Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Askew for her ongoing interest in what is a very important issue for every single Australian. In last night's budget we made an announcement—an historic $1.3 billion of new funding—to bring new investment to women's safety initiatives. This brings our commitment to the first action plan, under the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children in this country, to $2.5 billion. The development of the next national plan has been the culmination of many months of consultation with advocates, victims-survivors, service providers, researchers and other experts across the whole of Australia to make sure that we had the most input and engagement we could, because we know that for the next national plan to succeed we must listen, we must engage and we must get this right. That is why the plan has been informed, importantly, by contributions by people who have lived experience of family, domestic and sexual violence. We have managed to gather that information through fora, such as the 2021 National Summit on Women's Safety, as well as surveys, targeted consultations, interviews and public comments that we sought throughout the process. The voices and experiences of victims-survivors are absolutely essential when we design the programs and when we deliver the programs because we need to ensure that our programs are designed to be delivered in a trauma-informed way.

Importantly, our investment spans the entire life cycle of domestic violence. We need to deal with prevention, early intervention, response and recovery, because if we are to end gender based violence we must address all areas. The Women's Safety Package included $222.6 million towards prevention initiatives, including supporting Our Watch, and it included $328.2 million for early intervention as well as $480 million for response.