Families on the edge: Say no to family violence

AN OPEN LETTER TO:

The Hon. Denis Napthine MP, Premier of Victoria, and The Hon. Daniel Andrews MP, leader of the Victorian Opposition, from the Whittlesea Community Futures Partnership

For decades, the scourge of family violence was hidden behind closed doors. Family violence in our community has been, and always will remain, unacceptable. It requires a firm commitment to bring lasting change and more respectful and equal, violence-free relationships between women and men.

We commend you for your contributions to putting the spotlight on family violence. We welcome the commitments you have both made to reduce the incidence and impact of family violence.

But over and above this, in growth areas such as Whittlesea there is significant catch-up work to do.

The rate of family violence has grown exponentially in our municipality since 1999, with a 249 per cent increase in reported incidents in that period. We have reached a critical new high of 1316 incidents per 100,000 people.

Every week, there are 45 incidents of family violence reported to police.

There has been a 15 per cent increase in the rate of children present in family violence incidents in the past 12 months.

We also draw attention to the urgent need to attend to cultural diversity within specialist family violence services in a municipality in which 34 per cent of residents were born overseas and more than 40 per cent speak a language other than English at home.

While major system changes – together with shifts in community attitudes and behaviours – are required, historical funding shortfalls for front-end response services and inadequate investment in prevention means that there are also pressing “here and now” issues in the City of Whittlesea – one of the fastest- growing communities in Australia.

A need for co-ordinated and evidence-based programs to stop the cycle of violent behaviour by perpetrators cannot be ignored.

We ask you to stand with us as we say “No to Violence” in Whittlesea.

Specifically, we call for a $1.1 million commitment that will be directed to:

• Programs to increase the safety and well-being of culturally diverse women and children;

• Whole-of-school respectful relationships education programs to prevent violence occurring in the first place and build positive attitudes in young people;

• Specialist family violence services for women and children; and

• Intervention and behaviour change programs for men aimed at stopping the cycle of violence.

Yours sincerely,

Whittlesea Community Futures Partnership

The City of Whittlesea is one of Victoria’s fastest growing municipalities and its rapid transformation stretches services and infrastructure to the limits. A tipping point has been reached, with families on the edge. The Whittlesea Community Futures Partnership pledges to:

■ Advocate for fairer distribution of resources for the growing communities of the City of Whittlesea to ensure we create liveable communities in Melbourne’s fringe.

■ Work together in reducing the service gaps and improving the life outcomes of City of Whittlesea communities to ensure they are not disadvantaged by where they live.

■ Work in partnership with all levels of the government to support and ensure they fulfil their obligations in building sustainable and liveable communities in the City of Whittlesea.

Northern Weekly is supporting the initiative.