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JESS:

I would wake up at 4:30 in the morning. It was really the only thing I thought about and focussed on for that entire time.

RUBY:

Jess Hill hasn’t been sleeping much lately.

JESS:

I just would be crunching through and trying to get to the nub of what needed to be done, throughout the day and night.

RUBY:

For the past three months - she’s been working on a plan to try to end violence against women and children.

JESS:

This report really came about because of the sharp escalation in domestic homicides.

Audio Excerpt - Protestors:

[Chanting]

Audio Excerpt - Protest Speaker:

“We want the government to acknowledge this is a national emergency.”

JESS:

And the horror expressed by the Australian public about why this was happening and how can we stop it?

Audio Excerpt - Sky News Reporter:

“The Albanese government has assembled an expert panel to conduct a rapid review into domestic violence.”

JESS:

And when I was finally asked to be part of it. I knew that this was going to be a Herculean task, especially when they said, you've got 12 weeks.

RUBY:

Now, that plan is out.

It looks beyond the education campaigns that we have come to understand as domestic violence prevention.

And calls for a complete overhaul to the way the government responds to men killing women and their children.

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ruby Jones this is 7am.

Today, journalist and co-author of the rapid review Jess Hill, on what’s in the report and whether we’re going to see any change.

It’s Wednesday August 28.

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RUBY:

Jess, 12 weeks ago, you were appointed to this panel, to look at how violence against women and children can be prevented. That time is up. Your review is published - So what did you find?

JESS:

So essentially what we did is we started off with kind of an endless blue sky scope, right. And then we had to crush it down into something that could be achievable for the federal and state, and territory governments. So what we decided was to zero in on what ended up being 21 recommendations, and we wanted to look for the big levers like, what are the big things that haven't been taken full advantage of?

To start with, it was really critical that the review foreground Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children and to recognise that there is already enormous work, underway to get the standalone First Nations national plan, finished and that this review needed to support that.

So the primary finding of this review was that the potential for prevention exists in more areas than Australia has previously recognised. We need to be looking at how do we prevent violence once it's already occurring. How do we prevent violence once it's already at severe stages and before it becomes fatal? And also, how do we go back to an area that we have neglected for so long, which is the experiences of children and young people?

Whenever we've talked about prevention and children, young people, a lot of it has been about teaching them how to have respectful relationships. Well, where has been the the emphasis on helping children and young people recover from trauma of experiencing family violence or sexual violence themselves? To really respond to this area and to unlock the prevention potential within children and young people requires a massive pivot from every level of government, and serious investment into creating services that simply do not exist right now.

RUBY:

Okay. So it's about having supports in place in schools, for example. And so embedding, I guess, our response to violence anywhere. But it seems like it might be able to meet need.

JESS:

Yeah. It's essentially a lot of people when we talked about, oh, we're doing this review into prevention, they were like, oh, so you mean like, looking at attitudes and education and we're like, no, prevention goes beyond that. So for example, one of the recommendations that we've made is we need to activate the health sector, right? There are hundreds of thousands of health care workers across Australia.

Often, We're seeing GP's not give the right response, not refer on to a service. And leading from this we’re seeing that victim survivor not get the help that they need and that then leading to homicide.

So one of our recommendations is to mandate training for GP's and psychologists, because at the moment we don't have a coherent strategy for how to bring that health sector into view and how to bring the government departments of health and the government departments that look after women and children safety to work much more closely together. So that's a big part of what we're recommending.

Similarly, you know, we need to do much more to bring together the mental health, but also alcohol and other drugs sectors into closer collaboration with domestic and family violence. So there's a large percentage of men who show up to alcohol and other drug services will also be perpetrating, domestic family and sexual violence. Similarly, there'll be a large percentage of women who show up to these services who experienced it. And if they don't get a response that is domestic violence informed. Again, we miss this opportunity for prevention.

RUBY:

And one of those opportunities you wrote about is the idea of meeting men and boys where they’re at. What would that actually look like?

JESS:

That would look like actually co-designing these sorts of interventions with men and boys, in such a way that does not just highlight the deficit. Somehow those deficits need to be overcome, but actually steps right into what are the healthy masculinities?

What are the ways in which men and boys thrive and how are they feeling, set upon by online influences the growing rates of misogyny that are really targeting disaffected young men online, the sorts of things they're seeing at their schools, which is for a lot of men, young men and boys, extremely upsetting seeing things like their fellow female students being targeted by deepfake porn, experiencing themselves, their own masculinity, being policed by some other young men and boys who, who are picking up on these sorts of really aggressive, alpha style influences. So really acknowledging that a lot of what is happening to make live the lives of women and children more precarious is also harming young men and boys.

RUBY:

Yeah, you mentioned deep fake porn – and it does seem that there are just so many new avenues for abuse. What have you found about the new ways perpetrators are targeting their victims?

