Recommendation 5

The Commonwealth and state and territory governments to adopt a strategic and coordinated approach to embedding the distinct experiences of children and young people in their own right. This includes through establishment of a Youth Taskforce under the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032 (National Plan), supported by the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission (DFSV Commission), to ensure implementation of the National Plan accelerates a focus on children and young people.

This strategic work should be complemented by more immediate efforts to support children and young people who have experienced violence, including:

1. support and recovery for young children, with a focus on programmatic responses which maintain and repair a relationship with the protective parent, including in the context of the family law system, as well as upskilling Independent Children’s Lawyers (Commonwealth and states and territories);
2. developing tailored and developmentally appropriate, as well as youth-specific and informed, service responses for child sexual abuse, children and young people who have experienced family violence, young people using violence at home, and young people using and/or experiencing violence in intimate relationships, drawing on available evidence and practice frameworks available through Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) (states and territories); and
3. in recognition that certain cohorts of young people will not be in the care of statutory child protection systems or a protective parent, develop and deliver an appropriate and tailored response to young people escaping violence and seeking financial support and safe housing (Commonwealth and states and territories).

Update as at 28 November 2025

The Australian Government is working with sector experts and stakeholders to identify gaps in supports for children and young people who have experienced or witnessed FDSV, to inform the design and implementation of new and revised initiatives and interventions. This includes engaging WhereTo Research to review the service needs of children and young people with lived experience of family and domestic violence.

The Australian Government is providing funding to expand the Children Specific Counselling components in the Specialised Family Violence Service (SFVS) ($40.6 million). Children Specific Counselling services support children as victims in their own right and aims to place children at the centre of the service being provided. Through the SFVS, the Australian Government is also providing funding to expand and extend funding to four existing ACCOs and fund up to an additional 15 ACCOs to provide culturally safe child-centred support to First Nations children and young people and their families ($20.1 million).

The Australian Government is providing funding to deliver small-to-medium grants to enable specialist and community support services to enhance and expand critical support services provided to victim-survivors of child sexual abuse and children at risk of, or who have displayed, harmful sexual behaviour ($12.8 million). Successful grant applicants were announced on 7 November.

The Australian Capital Territory Government is investing in Australian Childhood Foundation’s Heartfelt Program, which aims to support children (aged 5 to 12 years) in the ACT who have experienced DFV by restoring safety, strengthening relationships with the protective parent and promoting healing through trauma-informed, relational and culturally responsive practice.

The New South Wales Government delivers a range of initiatives focused on supporting children and young people who have experienced or witnessed FDSV. This includes the Specialist Workers for Children and Young People program, funding over 55 specialist workers providing trauma informed support for children and young people accompanying their mother in more than 32 refuges; the Accompanied Children Support Services pilot, which provides specialist supports for accompanied children and young people in homelessness services who have experienced DFV; and Safe and Strong Families, a trauma-informed early intervention family support service for victim-survivors of DFV and their children.

The South Australian Government commissioned the Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence. Released in August 2025, the Royal Commission report, With courage: South Australia’s vision beyond violence, provided recommendations addressing the needs of children and young people as victim-survivors in their own right. The South Australian Government has accepted recommendation 11 to establish a Lived Experience Advisory Network for children and young people to provide advice and expertise to the South Australian government. 

The Tasmanian Government released the Change for Children Strategy: Tasmania’s 10 Year Strategy in February 2025. This represents a landmark commitment to uphold the rights of children by preventing, identifying, and responding to child sexual abuse across government and community settings. The reform agenda has included the delivery of the Commission of Inquiry recommendations, the expanded Tell Someone community awareness program, the establishment of the Child Sexual Abuse Victim-Survivor Advisory Group, and the ongoing implementation of the Youth Justice Reform Taskforce Action Plan.

The Western Australian Government is supporting the long-term recovery and wellbeing of children and young people who have experienced family and domestic violence. New therapeutic services are being established in WA to support young victim-survivors of family and domestic violence. The new services include two Indigenous Healing Services for Aboriginal children and young people, and innovative programs which may include art and play therapy, one-to-one counselling, group sessions, outreach capability, cultural activities, advocacy and wraparound family support for caregivers. These services form part of an initiative announced by the WA government in December 2024 to provide $8.23 million over four years (to 2027-28) to design and pilot a suite of services for children and young people impacted by family and domestic violence.

