Inquiry into domestic violence with particular regard to violence against women and their children

The Inquiry (Original version)

On 26 February 2020, the Senate referred an inquiry into domestic violence with particular regard to violence against women and their children to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee for report by 13 August 2020.

Further detail about the scope of the inquiry is provided in the terms of reference.

The Inquiry’s home page can be found here.

The Inquiry has been completed earlier than was scheduled and its report is available here.

This article describes the early completion of the report and the adverse reaction it received from the feminist lobby. I have yet to fully read the report, but one useful feature is a brief summary of the many enquiries that preceded it.

From an egalitarian perspective the dissenting report from Senator Rex Patrick is disappointing – and hypocritical beyond belief in terms of what was, wasn’t, and should have been addressed by the Committee.

I note too that the term ‘male victim’ appears only twice in the 44 page report, in each case only as a brief passing reference to recommendations from earlier inquiries.

2. The Inquiry (Revised version)

What do you do when a powerful and vocal part of your audience isn’t happy? Yes, that’s right, you commence another inquiry:

‘Federal Government launches new domestic violence inquiry‘ (31 May 2020)

Parliamentary Inquiry into Family, Domestic and Sexual violence (31 May 2020) Minister Payne’s media release

The deadline for submissions for this inquiry was 24 July 2020, and submissions can be viewed here.

One submission of note is that produced by the ‘One in Three‘ organisation, and here is a link to their subsequent (1 December 2020) verbal presentation

This article discusses the submission by ‘Women’s Safety NSW’ which can be read in full here (see #150). Women’s Safety calls for “$12 billion over 12 years to invest in evidence-based solutions to the nation’s domestic and family violence scourge“.

Those making submissions were asked to address one or more of the topics listed in the terms of reference.

And the outcome thus far? The report was published on 1 April 2021. The ‘One in Three’ organisation, who contributed to the inquiry have advised that progress was made (as is detailed in their media release here).