Family violence rates demand change
MEDIA RELEASE:
As the 2024 international 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign commences, local lawyer, Ms. Michelle Oates, says the need for a strong, collective response to family violence is more critical than ever.
“As a lawyer, mother, and community member, I find it incredibly frustrating that year after year we walk in a statement against violence, but nothing really changes. The rates of family and gender-based violence continue to increase and I hear from victim-survivors, all too often, that they feel trapped and unsupported.”
Ms. Oates, who is the founder of Connect Family Law, which provides services for clients living in northwest Victoria and far west New South Wales, says that reflecting on her own firm’s data is sobering, and exposes the extent of family and gender-based violence that prevails in our region.
“One in two of our family law files includes an Intervention Order (IVO) or results in an Application for Intervention Order and since our doors opened in 2022, we have managed fifty-one family violence specific matters and of those, over thirty per cent involve children.”
Reinforcing these statistics, Ms. Oates says that the majority of her firm’s recent Court matters have involved an IVO or included allegations of family violence.
“I think there needs to be more education about what family violence is, so it can be readily recognised, and victims are supported to get the help they need, earlier.
“Family violence is not limited to physical attacks, it is emotional abuse, it is threats, harassment, and intimidation, it is financial and coercive control. It is also true that where one or two of these behaviours are present, there is a risk of further escalation, leading to serious physical assault.”
Ms. Oates agrees that education around community expectations, respectful relationships and positive behaviour must start in early childhood and while she acknowledges the work being done in schools, she says more broadly, there is still a long way to go.
“This is a whole-of-community problem, and the responsibility for solutions should not rest with one sector.
“We all need to work harder to end the taboo that has for so long existed around family and gender-based violence. It is one thing to call for change, it is another to actively breakdown the barriers to achieving it.
“We need to call out bad behaviour, inappropriate attitudes, and comments. We need to stop excusing it and start looking at it through the lens of those on the receiving end. Prevention, protection, and consequences.”
Ensuring service organisations are adequately funded and easily accessible, is vital to the provision of support for victims of family and gender-based violence, Ms. Oates adds.
“I cannot tell you how often clients say that they didn’t know where to turn for help. Local services need to be resourced for promotion – to be visible – walking alongside victim-survivors as they navigate the support and legal system because it can be daunting and confusing.
“We need to make getting help simple.”
While the Federal Government announced a funding boost to prevent gender-based violence in September, Ms. Oates worries its framework, and distribution doesn’t fully reflect the immediacy of the need and risks overlooking important considerations that could result in ineffective, inequitable, and inadequate allocation of funds.
“Every day there is another incident. These are our mothers, aunts, sisters, nieces, daughters, sons, brothers, nephews, friends… To the people who love them, they are not statistics, they are their world, their dreams, their hopes.
“We owe it to them, to each other and to ourselves, not just to call for change but to make change happen.”
ENDS
