Wednesday, 27 August 2025

Statements on tabled papers and petitions

Respect Victoria

Report 2023–24

Sonja TERPSTRA (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (17:24): I rise to make a statement this evening on the Respect Victoria annual report 2023–24. As of 2025 Respect Victoria has been running as an authority for seven years. It was established under the Victorian government’s Prevention of Family Violence Act 2018, and it is an organisation dedicated to eradicating family violence and violence against women in the Victorian community. The annual report for 2023–24 by Respect Victoria has emphasised the importance of raising public attention to family violence and violence against women, to identify risk factors and main causes and thus improve education to prevent family violence and violence against women from ever happening in the first place.

Education cannot be limited to specific parts of society. It applies to all parts of society from early schooling right through to the workplace. It is with education that social change can indeed occur as we continue to work towards ending family violence and violence against women. In May 2024 a four-year initiative to prevent violence against women in Ballarat was announced. This initiative is intended to saturate the community of Ballarat with knowledge about preventing violence against women and for community action against violence. This is not limited to only the home but applies to every location, including workplaces, schools and other public and community institutions and is otherwise known as the saturation model.

Respect Victoria found that addressing gendered drivers of men’s violence against women would likely be able to help in reducing and preventing family violence and gender-based violence and is the key to investigating family violence, but violence against women is also considered. Other factors which may contribute to its perpetration include but are not limited to things like alcohol and drug use, mental health issues, trauma and an overall acceptance of the norms of violence within society. Respect Victoria has also been able to identify gaps in knowledge, for example, including but not limited to the different sources of structural oppression within society and their interaction with gender in driving different forms of violence.

Respect Victoria went on further to work with the Men’s Project to undertake a Man Box study, which surveyed 3500 Australian men aged from 18 to 45 in order to investigate the perceptions of and the agreement with the Man Box rules in our society and the harmful stereotypes in attitudes of what it means to be a man in Australia. The study found that agreement with the harmful stereotypes of masculinity coincided with the greater likelihood to not only hold violence-supportive attitudes or norms against women but to not report perpetrating intimate partner violence. The study also investigated the pressures felt by some men to conform to stereotypes of masculinity and how to engage other men in gender transformative approaches to the prevention of violence. Respect Victoria has continued to provide advice to the Victorian and federal governments to better inform and influence prevention policy, legislation, regulation and investment.

Respect Victoria also advocates for bipartisan engagement with Victorian and federal members of Parliament to better support their understanding of and advocacy for the prevention of family violence and gendered violence. The Allan Labor government continues to strongly support the work of Respect Victoria. It is imperative that the Victorian government continues to work with Respect Victoria, collaborating over resources and actively engaging with advice so that family violence and gendered violence can be prevented across Victoria.

In Respect Victoria tabling this report, it is commendable the work that they continue to do with communities and it is commendable the work that they are doing on the saturation model in Ballarat. I urge colleagues across this chamber to approach future recommendations by Respect Victoria with support and continue their utmost commitment to ending family violence and violence against women. I commend this report to the house.