E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Topics: DOMESTIC AND FAMILY VIOLENCE, HEALTHY MEN COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS, SECOND ACTION PLAN.
HOST, CHARLIE MCKILLOP: Domestic and family violence has been described as a national crisis. But can we really end violence against women and children within a generation? That's the goal, and the Federal Government has involved the next stage of the plan to help us to understand what this means for you. The Assistant Minister for Social Services and the Prevention of Family Violence, Ged Kearney, is here to discuss this. And Ged, I'm just wondering if you could tell me - there’ll be a number of people listening right now that weren't aware that there was a First Action Plan. Now you're launching a Second Action Plan. It does get a little bit depressing when we are talking so much about the problem, but no one seems to have the solution.
GED KEARNEY, ASSISTANT MINISTER: Oh, good morning and thanks so much for having me on. Look, I hear what you're saying, but that is exactly what we are doing right now. We are meeting with grassroots organisations, like some wonderful people on the ground in Cairns to say, people that work with victim-survivors and families and people who are experiencing family and domestic violence every day to say to them, tell us what's working, tell us what's not working, tell us what you need from us. And let's really make sure that in the second half of our strategy to eliminate family and domestic violence, we're getting it right and that we're putting our resources where it's needed the most. I think that that's really the most important part about this. We really want to listen, we want to hear experiences, we want to hear everyday people's voices because that's really how we're going to fix this in the end. Not having people like me, politicians at the top, making these decisions about where we can best put our efforts and our resources.
CHARLIE MCKILLOP: So, it's not for lack of resources, because you're investing hundreds of millions of dollars. So, why are we not seeing a change in behaviour?
GED KEARNEY: Well, we've invested, this government has invested over $4.4 billion to take action. That is the largest investment I believe that any government has ever made, because family, domestic and sexual violence is a scourge and a crisis in this country. We have focused most of our effort on crisis services, which I think is absolutely important. And we're not going to take anything away from helping women and children and other victim-survivors escape and get away to safety. That's going to stay. But what we really want to focus on now is prevention. What do we do to stop the violence in the first place? And there are some really great programs happening on the ground and I want to hear about that and how we break that cycle of violence for people. You know, we haven't really focused on that enough. We're also going to be listening to young people and young adults, children and young people about their experiences. Sadly, we know that a lot of children who have experienced family and domestic violence might go on to end up in abusive relationships themselves or indeed use violence themselves. So, how can we help those young kids caught up in that situation to heal and recover and to break the cycle again. So, we're really looking very, very closely at this. We're looking at perpetrators.
How can we work with perpetrators? Because we know the vast majority of perpetrators, you know, they often go into another relationship where they use violence again and then another relationship where they use violence again. So, how do we break that cycle? So, we're really trying to look at prevention now and start seeing where we need to invest our time and energy there. We're also working - I’m working very closely with organisations that build healthy young men. How do we work with young men to make sure that they understand how to seek help? To make sure that they are, you know, there's a lot of - how do I say it? Harmful information coming at our young boys online at the moment through things like the manosphere, really getting access to pornography at a very young age, like violent, unhealthy pornography at a very young age. We want to help our young men grow up to be healthy, well adjusted, sensitive young men so that they understand all the pressures on society to be tough, strong, you know, tough men is not the only masculinity that is healthy. You know, it's okay to be vulnerable, it's okay to be gentle, it's okay to show empathy. So, there's so much I could talk all morning! I feel like I've been talking at you for ages, Charlie. Sorry, but this is very important.
CHARLIE MCKILLOP: No, it's a very, very broad topic and you've made some important points about what's driving Action Plan 2. If you just joined the conversation, you're hearing from the Assistant Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence, in Cairns today to talk with a range of people about this next step in taking action on what is a national scourge. Minister, with everything that you do know and the feedback that you get, are you hopeful that this will make a difference?
GED KEARNEY: I am incredibly hopeful. You know, we have seen some very encouraging data about family, domestic violence and sexual violence, and, it doesn't feel like it, I know, because it is still very much a crisis. But there has been some improvements over the last little while. But where we are seeing an area that is not improving and in fact getting worse is violence amongst young people towards young people. And this is very worrying. And so that's why we are focusing in the Second Action Plan on prevention and young people, that hopefully if we can nip this in an early stage and really work with them, then that will flow on to later in life and we will eventually see, this terrible scourge, as you call it - well, you know, maybe we never will eliminate it completely, but we're certainly going to give it a good hot go.
CHARLIE MCKILLOP: Ged Kearney, thanks very much. Enjoy your time in Cairns and good luck with those deliberations.
GED KEARNEY: Thank you very much. Thank you.
CHARLIE MCKILLOP: She is the Federal Assistant Minister for Social Services and the Prevention of Family Violence. Surely no more important portfolio than that.