Topics: Funding for domestic and sexual violence
THOMAS ORITI: It's been well canvassed, and for right reason, that sexual violence rates in Australia remain concerningly high. But I've been reading some pretty disturbing data from the Bureau of Statistics this afternoon. There was a personal safety survey released a few years ago, and it found that 3.2 per cent of women aged over 65 had experienced sexual harassment in the last 12 months. And that figure's probably conservative. It's often underreported, usually due to shame, fear, or guilt. But this week, the NSW Government has launched new training and resources, and the aim is to improve support for those who have experienced sexual violence. I spoke with the federal Assistant Minister for Social Services and the Prevention of Family Violence, Ged Kearney, earlier and began by asking how concerning these rates of sexual violence against older women are.
GED KEARNEY, ASSISTANT MINISTER: Well, we do know that there's an estimated only around 3.2 per cent of women - well, that's a lot, I don't mean "only" - but 3.2 per cent of women over 65 have experienced sexual harassment in the last 12 months. We do know that for sure. But, Tom, what we are incredibly concerned about at this is massively under-reported. In fact, a lot of people who work in the sector and work with older women have told us that there are huge barriers to older women actually reporting sexual abuse. And that's fears of ageism, fears of, you know, people not believing them because they're older, that their disclosures will be minimised. And, you know, a lot of older women, you know, maybe they've lived with decades of abuse in an abusive relationship or marriage or something, and, you know, just feel that this is part of, you know, part of a woman's lot, sort of thing.
THOMAS ORITI: Yeah, I guess that stigma, the shame, and the fear and the guilt, so potentially underreported, as you say. So, I mean, let's look at what's been announced. The Hear Our Voices initiative. What is that?
GED KEARNEY: Well, Hear Our Voices is an organisation that supports women who have experienced - older women in particular - who have experienced sexual abuse. And the NSW State Government, along with the Albanese Federal Government, have announced $500,000 funding to actually develop some resources to help professionals out there and organisations out there support older women who have experienced sexual violence, and perhaps to actually decrease some of those barriers that older women feel - they're trying to come forward, but they just can't get there. So, there's audits and planning tools, there's body mapping gallery documenting older women's experiences --
THOMAS ORITI: What's a body mapping gallery?
GED KEARNEY: Yes, that's a good question. That's a good question. It's really a gallery, or depicting women who have experienced sexual violence, and they're talking about their experiences; their experience of disclosure, of how they healed, of how they built resilience, so that if other women are experiencing it, they can see that they're not alone, pretty much. There's practitioner fact sheets - like, when you think of sexual violence, you often think of younger women, and that is a problem. But the language that older women use and their experiences are quite different. I think they're quite a specific cohort, and I'm saying this as a 60-something woman myself. And so, you know, you need to have special skills, you need to have a special approach. I think it's really quite a different area of support for older women.
THOMAS ORITI: When I look at it, though, with respect - you know, guides for frontline services, a report documenting the barriers to help, seeking resources documenting older women's experiences of sexual violence - this all seems very reactive rather than preventative, with respect. Is enough being done to prevent the violence in the first place?
GED KEARNEY: Tom, you've really hit a nail on the head there with that question. Absolutely. I mean, it's important. You know, the Federal Government spends $4 billion on supporting family, domestic, and sexual violence services. A lot of that goes into crisis management. You're right. So, we're very keen as the Federal Government to shift our focus, not taking anything away from crisis - of course, that's important - but to working on prevention. And there's a lot of things that we will be investing in. We've already started investing in a lot of services for men in particular. I mean, you know, we have a men's helpline for men concerned about anger management. We have intervention services, referral services, men's wellness centres. And the Minister, Minister Plibersek, and I are very interested in all the great work that's being done out there with young boys, because that's where we have to start, Tom.
THOMAS ORITI: You mentioned there, the gallery. So, to what extent have victim survivor voices been put at the centre of this?
GED KEARNEY: Oh, everywhere. All the way through the development of this, victim survivors have been co-designing, working with us, making sure that everything is really reflective of someone's experience in this situation. And I really hope that it reaches and touches a lot of older women who need help.
THOMAS ORITI: Yeah. One thing that sticks out to me, Ged Kearney, reading this, is it's part of a $10 million Sexual Violence Project Fund, as you point out, jointly funded by the Commonwealth and NSW governments for one-off, time-limited early intervention and response projects that address sexual violence. I mean, surely measures like this need to be more extensive than one-off and time-limited?
GED KEARNEY: Yes, well, I think the beauty of funding a program or a project like this is that it's a living document once it's developed. As you know, as you said, a lot of the development is in the consultation with victim survivors, getting it set up, getting it run, getting all that information. And so it's quite appropriate for this to be sort of a one-off funding for this. But it's not the only support that we are giving or working on around family, domestic, and especially sexual violence. It's just, it's one tool, I guess, in the whole shed of responses that we're working on.
THOMAS ORITI: Ged Kearney, great to have you on. Thank you very much for joining us.
GED KEARNEY: My pleasure, Tom, thank you.
THOMAS ORITI: That WAS the Federal Assistant Minister for Social Services and the Prevention of Family Violence, Ged Kearney.