New 10-year plan to end domestic violence in Australia

CANBERRA, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government has announced a national plan to end domestic violence within a generation.

Amanda Rishworth, minister for Social Services, and Katy Gallagher, minister for Women, along with state and territory officials on Monday launched the 10-year National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children.

The landmark blueprint for change calls for reforms to how justice systems, the health sector, perpetrators, media, schools and technology companies act, highlighting the importance of engaging with men and boys to target violence at all levels.

It features two five-year action plans, with a separate plan to be developed for Indigenous women and children.

The plan suggests more funding be made available for men's behavior change programs and perpetrator interventions.

Kate Fitz-Gibbon, director of the Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre, described the plan as "world-leading."

"It sets the ambition to create whole-of-system responses that not only support victim-survivors to survive, but to thrive beyond their experience of violence," she said.

"This national plan represents a much-needed decade-long commitment to eliminate the national crisis of domestic, family and sexual violence."

One third of Australian women have experienced physical violence since the age of 15 and on average one woman is killed by an intimate partner every 10 days in Australia, according to the report.

In addition, violence against women and children costs the Australian economy 26 billion Australian dollars (16.1 billion U.S. dollars) a year.

"Violence against women and children is not inevitable," the report said. "By addressing the social, cultural, political and economic factors that drive this gendered violence, we can end it in one generation."

"Current rates of family, domestic and sexual violence are unacceptable," Rishworth said.

"We want to make these changes now so the next generation of women and children can live in a society free from violence."

"We need sustained and collective action across society," she added.