Updates
More than $50M for initiatives to prevent, respond and break the cycle of DFV
Queensland Government media release
The Queensland Government will invest $55.95 million in DFV initiatives, including the rollout of a new plan designed to help end violence against women and the establishment of a peak body for the sector.
The initiatives are recommendations from The Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce Hear Her Voice Report One and build on the government’s momentum to end domestic and family violence.
The five-year Plan for the Primary Prevention of Violence Against Women will aim to prevent violence from occurring in the first place to reduce the number of victim-survivors and the demand on the criminal justice and service system.
It’s goal to prevent violence before it starts requires a whole-of-society approach in addressing the systems, structures, norms, attitudes, practices and power imbalances that drive this violence.
To support this work under this plan, the Queensland Government has invested $16 million to:
- Fund community organisations in urban, rural and remote Queensland to lead community education projects focused on building and embedding positive and respectful relationships;
- Fund Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations, to lead initiatives aimed at strengthening the factors that protect against domestic, family and sexual violence.
- Deliver and evaluate a state-wide peer-to-peer program providing training to young people to promote healthier masculinities, building healthy relationship skills and social connections;
- Establish a dedicated primary prevention team to lead and coordinate the plan’s implementation;
The Queensland Government can also announce Queensland Council of Social Service (QCOSS) as the state’s new peak body for the DFV sector.
In a $5.35m investment across five years, QCOSS will represent and advocate for the DFV sector, including shelters, women’s health and wellbeing services and perpetrator intervention services. It will oversee its development into an independent stand-alone peak body.
Following new coercive control laws in Queensland, a comprehensive training and change management framework for frontline DFV organisations, community and legal organisations and government agencies has also been released.
It offers evidence-based information and resources to assist organisations deliver consistent trauma-informed and culturally appropriate DFV training to staff and volunteers.
The framework will be supported by a new $34.6m funding package that includes foundational DFV training modules, a state-wide Training Support and Coordination Service and evaluation – which will assist organisations in providing consistent training responses across the state.