I would like to start by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land from which I am speaking to you, the Ngunnawal people, and pay my respects to their elders – past, present and future.
As Assistant Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence, I welcome the launch of "Who uses domestic, family, and sexual violence, how, and why?", the state of knowledge report on violence perpetration.
It is vital that the Government pursues our shared vision of eliminating gender-based violence in Australia, with the best evidence available to us.
One of the underpinning principles of the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children is that people who choose to use violence are held to account.
We know that violence against women and children will not end without a clear and sustained focus on perpetration.
For us to move towards ending gender-based violence, there must be accountability.
There must also be tailored and culturally appropriate violence prevention responses.
And, there must be a deeper understanding of the factors correlating to people perpetrating violence, including, in many cases, the role of their own lived experience of violence and trauma.
We need to know more about those who use violence, what drives them to do so, and what form that violence takes - which is what makes this report so beneficial to our work.
I thank Professor Michael Flood, Dr Chay Brown, Lula Dembele and Kirsti Mills and all their colleagues at the Queensland University of Technology, the Equality Institute and the Accountability Matters Project, who contributed to this report.
I look forward to seeing how the findings of the report feed into our evidence base, and enhance the implementation of the National Plan and its goal to end family, domestic and sexual violence in Australia.
Thank you.