policy responses

Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Monash University Child safety and wellbeing is never far from the headlines, and no more so than recently, with shocking allegations of child sexual abuse in childcare centres. These revelations have sparked much-needed national conversations about how we can better protect children. They have also exposed how fragmented and reactive Australia’s approach to […]

Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Monash University and Hayley Boxall, Australian National University In the past week, at least seven women have been killed in Australia, allegedly by men. These deaths have occurred in different contexts – across state borders, communities and relationships. But are united by one truth: they are part of the ongoing national crisis of […]

Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Monash University and Hayley Boxall, Australian National University For most of this federal election campaign, politicians have said very little about violence against women and children. Now in the fourth week of the five-week campaign, Labor has released its “commitment to women” announcement. The Coalition has also flagged it will have something to […]

The Victorian Parliament Legislative Assembly Legal and Social Issues Committee has released its final report: “Building the evidence base: Inquiry into capturing data on people using family violence in Victoria.” 💬 I was grateful for the opportunity to give evidence during the public hearings for this important inquiry in my capacity as Chair of Respect Victoria. […]

9 years ago today Dr Wendy O’Brien and I wrote an article for The Conversation highlighting the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence finding that children are the ‘silent victims’ of family violence. 📚 At the time we overviewed the Royal Commission’s findings that as a legacy of limited or incomplete data-gathering, siloed responses, and […]

In today’s Herald Sun newspaper (page 21), Dr Kate Fitz-Gibbon and Victorian Commissioner for Children and Young People Liana Buchanan urge the government to invest significantly and urgently to improve whole of system responses to children who experience domestic and family violence. Source: Herald Sun, 27 February 2025. What has Australia learned since the horrific […]

Over the past 10 years, criminal legislation in Australia has been reformed substantially, to ensure the law reflects evolving contemporary understandings of different forms of domestic and family violence, including non-physical forms of abuse. This includes recent reforms to introduce an offence of coercive control and affirmative consent legislation On 15 November 2023, the Queensland […]

Today is the United Nations World Children’s Day. 20 November marks the date in 1959 when the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. It is also the date in 1989 when the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This year UNICEF Australia are encouraging everyone […]

Hayley Boxall, Australian National University; Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Monash University, and Silke Meyer, Griffith University Domestic and family violence (DFV) has received increasing attention in recent years. It is most commonly associated with intimate partner violence between current and former partners, followed by abuse perpetrated against children by their parents and carers. But what about sibling […]

I am extremely grateful to Monash University Publishing for the opportunity to write another book as part of their In the National Interest, building on my earlier contribution to this series. 📌 Violence against women and children is a national crisis. Nearly a decade has passed since family violence was first declared a national emergency […]

Men’s violence against women in Australia is recognised as a national crisis. We urgently need to better understand what can be done to prevent it and intervene effectively. There is a need to hold perpetrators to account for their abusive behaviour. This is set out in the National Plan to end Violence against Women and […]

This week Dr Kate Fitz-Gibbon, in her capacity as a Professor at Monash University, has released the findings from Australia’s largest study of men’s engagement with behaviour change programs. This research found the current approach to working with men who use violence is missing opportunities to more effectively engage men in behaviour change, to keep […]