JESS:

So we are seeing whole new areas open up in ways that are quite unprecedented, particularly technology facilitated abuse, different types of financial abuse. Essentially, the scope of coercive control and family violence is rapidly expanding. And a lot of what we're seeing in terms of the new frontiers of abuse is that the abuse is being conducted through government systems like family law, child support, child protection. Now that's both terrifying and overwhelming, but also presents this huge opportunity because government cannot be in the kitchen with every couple when the physical violence or the coercive control occurs.

but they can be in the child support system, and they can be at the Centrelink end to stop those perpetrators using those systems to further their abuse. And so one of our big recommendations is to the governments to stop perpetrators weaponising systems and you reform them so that they are safe for users, instead of being just an absolute playground for perpetrators to play in.

RUBY:

Coming up after the break – when will the government respond?

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RUBY:

Jess I just want to come back to this idea…You mentioned the importance of foregrounding the views of Indigenous women. But one big criticism of the review was the fact that there were no First Nations women who were selected to take part in that review process. Did that limit your work?

JESS:

Yeah. So we, we prioritised, consultations with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Council on Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence and also the First Nations National Plan steering Committee. We also had Doctor Todd Fernando a Wiradjuri, who's also the former LGBTQi commissioner for Victoria. Now consultation is incredibly important. And there's absolutely no doubt that the composition of a panel has a big influence on the result. But we were so keenly aware of the need to foreground Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children. Not just because that's what they deserve, but also because if you're looking at this through the lens of homicide and filicide, the rates for Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander women and children is far higher than any group in Australia. And so that's what really led to us foregrounding that in the report.

RUBY:

I think the point that some indigenous advocates are making, though, is that consulting is different to having an actual seat at the table, particularly when you are the group of people who are disproportionately affected by the issue that's being discussed.

JESS:

I totally agree. And all I can say is that I'm not…I wasn't in charge of the composition of this panel. So, you know, that's a question that has to go to the government. I could just say that in the absence of that, we did our absolute best to make sure that those experiences were foregrounded. And in our discussions, they were often the first consideration in terms of how we've shaped those recommendations.

RUBY:

And on September 6 the National Cabinet will meet and respond to the review…what would you like to see come from that cabinet meeting?

JESS:

100% support for every recommendation. Like, realistically, I want to see a schedule for how they are going to implement what has been recommended.

And a big part of that is the government needs to finally accurately calculate how much is this going to cost to adequately resource every year. Because we actually don't know and it's time to actually take this issue seriously and say, if we're going to end gendered violence in a single generation, which is the commitment of all governments, then you need to get serious about how much it's going to cost, and develop workforce strategies for employing the people that are going to be required to service this, instead of just kind of hoping on a wish and a prayer that an overburdened workforce that is dealing with incredible vicarious trauma, is just going to continue to make it work on a shoestring.

RUBY:

I think obviously the work that's being done is important. But I do think that there is a sense in the community that at times it does feel like the government's solution is another review or a summit. And at times, as a journalist doing these interviews, I can feel lost in the admin of all of this, in the, in the suggestions and, recommendations. As someone who's inside all of that, I mean, how does it seem to you? Do you feel like this work is leading somewhere?

JESS:

I can say, Ruby, that I would not have gone to the wall for the last 12 weeks if I didn't think that it was worth it.

This is not just the thoughts and ideas of six people. We reviewed consultations that have gone on for years. The sector is consulted out. A lot of this, you just need to have a look at what are the recommendations that have been made for the last ten years that haven't been actioned? How can we look at the way that those recommendations could unlock the potential of prevention across this country, and who is responsible for making this happen?

This is what we tried to focus on in this report is to say, here's what the frontline has been saying for years.

The Australian public is done with empty promises. It's done with seeing horrific homicides happen and people wringing their hands afterwards, apologising for their failings. It wants to see proactive action, which says we understand that this is one of the most corrosive social issues of our time and that if we are going to properly address it, we need to take a nation building approach to this.

RUBY:

Jess, thank you so much for your time.

JESS:

Pleasure Ruby thank you.

RUBY:

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic or family violence, you can call 1800 RESPECT.

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RUBY:

Also in the news today,

The federal government has proposed to cap the enrolment of new international students to 270,000 for the next calendar year.

The move is part of the government’s wider effort of reducing net migration levels which boomed following the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the first half of this year, almost 811,000 international students had enrolled to study in Australia.

Education Minister Jason Clare said the proposed cap will put Australia's international education sector on a “more sustainable footing”.

And,

Coles announced a profit of 1.1 billion dollars for the 2024 financial year.

The supermarket giant attributed the revenue jump to significant growth in its supermarket sales and improved theft-management systems.

I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am. Thanks for listening.

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