Thank you Mary for this excellent summary: "Minister Williams referred to family violence as the number one moral issue following the release of the 227 recommendations of the Royal Commission into Family Violence.
The Victorian government has allocated $2.9billion to implement these recommendations. Family violence accounts for 60% of police time and is the leading cause of death and disability for women aged 15-44 years of age with one woman killed on average every week by a former or current partner. To address this issue the Government is taking a prevention focus in an effort to reduce the prevalence of violence against women by addressing the root causes – gender inequality.
The Minister also focused on elder abuse a form of family violence that is under reported across our community. While there is no strong evidence of the prevalence of elder abuse due to under reporting, statistics indicate that 2-14% of older people suffer from elder abuse with financial abuse being the most common. There are many barriers to reporting this kind of abuse including the fear of family breakdown as well as older people believing that this kind of abuse is normal and do not recognize it as abuse. There is also a lack of knowledge of where to go for help or where to report this form of abuse.
To address family violence the Government is implementing major reform of the whole system and has commenced the opening of a system of facilities referred to as “orange doors” or hubs of holistic services across the State. There are currently 5 of these hubs up and running with the intention of having 17 in total over the next few years. These hubs while not a one-stop shop, are set up as coordinating bodies referring people to different services (e.g. disability services and aged care as well as family violence support services) following a complete risk assessment.
Over 60,000 people have been referred to the Orange Doors since the services began last year including 20,000 children.
The Victorian Government is committed to the ongoing implementation of the 227 recommendations from the Royal Commission."
