Guiding Principles
The first and foremost guiding principles for changing public policies for greater transformation
and effectiveness are by formatting a human rights approach. It is important to first realize that
any kind of violence against women is a violation of human rights, and thus, policies framed
must focus on a human rights approach for a collective good. Also, regional policies must be
taken into consideration from international norms and treaties. This does not limit to exercising
and defining policies within regional/state legislation but provides a broader and international
context to such policies. For example, the Plan of Action Supporting the Prevention of Domestic
Violence Act (2007) in Sri Lanka defines violence against women by deriving the definition
from the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (1993) (Jewkes, Flood and
Lang, 2015). This is because connecting national plans to human rights interests and policies can
help governments to address the problem in an international context and makes governments
more accountable to international bodies and policies. International treaties such as the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) can
serve as a crucial framework to form public policies that can protect women from all kinds of
violence in the country (Healey, 2017).
From protecting the needs and respecting the rights of those being harassed in whichever form, a
human rights approach connecting international policies and framework can help develop,
implement and monitor action plans effectively (De Marchi, Lucertini and Tsoukias, 2016).
 A human rights approach can be adopted by focusing on the following policy
challenges:

Action Plan for Change 5
 Consider international research and data to identify the underlying and root causes
of the social problem, while analyzing its impact on the society
 Collation of research and data to understand and analyse the different forms of
violence taking place against women in Australia.
 By ensuring that policies and treaties framed for domestic violence are tailored to
protect women of different groups, race, religion, etc., especially specific violence issues
faced by women belonging from the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander groups.
 Recognizing and addressing issues that intersect with the cause (De Marchi,
Lucertini and Tsoukias, 2016).
2. Governance structures
The role of the government and political institutions are inevitable when changing public policies
and addressing policy challenges. In order to achieve sustainable results from the principles and
strategies laid out in national action plans, different levels and authorities of the government, as
well as political parties, must be involved with higher engagement and accountability. This is
because government offices and political leaders have the ability to bring a significant impact
and change in policy-making processes. Those in power have a better form of leadership that can
improve the nature and effectiveness of public policies by developing fruitful action plans under
the guidance of relevant political and government institutions (Zannettino and McLaren, 2014).
To actuate changes in public policies, a high level of political strength to coordinate strategies
and action plans with other institutions like NGOs, groups of victims/survivors, public and
private institutions, human rights’ organizations, etc. needs to exist. The role of governance
structures in changing and forming better policies also protect the rights of women and safeguard
their interests by improving participation at the national development level (Othman, Goddard

Action Plan for Change 6
and Piterman, 2014). Thus, the involvement of political and governance structures go beyond
local authorities and attract the interests of more national bodies in the process. The utilization of
resources and sharing costs to work towards one common goal improves the overall nature of the
action plan being developed and implemented. This makes national bodies more relevant and
reactive to implement and exercise a certain policy change, especially for a global concern like
domestic violence policies. Local government structures can empower women by promoting
relevant preventive strategies and ensure that these strategies are able to fetch the desired
outcomes stated in the action plan (Statman, 2017).
Governance structures and stakeholders must become more accountable and relevant to how
domestic violence policies against women are developed, implemented and monitored for
continuous evaluation. These include related structures such as non-governmental institutions,
service providers, HIV/AIDS prevention programs, victims and survivors, international
organizations with the same objective, legal aid, and more. Involving such groups can expand the
knowledge and expertise required for policy change within the country (Janssen and Helbig,
2017). For instance, including the voice of victims and survivors of domestic violence can
account for great transformation and changes in public policy making. Such involvements not
only help fill the gap created by inefficient resources, time pressure, and monetary limitations but
also provide a broader framework to how national action plans are framed and exercised.
Organizations that work at the grass root level to prevent violence and domestic issues against
women can help workers and institutions collaborate together and focus on cross-cutting
strategies by helping each other for the betterment of society. Relevant structures need to be put
in place that can improve collaborative effort, sharing of information, expertise, and practices to
actively build a relevant society from active community action. Collaborative involvement can

Action Plan for Change 7
strengthen the objective of action plans, improve policy implementations, and provide
collaborative support in eliminating embedded issues from society (Vedung, 2017).
Action plans require the role of political and governance structures that improve leadership,
support and engagement for strategies included in the action plan. Different levels of government
and political institutions have better ability to oversee the effectiveness and issues in public
policy formulations and action plan frameworks (Suggett, 2011).
 There is a need to involve senior government offices and political individuals in
power to oversee high-level decision making that can be included while framing relevant
policies.
 Better engagement of private and public institution along with stakeholders to
improve engagement and participation of the community in policy changes.
 Governance structures must be utilised for technical aspects that can ensure
efficiency in utilizing resources and focus on cross-cutting strategies to drive action.
3. Legislation and policy reviews
Legislation procedures and policies must be reviewed in order to take action for change and/or
formulation of new and better policies. To achieve better harmony and coordination amongst
legislative bodies and jurisdictions in different geographies of the country, action plans must
thus, be coherent and comprehensive in its approach to addressing violence issues against
women throughout the nation, without discrepancies at the jurisdiction or legislative levels.
There are chances of likely conflicts when jurisdictions of different regions are involved, such as
a collision between formal and non-formal systems (Wanna, Butcher, and Freyens, 2010).
Therefore, a consistent approach can be aimed for when relationships between legislations such