Recommendation 6

The Commonwealth Government, with states and territories, to develop a national, coordinated and co-designed approach to engaging with men and boys, and on healthy masculinities and violence prevention. This should include:

1. establishing intersectional, DFSV-informed advisory mechanisms for engaging with men and boys with multi-disciplinary expertise (e.g., health, education, tech), including the establishment of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Men’s Advisory Body;
2. adopting a strengths-based national definition and measurement methodology for healthy masculinities to guide future campaigns and/or program implementation;
3. developing or expanding DFSV-informed program responses across sectors, focusing on healthy relationships and masculinities throughout men’s life transitions, including school leavers, new fathers, separation/relationship breakdown, recent migration and recent unemployment; and
4. developing a national response, attuned to the experiences of men and boys, responding to the rise of online misogyny and radicalisation through targeted investment in research to understand relevant risk factors and the extent of harm; collaboration with specialist frontline educators; and a focus on evidence-based tech-industry regulation.

Update as at 28 November 2025

The Australian Government has committed to take a coordinated approach to engaging men and boys in violence prevention. This includes funding research to investigate the prevalence of misogyny in young Australians, the relationship between misogyny and violent extremism, risk and protective factors for self-radicalisation to violent extremism, and the role of digital pathways in this space. The Government has also funded a number of initiatives to support healthy masculinities, violence prevention and early intervention, including the Health MaTE, Movember Partnership and Men’s Wellness Centres, and Early Intervention Trial for Adolescent Boys. These activities are in various stages of delivery and updates will be provided through the 2025 annual update the National Plan Activities Addendum.

The Australian Capital Territory Government, through the Federal Financial Relations Agreement on Innovative Perpetrator Responses, has funded Yeddung Mura to deliver an adapted version of the Caring Dads program, one of the first times this program has been adapted for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men.

The New South Wales Government, through several successful grant recipients of its Multi-Year Partnership Grants Program under its Pathways to Prevention: NSW Strategy for the Prevention of Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence 2024 – 2028, is prioritising work with men and boys. The grants support community-led initiatives over a 3-year period, with clear and actionable delivery plans across metro, rural, and regional NSW to engage a range of different communities and marginalised cohorts. Several successful grant recipient organisations announced in July 2025 identified men and boys as the primary audience for their work.

The Northern Territory Government, through the Federal Financial Relations Agreement on Innovative Perpetrator Responses, has funded Wurli Wurlinjang Aboriginal Corporation to deliver a Men’s Behaviour Change Program in the Big Rivers region, that addresses the intersection between alcohol and other drugs misuse and the gendered drivers of domestic and family violence in a culturally safe model.

The South Australian Government is also investing in Wuinparrinthi – ‘To Challenge Each Other’, a culturally appropriate youth prevention program for Aboriginal male adolescents who have displayed violent behaviour, or are at risk of behaving violently. The program supports awareness raising and education about positive relationships, coercive control, anger management, positive choices and preventing violence.

The South Australian Government launched the Young Men / Young Fathers Program which is a specialist trauma program offering counselling, group work, psychosocial education, and case management for young men and fathers at risk of – or who have used – violence or coercive control, helping them to understand its impact and build positive relationships with their partners and children. The South Australian Government has also developed an early intervention program, Don’t Become That Man, for men who are concerned about their controlling or violent behaviour and offers telephone hotline services, live web chat and in-person supports.

The Western Australian Government has launched Thriving Families, a two-year pilot program that provides community-based, clinically led developmental, behavioural, and parenting services for families affected by FDSV. The program provides trauma-informed services through a culturally secure and person-centred model which is tailored to individual families.

