Review to prevent domestic and family violence backs total ban on gambling advertising

A total ban on gambling advertising, tougher restrictions on alcohol sales and the promotion of healthier models of masculinity has been recommended by a review into preventing domestic violence

Minister for Women Katy Gallagher. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

A report on the prevention of domestic, family and sexual violence has backed a total ban on gambling advertising across the country, tougher restrictions on alcohol sales and the promotion of healthier models of masculinity to men and boys.

The review, which was released on Friday afternoon and made 21 recommendations, was announced by Anthony Albanese on May 1 after he labelled a rise in the number of killings of women and children a national crisis.

With the Prime Minister facing criticism in recent weeks for not pursuing a total ban on gambling ads, the review urged the government to review and strengthen the alcohol and gambling regulatory environments. The government said it would consider the recommendations.

Conducted by an expert panel of six members – Anne Summers, Todd Fernando, Leigh Gassner, Elena Campbell, Jess Hill and Zac Seidler – the review proposed that national cabinet make ending gender-based violence an ongoing priority.

It urged the federal government to develop a “national, co-ordinated and co-designed approach” to engaging with men and boys on “healthy masculinities and violence prevention”.

This should include the creation of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men’s advisory body and a national response to the “rise of online misogyny and radicalisation”.

It also recommended a series of reforms to strengthen women’s economic equality, including abolishing the childcare subsidy activity test and expanding eligibility for the low income super tax offset.

Increased funding for legal services, crisis accommodation and travel assistance was also recommended alongside an immediate examination of how perpetrators of domestic, family and sexual violence were “weaponising government systems”. It recommended imposing new restrictions on alcohol sales, delivery time frames and advertising as well as “stronger restrictions leading to a total ban on advertising of gambling”.

Minister for Women Katy Gallagher said the report would help the government “consider how to further prevent violence – to stop it from occurring in the first instance, to prevent it from escalating, and to stop women being killed”.

“This report builds on the extensive work under way across the women’s safety sector and provides important insights to guide our prevention efforts to ensure they continue to be effectively targeted, with the highest possible impact.”

The expert panel said it had placed a particular focus on supporting children and young people. It recommended the establishment of a youth task force under the national plan aimed at ending violence against women and children.

The government’s objective is to end violence against women and children within a generation. Micaela Cronin, the country’s first Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner, handed down her first report card to federal parliament this week on the progress made.

She said that family and sexual violence needed to be taken as ­seriously as terrorism and that the same tools should be used, including police monitoring social media for risky behaviour.

Ms Cronin was one of the co-conveners of the expert panel ­review.