Preventing violence against women is up to individuals, and government money to fight the scourge will be “wasted” without community change, according to the New South Wales domestic violence prevention minister, Jodie Harrison.
The minister wants everyone to call out disrespect towards women in the wake of the killing of 21-year-old Lilie James at an elite private school in Sydney last week that left Harrison “physically sick”.
“It’s up to everybody to call out inappropriate behaviour. That’s really the start of a lack of safety for women and children,” she told Guardian Australia.
“It’s up to every single one of us. Government can fund programs but unless individuals take responsibility for themselves, that government funding will be wasted.”
Despite the horror of the past week, Harrison still had hope that domestic violence and sexual assault statistics that have been tracking up over the past five years could be turned around. On Monday she will announce the appointment of a standalone women’s safety commissioner, Dr Hannah Tonkin.
Tonkin was first appointed to lead the government’s efforts in tackling the crisis earlier this year as part of a dual role within the justice department, but the change will allow the former United Nations lawyer to solely focus on her safety commissioner role.
Tonkin was last week “devastated” by the death of James and committed to improving the situation for women, girls and families across the state.
“I’ve been consulting with a wide range of different victim survivors … It has become very clear that there’ll be a great benefit in having a standalone commissioner role to drive change,” she said.
“It is going to take a whole of government, whole of society effort to improve the situation, and that includes a greater focus on primary prevention and early intervention.”
The former disability rights director at the Australian Human Rights Commission will be key in the rollout of the state’s new coercive control laws, which will come into effect in the middle of next year.
The intent of the nation-leading law was broadly welcomed, although experts across the domestic violence support sector raised serious concerns about the amount of time they were given to provide feedback on the legislation before it was passed.
Tonkin will also monitor how strategies are being implemented across government agencies and raise awareness of the issues.
Domestic Violence NSW’s chief executive, Delia Donovan, welcomed the role change.
“This move recognises the critical need for strong and focused leadership across all government agencies, working in close collaboration with the domestic, family and sexual violence sector,” she said.
Harrison said that while it would not “create a huge turn in the dial”, it would enable someone to coordinate strategies across government agencies and the community to tackle the issue.
“The community is sick of hearing of deaths, of murders, of women and children losing their lives,” she said.
“The conversation is at a point now when people really want government to take action but they also really want to take action themselves. It’s up to everybody to call out inappropriate behaviour.”
In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org
