National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children

PowerHousing today provided submissions to the Department of Social Services National Plan to End Violence Against Women and their Children.

As per our submission, it is critical that the Australian Government is developing the next National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children (the National Plan) with housing being at its heart. With rising challenges facing women and children subjected to domestic violence there is a call to action to ensure that their lives are safeguarded and this starts with the home.

The next National Plan is to be developed to build on the work of the current Plan with more needing to be done to bring together the efforts of governments, organisations and individuals across the nation to reduce family, domestic and sexual violence.

The Department of Social Services, in partnership with the Office for Women, is running a public consultation for individuals and organisations across Australia to have a say and help develop the next National Plan. In developing the next National Plan, the National Summit for Women’s Safety in September, the department needs to draw from submissions such as this here to see housing connected to the future agenda.

Ultimately as shown throughout the time of the COVID-19 crisis, the home is the safehaven for our communities. The home provides a basis of health and well being and in its absence the health crisis of the pandemic would also have been a deeper financial one.

The home and its place in the future health and economic recovery of a country needs to be reconsidered through this new lens as the foundation block for tackling the scourge that is domestic family violence particularly against women and children.

In addition to the submissions, PowerHousing has this week engaged with the Federal Government to see housing considered in the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and their Children and expects to see a deeper engagement to this effect at the September Summit.​