Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Askew very much for her question. Stopping violence against women and their families in Australia is a significant priority for this government. Rates of domestic, family and sexual violence remain unacceptably high. Violence against women is a gross violation of their human rights, profoundly impacting victims, their communities and society as a whole. That is why as a government we have committed over $850 million to address domestic, family and sexual violence since 2013, including most recently $340 million committed in the 2019-20 budget to support the Fourth Action Plan of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010-2022.

Last week, the government began the next iteration of the Stop it at the Start campaign, encouraging adults to reflect on their attitudes and to talk to young people about these matters: respectful relationships, and behaviours that contribute to violence. Lifeline Australia are continuing to deliver domestic violence alert workshops which will train about 18,500 allied health, education, childcare and community support frontline workers over the next three years to recognise, respond and refer appropriately when working with people experiencing domestic and family violence. We've also held a number of open grant rounds to fund community-led prevention activities and a new sexual violence accredited training program. In the next week, we'll open a grant round to provide $60 million to expand emergency housing to help more women and children experiencing domestic violence find a safe place to stay. The engagement between the Commonwealth and the states and territories is a very important part of our initiatives as well.