29th Jul 2019, 3:58 PM – Senate Motions - Domestic and Family Violence - Standards and funding

The majority voted in favour of a motion introduced by Queensland Senator Larissa Waters (Greens), which means it passed. Motions like these don't make any legal changes on their own but can be politically influential since they represent the will of the Senate.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes that :

(i) the 2019 Federal Budget allocated $10 million to "Specialised Family Violence Services", including individual or couples counselling and dispute resolution services, as part of the funding package for domestic violence,

(ii) in April 2019, the Department of Social Services, announced a targeted grants program for the delivery of Specialised Family Violence Services under the Families and Communities Program,

(iii) women's safety organisations have consistently raised concerns that couples counselling in family violence situations can put women and children in danger, and urged that all counselling services be delivered by experienced specialist practitioners,

(iv) many of the organisations listed as eligible to apply for the Specialised Family Violence Services grants were faith-based family relationship services, rather than specialist domestic and family violence services,

(v) the initial grant guidelines for the Specialised Family Violence Services did not require applicants to demonstrate that they would meet the National Outcome Standards for Perpetrator Interventions,

(vi) while updated grant guidelines encouraged applicants to partner with specialist sector organisations and to demonstrate expertise in family and domestic violence and compliance with relevant standards, the guidelines did not exclude applicants that did not have this expertise, and

(vii) significant additional funding for frontline domestic and family violence support services is essential to achieve the objectives of the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children; and

(b) calls on the Federal Government to:

(i) ensure that survivors of violence are not forced to undergo counselling with perpetrators,

(ii) ensure that all government funded counselling services for family violence are delivered by expert family violence service providers in accordance with the National Outcome Standards for Perpetrator Interventions,

(iii) adequately fund frontline domestic violence and crisis housing services to ensure that all women seeking safety can access these services when and where they need them, and

(iv) adequately fund the provision of safe and specific family violence support services for Aboriginal, culturally and linguistically diverse, and LGBTIQ communities.