‘National shame’: Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth vows to tackle scourge of domestic and family violence

Courts, police, health and social service workers will be armed with a new assessment tool to help them accurately determine the risk level posed by a DV perpetrator to protect women from abuse.

Exclusive: Courts, police, health and social service workers will be armed with a new assessment tool to help them accurately determine the risk level posed by a domestic violence perpetrator so they can better protect Australian women from abuse.

As thousands of Australians prepare to march in protest this weekend after the number of women violently killed climbed to 26 in less than four months, it can also be revealed more than 44,700 people — mostly women — accessed emergency funding to start over after fleeing for their lives in the past two years.

Condemning the scourge of violence as Australia’s “national shame,” the federal government is forging ahead with a new National Perpetrator Risk Assessment Framework that will be made available to family and domestic violence support workers, judges, corrections and law enforcement officers, mental health and broader social services later this year.

The government is currently tendering for a supplier to deliver the $2.4 million framework, which will help service providers identify and manage the risks posed by perpetrators, facilitate referrals to behaviour change programs, and ultimately improve the safety of women and children.

The framework also has the potential to become a tool for multiple sectors to work together sharing information across jurisdictions to identify potential perpetrators early.

Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth says domestic violence is a “national shame”. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said one life lost was “too many”.

“The deaths of women at the hands of men who profess to love and care for them has to end,” she said.

Flowers have been left in the NSW town of Forbes, where Molly Ticehurst was murdered this week. Picture: Hannah Hodgkinson

“These women are sisters, aunties, friends, cousins, children, and sometimes, mothers. Leaving children behind without their mum. The impact of this violence ripples through families and across generations.”

Ms Rishworth said ending this violence was a key priority of the government, which has poured $2.3 billion into women’s safety initiatives and supports over the past two years.

“Our government is investing in the things that victim survivors, academics and other experts have told us will make a difference,” she said.

Molly Ticehurst was found dead at a home in Forbes on Monday.

Emma Bates died in Cobram this week.

“No one government, business, policy or individual can turn the tide on family, domestic and sexual violence.

“We all need to work together to achieve our shared goal of ending violence against women and children in one generation.”

New data shows as of April there have been 13,385 domestic and family violence survivors in NSW, 10,843 in Victoria. 11,826 in Queensland and 2,562 in South Australia who have gained access to the escaping violence payment since a trial of the program first began in October 2021.

Funding for the payment is due to end this year unless it is extended in the upcoming May budget.

Ms Rishworth said the government would continue investing in programs that assist women and children and also focus on perpetrators, acknowledging there was more work to do across the country.

“We work every single day with our state and territory counterparts to make women safer in this country and we will continue to do so,” she said.

Originally published as ‘National shame’: Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth vows to tackle scourge of domestic and family violence