Action Plan for Change 8
as the formal justice system, religious and faith groups, and customary laws are reviewed and
clarified to maintain consistency in actions and strategies. Guidelines and protocols must be
developed by establishing harmony, cooperation, and collaboration amongst formal and non-
formal justice systems, support organizations, groups of victims and survivors, and more. This
leads to the importance of reviewing policies before having them implemented through an
effective action plan. To leverage the development and implementation of the action plan,
existing policies and practices must be reviewed across all levels of jurisdiction and legislation
across regional boundaries (Janssen and Helbig, 2018). This includes reviewing relevant policies
with regard to HIV/AIDS prevention programs, workforce policies safeguarding women in
workplace environments, educational policies, and more.
 Legation reviews focus on analyzing existing legislative policies to address
violence against women in order to align them with national and international policies
better.
 Relative policies such as immigration, child protection laws, and HIV/AIDS
prevention must be included in legislative policies to make sure that these policies work
in accordance with the objective of the action plan with international treaties and policies.
 Establish a smoother process amongst different legislative levels to implement
and practice a consistent approach that treats all women equally across different cities
and regions of the country, especially in a country like Australia with Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander population.
 Focusing on a cross-governmental approach that can establish more harmony
across different areas of national policies, especially those that are associated with gender
equality and human rights.

Action Plan for Change 9
 Legislative systems and actions must be better coordinated through policy reviews
to identify and implement a process of harmonization in decentralised systems (Boxall,
Rosevear and Payne, 2015).
4. Community Involvement
In the context of Australia, over-arching government policies to reduce violence against women
have been implemented but the same has not been done quite effectively by including other
groups and authorities associated with the safety and protection of women. For example, there
are Australian government-funded programs in place but the Commonwealth government has no
responsibilities and duties in enforcing laws and policies for protecting women from domestic
and family violence in Australia (Lonne and Gillespie, 2014).
Currently, each jurisdiction in Australia has its own funded programs, policies, and initiatives in
place. The detailed framework for an effective action plan in this report tries to address this
decentralization problem in Australia that only hinders the implementation and efficiency of
policies (Meseguer and Gilardi, 2009). Thus, the Australian government and community
environment have more room and scope to connect with other associated bodies and inter-
governmental jurisdictions for a more consistent and effective approach to domestic and family
violence issues against women. While each jurisdiction has its own funding, there is a need for
cross-cutting strategies that can enable better coordination and collaboration with resource
utilization and costs to implement violence prevention and awareness programs (Othman,
Goddard and Piterman, 2014).
Community involvement has proven to be effective and quite impactful, especially in Australia.
The biggest example of high-profile community involvement to eradicate domestic, sexual, and

Action Plan for Change 10
family violence against women was the White Ribbon campaign. The campaign focuses on
changing the attitudes and behaviors of men and women through awareness campaigns and
engaging young boys and men into creating a social change. However, early prevention can
begin at different levels. A few approaches to reducing violence against women can be done by
promoting community education, fostering networks and relationships with coalitions and other
bodies, educating service providers, increasing awareness in the community, and improving and
strengthening knowledge and skills for individuals (Jewkes, Flood and Lang, 2015).
Summary
Domestic violence is a serious issue that calls for attention from governments, political
institutions, and the community as a whole. A number of strategies have been put in place to
eradicate violence issues against women. However, the same has immense scope for
improvement by targeting and implementing more innovative measures that can strengthen
coordination and collaboration between different groups and institutions working towards the
same cause, be it formal/non-formal institutions, or public and private groups. From a public
policy perspective, there is a need to improve ways in which resources are being utilised to
tackle issues that are coming in the way of jurisdictions trying to act on the problem. As a
complex and serious challenge, sexual, family and domestic violence against women of all
groups in Australia have seen improvement but there are questions on whether the policies
implemented for prevention actually work, posing greater problems in funding programs and
establishing accountability across different jurisdiction levels.

Action Plan for Change 11
References
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (2013). Personal safety survey Australia 2012. Canberra.
Council of Australian Governments (COAG). (2010). National plan to reduce violence against
women and their children 2010–2022. Department of Social Services (DSS): 2.
De Marchi, G., Lucertini, G., & Tsoukias, A. (2016). From evidence-based policy making to
policy analytics. Annals of Operations Research, 236(1), 15-38.
Healey, J. (2017). Violence against women. Thirroul, NSW: The Spinney Press.
Janssen, H., & Helbig, N. (2018). Innovating and changing the policy-cycle: Policy-makers be
prepared! Government Information Quarterly, 35(4), 99-105.
Jewkes, R., Flood, M., & Lang, J. (2015). From work with men and boys to changes of social
norms and reduction of inequities in gender relations: a conceptual shift in prevention of
violence against women and girls. The Lancet, 385(9977), 1580-1589.
Lonne, B., & Gillespie, K. (2014). How do Australian print media representations of child abuse
and neglect inform the public and system reform?. Child abuse & neglect, 38(5), 837-
850.
Meseguer, C. & Gilardi, F. (2009). What is new in the study of policy diffusion?. Review of
International Political Economy 16(3): 527-543
Othman, S., Goddard, C., &Piterman, L. (2014). Victims’ barriers to discussing domestic
violence in clinical consultations: A qualitative enquiry. Journal of interpersonal
violence, 29(8), 1497-1513.
Statman, M. (2017). Standard and Behavioral Life-Cycle Theories and Public Policy. The
Journal of Retirement Fall, 5(2) 12-25.

Action Plan for Change 12
Suggett, D. (2011). The implementation challenge: strategy is only as good as its execution. State
Services Authority Occasional paper No. 15
Vedung, E. (2017). Public Policy and Program Evaluation. Taylor and Francis.
Wanna, J., Butcher, J., & Freyens, B. (2010). Policy in action: the challenge of service delivery.
Sydney: UNSW Press.
Zannettino, L., & McLaren, H. (2014). Domestic violence and child protection: towards a
collaborative approach across the two service sectors. Child & Family Social Work,
19(4): 421-431.