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<\/p>\nAustralia has again reached a moment where the safety of women is dominating the national conversation.<\/p>\n
A horrific period of violence and sexual assault allegations has governments promising to accelerate action.<\/p>\n
Their commitment to the cause is not in doubt, but after hundreds of recommendations and billions of dollars, it is time to ask if Australia’s problem is now less about what to do, and more about getting it done.<\/p>\n
At the same time, new forms of harm are clearly emerging faster than governments and laws can respond.<\/p>\n
This week, national cabinet acknowledged rates of intimate-partner homicide and sexual violence remained “unacceptably high” and it agreed to priorities for the next five-year plan to tackle the issues.<\/p>\n
States and territories will give progress reports later this year on work related to sexual violence and judicial responses, respectful relationships education, men’s behaviour-change standards, emergency accommodation and alcohol reforms.<\/p>\n
They have also signed off on a new national family and domestic violence risk-assessment framework.<\/p>\n
The idea there is that whether someone presents to police, a GP or hospital, they should have any warning signs recognised consistently across jurisdictions.<\/p>\n
But states will get two years to align their systems, which is frankly a peculiar interpretation of acceleration.<\/p>\n
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The crossbenchers, which include MPs like Allegra Spender, Dai Le, Helen Haines and Andrew Wilkie, want the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission to be given more teeth. (ABC News: Fletcher Yeung)<\/p>\n
Crossbenchers want to give commission more teeth<\/p>\n
Australia is at the halfway point of the current 10-year national plan to end violence against women and children, which came with the explicit ambition to end gender-based violence “in one generation”.<\/p>\n
Family and domestic violence support services:<\/p>\n
It is a logical point to assess what the first five years have achieved and what needs to change for the next five.<\/p>\n
That is certainly the view of the more than a dozen crossbenchers who wrote to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese this week.<\/p>\n
They argued that despite all the inquiries and spending, governments still cannot adequately demonstrate where all the money goes and whether interventions are reducing harm.<\/p>\n
The crossbenchers, which include MPs such as Allegra Spender, Dai Le, Helen Haines and Andrew Wilkie, want the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission to be given more teeth.<\/p>\n
By making it a statutory body able to compel information, track implementation of recommendations and audit spending, they argue Australia will get a better understanding of what is working.<\/p>\n
From there comes holding the nine governments charged with ending this scourge to account.<\/p>\n
“Giving the commission the power to measure and assess the effectiveness of our policies is the key that could unlock the real change our communities want to see,” Spender says.<\/p>\n
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Founder of the Teach Us Consent advocacy group, Chanel Contos, has launched a campaign calling on the federal government to “fix our feeds” by making social media algorithms “opt-in” for everyone. (AAP: Mick Tsikas)<\/p>\n
‘Young boys and men are prime targets’<\/p>\n
Implementation is a major factor in Australia’s efforts to tackle family, domestic and sexual violence, but at the same time the very nature of the threat is changing.<\/p>\n
The current plan was only designed a few years ago, but the online environment is changing extremely fast.<\/p>\n
Founder of the Teach Us Consent advocacy group Chanel Contos has launched a campaign calling on the federal government to “fix our feeds” by making social media algorithms “opt-in” for everyone.<\/p>\n
She warns content is increasingly being served to young boys and men that labels women and minorities as the “grievance” for their issues.<\/p>\n
“Social media algorithms, it may not be clear the link of that to violence against women and children, but if you peel back some layers, you can imagine that we have this profit model that is based on promising outrage, fear, insecurity, desire, arousal, any strong emotions,” Contos told David Speers on the Insiders podcast this week.<\/p>\n
“And young boys and men are prime targets for that.”<\/p>\n
Contos is appreciative of the government’s efforts broadly, but says if it doesn’t act on algorithms, it isn’t being “serious” about the problem most impacting young people.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s quite obvious the harm that algorithms are doing to everyone, but particularly young people, and women are largely on the receiving end of that,” she says.<\/p>\n
LoadingSurveillance glasses sell<\/p>\n
Another clear example of technology outrunning policy is the recent proliferation of wearable smart devices, such as glasses, able to surreptitiously record their surroundings.<\/p>\n
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