Many communities have significant histories of intergenerational trauma. It is a result of the policies and practices of colonisation, and the substantial disparities in . All of these factors contribute to .
Successive state and federal governments have failed to adequately address or reduce the violence in Indigenous communities. This is despite numerous government reports, both and , that have provided evidence-based insight and recommendations.
How is the problem being approached?
, the Coalition government provided A$100 million in new funding to tackle domestic violence over three years. A further $100 million over three years was also allocated in the 2016-17 federal budget.
Information has come to light in recent weeks that these funds include $30 million to for victims of family and domestic violence and $25 million for improved provision of domestic violence support services. The latter includes developing an Indigenous workforce .
Of the funding committed to domestic violence to date, $46 million is directed toward specific measures to and . A significant proportion of these measures are focused entirely on remote communities, and aim to reduce re-offending by Indigenous perpetrators by increasing police responses.
The limited scope of this investment fails to acknowledge that family violence equally occurs in urban and regional environments. The majority of Australia’s Indigenous population in the latter.
There is also a false assumption in the current approaches that Indigenous community members experiencing violence in urban and regional areas can access mainstream services. In a limited sense they can, but they are often discouraged by the lack of in such services.
This inaccessibility has been recognised in successive government reports, including Victoria’s . The commission that the mainstream service sectors need to improve their cultural access and safety.
However, they need to be supported in this endeavour with sufficient resources. This would enable the development of partnerships with Indigenous communities to improve and attune service delivery to local Indigenous needs, as well as to broker cultural awareness training for staff.
What else is needed?
The limited scope of the government’s commitment to Indigenous family violence is also reflected in that $19 million is allocated to improving policing. Policing alone will not halt this crisis.
Services that can unpack the intergenerational trauma and help Indigenous people rebuild meaningful lives on their terms are what is needed. While safety is an essential requirement, on its own it does not assist in healing or reforming behaviour.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion this week announced a further commitment of $25 million (increasing the total commitment since September 2015 to $46 million) to combating Indigenous family violence. These funds would be allocated to individual programs identified in consultation with the Prime Minister’s Indigenous Advisory Council.
that initiatives to be supported may include training an Indigenous workforce to deliver family violence support services within their communities, and trialling perpetrator intervention models that use a law-and-order system to change behaviours.
But decision-makers need to be careful of placing all their eggs in one basket – the law-and-order approach alone will not fix this problem. A balanced approach is required – one that provides both safety and healing.
The and policies on family violence shouldn’t escape criticism either. Their policies also intend to invest millions in frontline legal services to ensure women suffering from family violence get legal support.
Violence by the blunt application of the law alone. While the law may provide protection (via intervention orders or criminal charges), it is individual attitudes that need to be changed. This is often only attainable through focused behaviour change programs and individualised counselling that tackles the factors .
In recent years, there has been an increase in the . There has been criticism that there are still not enough programs available, and that they don’t sufficiently cater to the nature of the factors that contribute to . More investment in this area is needed.
Labor to close the gap in Indigenous incarceration and victimisation rates by continuing trials in justice reinvestment. aims to redirect funds spent on the justice system into prevention and diversionary programs. It aims to tackle the underlying causes of offending in communities with disproportionately high levels of incarceration.
However, Labor little detail that could help determine how successful its policy measures could be, and certainly the financial commitment to be made has not be announced. Ultimately, success on the trial’s location and the strength of the local community’s engagement and leadership to own the issues and solutions.
Short-term vs long-term solutions
Successive governments and political parties have tended to focus on short-term, rather than long-term, funding commitments to family violence. This approach does not provide the support services that the average person experiencing violence needs.
The impact of family violence has . Short-term funding impacts significantly on the sector’s sustainability and capacity to effectively respond.
The Indigenous community has said they “”. Pilot programs and short-term contracts are inadequate when developing and implementing programs that are responsive to local needs. They fail to provide the time needed to foster the trust of .
When pilots conclude, often after only six months, the community is left in worse condition. Issues of violence and self harm can increase as a result.
While the government’s and Labor’s funding commitments are not small, they are effectively a band-aid solution to a long-standing crisis.
When considering how to respond to Indigenous family violence, political parties should commit to supporting the evidence-based recommendations of decades worth of reports into the problem, rather than looking for new and innovative solutions funded as pilot initiatives or investing in old approaches that continue to fail.
Kylie Cripps is a Pallwah woman and Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law; Deputy Director of the Indigenous Law Centre, .
