FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

We work with a diverse range of clients committed to progressing safety and equality in Australia and internationally. This includes government departments and agencies, non-government organisations and not for profit organisations, businesses, and philanthropists.

In 2024, Sequre Consulting is thrilled to be partnering on a range of projects with a diverse collection of partners across Australia. Prior to founding Sequre Consulting, principal consultant, Dr. Kate Fitz-Gibbon, has worked with a range of government and non-government funders and partner organisations, including the Commonwealth Department of Social Services, several Victorian Government departments, Fair Work Commission, Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS), Australian Institute of Criminology, Australian Research Council, and for corporate organisations including Ikea Australia.

We are committed to upholding client confidentiality and have rigorous processes in place to ensure data security. In Australia and internationally research confidentiality and data security are governed by different laws, regulations and ethical guidelines, which the team at SEQURE Consulting are familiar with. This includes the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) guidelines for ethical conduct in human research, the Privacy Act 1988 (Clth) which governs the handling of personal information, including information collection, use and disclosure, as well as data security and protection requirements.

As part of the project establishment phase with any new client, the team will review confidentiality and data security needs for the project, and build this into the project plan and delivery of the project.  This includes identifying where a research project will require approval from an ethics committee, and factoring into the project timeframe the time required for this. Dr. Kate Fitz-Gibbon has extensive experience securing ethics approval for research involving qualitative and quantitative data collection, including with children and young people, victim-survivors of domestic, family and sexual violence, and with people who use violence.

SEQURE Consulting is led by principal consultant, Dr. Kate Fitz-Gibbon. Kate is an internationally recognised scholar in the field of family violence, responses to violence against women and children, perpetrator interventions, children and young people, workplace responses, and the impact of policy and practice reform in Australia and internationally. Kate’s experience includes leading and managing large scale projects involving data collection in multiple Australian states and territories, as well as projects involving international data collection. Kate has led studies that employ a range of data collection methods, including large scale quantitative surveys, qualitative surveys, in-depth interviews, focus groups, and interactive workshops.

Importantly, Kate is experienced in bringing together small and large sized research teams to meet the project objectives. This includes identifying the quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis needs of a project and bringing together a team that is well suited to meet the client’s needs.

Sequre Consultants bring extensive experience communicating the findings of research projects, evaluations, consultation projects and state of knowledge reviews to a diverse range of audiences, including through academic outputs, government and non-government funded reports, sector and industry tailored practice guidelines, snapshot policy and practice briefs, and through a range of community facing outputs, including digital news stories, opinion articles, and ‘explainer’ briefs.

We work with clients on an individual project by project basis to determine the outputs best suited to achieving the objectives of the project. In some cases, we understand that this will not involve public facing outputs.

Principal consultant, Dr. Kate Fitz-Gibbon, has significant media experience. She has been interviewed as an expert in the field of domestic and family violence, children and young people, homicide law and its reform on the radio and televisions, including interviews on ABC TV 24 Hour News, ABC TV Breakfast Show, ABC Radio, ABC Radio National Law Report, Channel 10 Studio Ten Morning Show and 3CR Radio Breakfast Show. Kate’s research has also been referenced in Australian and international print media, including in articles published in The New York Times, The Australian, The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian, ABC News Online, The Herald Sun, The Courier (Ballarat), Bendigo Advertiser, Marie Claire, Foreign Affairs (NZ), and International Business Times (Australia).

Principal consultant, Dr. Kate Fitz-Gibbon, has provided expert evidence and written submissions to family violence, youth justice and homicide law reform parliamentary inquiries and law reform reviews in multiple Australian jurisdictions, New Zealand, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and to the United Nations and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Fitz-Gibbon research has been heavily cited as informing the direction of preferred homicide law reform in other Australian jurisdictions. Her sole-authored book (2014, Palgrave) was cited in a judgment of the Australian High Court in Lindsay v. The Queen [2015].

The more information you can provide at this stage the better! Clear information at the initial inquiry phase allows us to best understand your needs and expectations which in turn allows us to provide a more tailored response or proposal. 

If possible, when submitting an online enquiry or email you should include basic information to support our team to understand your project needs and to determine how we can best assist. Information to provide at this stage, may include (but certainly does not need to include all the below): 

• Contact information – including who you would like us to communicate with in your team and any other team members you would like us to keep in the loop (cc),
• Nature of the proposed work – a brief description of your project needs or objectives, as well as specific areas of interest or research questions (if you have them at this stage),
• Timeline – if you have a set start date for the project or a finish deadline it would be wonderful for us to know so we can plan for these from the outset,
• Project scope – if you have details in mind for the duration, target audience, geographical or industry focus of the work please let us know as well as details of any deliverables or outcomes you are seeking from the project.
• Budget – approximate budget range for the project (if known) and any known budget considerations or constraints.
• Data sources – information on any available data source or datasets relevant to the project, and any data collection recruitments or preferences as part of the project.

And any other information or specific requirements you would like us to have in mind during the initial phase of partnership.