Recommendation 7

The Commonwealth to undertake further structural reforms to strengthen women’s economic equality, in recognition of the interconnectedness between lack of economic security and vulnerability to DFSV. This should include:

1. consistent with the recommendations of the Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce (WEET), abolishing the Child Care Subsidy Activity Test, as an immediate first step towards universal access to early education for Australian children, noting the current Activity Test limits flexibility in accessing child care for women in casual and insecure work;
2. adopting in full the WEET recommendation to remove a major and escalating form of financial abuse against women seeking child support (recommendation 6.5);
3. expanding eligibility for the Low Income Super Tax Offset (LISTO), in order to increase women’s superannuation balances as they age;
4. developing a successor plan to the National Plan to Respond to the Abuse of Older Australians (Elder Abuse) 2019-2023;
5. undertaking further reforms including expanding eligibility to address the economic insecurity experienced by women on visas who are victim-survivors of DFSV; and
6. strengthening workplace health and safety laws to complement the positive duty on employers to prevent workplace sexual harassment, sex discrimination and harassment under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth).

Update as at 28 November 2025

The Australian Government has made several commitments to strengthen women’s economic equality. This includes:

• replacing the Child Care Subsidy Activity Test to guarantee at least 3 days of subsidised early childhood education and care (ECEC) each week for children who need it ($426.6 million). From January 2026, all families will be eligible for at least 72 hours of subsidised ECEC per fortnight regardless of their activity levels.
• expanding eligibility for the Low Income Super Tax Offset (LISTO). On 13 October 2025, the Government committed to increase the LISTO from $500 to $810 and raise the eligibility threshold from $37,000 to $45,000 from 1 July 2027. The majority of people who will benefit from changes to the LISTO are women.
• establishing the Leaving Violence Program as an ongoing financial support program for victim-survivors leaving a violent intimate partner relationship ($925.2 million). The Leaving Violence Program supports victim-survivors of intimate partner violence over 18 years of age, regardless of visa status, gender or sexuality.
• introducing the employer Code of Practice on Sexual and Gender-based Harassment in March 2025, providing practical guidance to employers about how to protect workers against workplace sexual harassment.

The Queensland Government is developing a Women's Economic Security Strategy to strengthen foundations for women and promote gender equality. The Strategy will address barriers in five key areas identified in the 2025 Women’s Economic Security and Wellbeing Report: economic security, health and wellbeing, safety and justice, First Nations women and girls, and multiculturalism.

The Western Australian Government introduced changes to the Industrial Relations Act 1979 (WA) with several amendments commencing on 31 January 2025. This included an amendment introducing a new prohibition on sexual harassment in connection with work, consistent with the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) provisions.

Recommendation 8

The Commonwealth and state and territory governments to expand the evidence base on how to build capability of family and friends to identify and respond to DFSV as “natural responders” in their relational contexts with victim-survivors and perpetrators. In the immediate term, the Commonwealth should resource Lifeline’s DV-alert to expand its current community-focussed program offering, prioritising increased reach and frequency of facilitator-led delivery to regional and remote areas, as well as delivery virtually.

Update as at 28 November 2025

The Australian Government continues to fund DV-alert, a nationally recognised training program that is available for free to all health, allied health and frontline workers who are most likely to encounter people experiencing or at risk of domestic and family violence. DV-alert is available as general or Indigenous face-to-face workshops, via e-learning or awareness sessions. Lifeline delivered 429 workshops to 6,274 individual clients in 2024-25.

The Australian Capital Territory Government has committed to develop and implement a community and professional education program, ‘Violence is not our way’, to encourage victims and perpetrators to seek help and emphasise positive role models for men, women, and children ($0.6 million). The program will be designed and led by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.

The New South Wales Government is undertaking a range of initiatives to build capability of informal responders to identify and respond to DFSV, including:

• A project delivered by Full Stop Australia in partnership with Women Up North Housing Incorporated and Canterbury City Community Centre, to empower social responders with the knowledge and skills to recognise and respond to DFSV.
• A project with the Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club to enable staff, club officials, volunteers and members of the wider community to provide safe, effective and trauma-informed responses to disclosures of violence.

The Western Australian Government launched the ‘Coercion Hurts’ campaign in September 2024, increasing public understanding of coercive control. Its message: ‘It doesn't have to be physical, coercive control is family and domestic violence’, has been delivered more than 27.3 million times across various media platforms. Following this, in December 2024, the Western Australian Government launched the multi-language advertising campaign, ‘Coercive Control – A Story That’s Not Ours’, to raise awareness of coercive control among Aboriginal communities. The campaign was created with Aboriginal people for Aboriginal people and uses cultural storytelling practices at the heart. These campaigns are ongoing commitments to improve community understanding and knowledge of FDSV.