Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

One of the fundamental things we have to do as part of the next national plan is to not just provide support for response, albeit that is an important component of what we do in addressing gender based violence, but we have to stop it before it starts. Prevention is the No. 1 thing we must do, because if we are genuinely going to end violence against women and their children we have to stop it from happening in the first place, so it's extremely important we put in place a number of programs.

To your point on consent and respectful relationships, they are the absolute fundamental underlier for making sure that we have a country that is free from violence, because, as we all know, whilst all disrespectful behaviour does not end up in violence, we can be absolutely assured that every single circumstance of domestic, family and sexual violence starts with a disrespectful action. We must address that in the next plan.