NTCOSS was asked by NT Government Minister, Hon Kate Worden to support the public announcement of the release of Action Plan 2 as part of the 10-year Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Reduction Framework.
The NT Government said Action Plan 2 aims to create generational change and safer communities and “steer the next phase of reforms to achieve the Framework’s long-term vision of all Territorians living their lives free from violence”.
NTCOSS Senior Policy Officer Sophie Hantz spoke at the launch and welcomed the Action Plan while warning that $20 million for two years was limited and insufficient when the urgent need to invest to combat violence against women in the NT was “extraordinarily high”. You can listen to Sophie’s ABC interview on our website and read the NT News report.
“There’s a lot of new initiatives in the plan that are really exciting initiatives ranging from prevention all the way through to healing, things like the establishment of an Aboriginal led Prevention Initiatives Fund, which means there can be some community based Aboriginal led prevention programmes to change attitudes and challenge attitudes that condone violence against women.
“The amount of funding under this action plan, it is limited and it’s only two years. We know that it’s not enough and the sector is consistently advocating for more funding. The coronial hearings looking at the deaths of four Aboriginal Territorian women at the hands of their partners have really illustrated the need for significant and urgent funding and investment over the long term.”
“The rate of family and domestic violence-related homicides is 7 times higher than the national average.
“We need a co-ordinated response from prevention all the way through to healing,” she said.
“Our crisis services need bolstering and their resources – we know that the demand is greater than the capacity – and we also need education.”
“We need to make sure that everybody on the front line is operating under the same framework so that we can adequately support people who are experiencing violence.”