Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1694500906469.pdf (Australia)
Senate inquiry into Domestic Violence in Australia – response to a submission by 'Merinda'.

The Secretary of the Senate Finance and Public Administration References Committee wrote to DSS on 29 August 2014 to ask if we wished to respond to a submission to the Senate inquiry into Domestic Violence in Australia received from 'Merinda'.
'Merinda' asserts the draft National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children contained a significant passage regarding immigrant women’s experience of domestic violence that was excised before the publication of the final National Plan.

DSS response While it is not clear what draft National Plan document is specifically being referred to in this submission, the Government is committed to ensuring that violence against women, whether it occurs in Australia or overseas, is reduced.
Reducing violence against women overseas The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is leading a number of initiatives to reduce violence overseas.

For example:  DFAT is working through the Australian aid program to improve the political, economic and social opportunities of Pacific women in 14 Pacific countries.
This includes the ten- year $320 million program Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development (Pacific Women), where between 2012 and 2022, Pacific Women will work with governments, civil society organisations, the private sector, and multilateral, regional and United Nations agencies to reduce violence against women and increase access to support services and to justice for survivors of violence.
   In 2013, Australia commenced a three-year, $17.7 million Elimination of Violence Against Women Program in Afghanistan to help address the high rates of violence against Afghan women and girls.

The Program is active in eighteen of Afghanistan’s thirty-four provinces, and improves the provision of support services, including shelter, legal aid, counselling, medical and rehabilitation support for women and girls that have been affected by violence.
It also strengthens access to justice for survivors of violence, through training and support for justice sector stakeholders on the implementation of Afghanistan’s Elimination of Violence Against Women legislation, and helps prevent violence, through working with organisations to help change community attitudes toward violence and to advocate for the protection of women’s rights.
In Cambodia, DFAT is working with the Cambodian Government and civil society to improve national responses to violence against women.

This supports emergency intervention by police and medical personnel, shelter and counselling services, and primary prevention, law and policies and advocacy.
In East Timor, where almost 40 per cent of Timorese women report having suffered physical violence in their lifetime, primarily at the hands of a partner, the Ending Violence Against Women programme aims to address both the causes and consequences of violence by working to prevent violence and supporting the provision of shelter, counselling and health and legal services for affected women and children.
1 Domestic violence in AustraliaSubmission 57 - Supplementary Submission  In Timor-Leste, DFAT has supported local organisations working to address violence against women for the last four years and has recently entered a four-year partnership with the Government of Timor-Leste and The Asia Foundation for a holistic program of support to end violence against women.
In 2013, Australian support enabled Timorese civil society organisations to provide over 1,300 women with support services such as medical treatment, shelter, counselling and legal assistance, and helped strengthen those organisations.
Reducing violence against women in Australia – the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010-2022 In Australia, the then Commonwealth Government established the National Council to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children (the National Council) in May 2008 for a term of one year to advise on measures to reduce the incidence and impact of violence against women and their children.
The Council, led by Ms Libby Lloyd AM (Chair) and Ms Heather Nancarrow (Deputy Chair), consisted of 11 members from across Australia.

The Council presented its recommendations to the Government in Time for Action: The National Council’s Plan for Australia to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children, 2009‐ 2021.
Time for Action proposed that all governments, through the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), should agree to a long term plan to reduce violence, with the Commonwealth taking a leadership role.

The Commonwealth released its response, Immediate Government Actions, in April 2009 supporting the direction and focus of Time for Action.

The Commonwealth also announced that it would refer Time for Action to COAG as many recommendations required cooperation between all levels of government.
Both Time for Action and the Government’s response, Immediate Government Actions, laid the groundwork for the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children 2010-2022 (the National Plan), which was developed in collaboration with state and territory governments, and released in 2011.

The National Plan is a long-term, 12 year strategy that aims to achieve a significant and sustained reduction in violence against women and their children.
It has been recognised internationally as a best practice policy framework for reducing violence against women.

The National Plan recognises that women from all different backgrounds experience domestic and family violence and sexual assault, and can have diverse needs and face a unique set of challenges when experiencing violence.

This includes migrant women and culturally and linguistically diverse women more broadly.
The National Plan’s Second Action Plan, which was released on 27 June 2014, has a strong focus on how governments and the community can work together to better prevent violence against women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and support those who are affected by violence though initiatives such as:  developing resource materials to inform and support women on overseas spouse visas that will include information about important services and emergency contacts in Australia;  seeking additional information disclosure by Australian husbands or fiancés applying for an overseas spouse visa; 2 Domestic violence in AustraliaSubmission 57 - Supplementary Submission  providing additional funding for White Ribbon to increase engagement in CALD   communities; funding Our WATCh to strengthen the focus on CALD women and communities and deliver a CALD-specific primary-prevention project; funding Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety to research ‘what works’ for stopping violence against CALD women and their children  continuing to work with The Line to create special resources for CALD young people and communities; responding to harmful cultural practices affecting women and their children; and   developing a communications strategy to improve access to information and resources for CALD women and communities.
3 Domestic violence in AustraliaSubmission 57 - Supplementary Submission