Fair Agenda

To Australia’s Governments - federal and state, 

We write as Australian representatives attending the world’s largest gender equality conference, held this week here in Narrm/Melbourne. 

We have spent the week discussing the pathway to a future where all women can thrive, and where we can all live with safety, security, and agency - no matter our gender.

We have heard from Australian government representatives who took to the stage, we have welcomed your words about the importance of women’s equality, and celebrated with you the progress your governments have delivered towards women’s equality. But women cannot be equal if we are not safe. 

And right now, across every Australian jurisdiction, government decisions mean that many women cannot access domestic, family, or sexual violence support services they need when or where they need them. 

For those who are able to access it - support from specialist, community-led, culturally-safe services can be life-changing and life-saving.

But current government funding decisions are creating an untenable situation, where:

- Many women and children in crisis are not able to receive the support they need to achieve safer futures;

- Those reaching out for early support are instead being left with escalating harm, as services are forced to prioritise those who need them most; 

- Those who have been harmed are left without timely support, compounding and intensifying the impacts of harm. 

Governments alone hold the responsibility for ensuring proper access to these critical services.

Governments make choices about where they invest and that investment reflects what they really value. When resources don’t match the scale of need, women miss out, and the consequences are serious and unequally distributed. Services are forced to make impossible choices between who gets access to support now, and who doesn’t. 

Governments have shown they can find the resources for major investment in areas that are true priorities. We’ve just seen it with fuel subsidies.

It’s time all governments stepped up their investment in addressing gender-based violence - and treated it as a true national priority.

Women can’t afford to wait. Those in need of service support need it now. They can’t afford to wait for the next government plan or framework. 

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in particular experience disproportionate harm from gendered violence, systemic violence and racism.

We call on all governments to drastically scale up their investment in action to address gender-based violence across all four pillars of the National Plan - prevention, early intervention, response, and healing and recovery - and the Our Ways, Strong Ways, Our Voices Plan. So that every woman impacted by domestic, family, or sexual violence can access the specialist support she needs - where she needs it, and when she needs it. 

Signed,

Fair Agenda

National Women’s Safety Alliance

Australian Multicultural Women’s Alliance

Women’s Legal Services Australia

Djirra

Women’s Health NSW 

Gender Equity Victoria (GEN VIC)

Full Stop Australia

Centre for Women’s Economic Safety

Women and Girls Emergency Centre

Equality Australia

Girl Geek Academy

Tess Moodie 

Rebecca Glenn

Associate Professor Jessamy Gleeson

Maria Herminia Graterol Garrido 

Belinda Lo

Angela Bell 

Rachel Hills

Thanh Nguyen

Monique Hurley

Helga Svendsen

Daisy Gardener

Regina Featherstone

Katherine Hampton 

Professor Susan Harris Rimmer

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