Karen Chhour: Minister for Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence says new plan ensures spending is making true change

A new plan in the fight against family and sexual violence, looks at making sure spending is making a true change – and outcomes are measured.

The Government's announced a second action plan as part of a 25-year national strategy.

Focus areas include expanding prevention, strengthening workforces, cross-government agency collaboration and taking action on sexual violence.

Minister for Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence Karen Chhour told Heather du Plessis Allan including a sexual violence focus is important.

“Because that’s a scourge on our society that we don’t talk about often enough, that causes real harm and long-term issues for people in this country.”

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now on domestic and sexual violence. The government's taking another
look at a massive fund one point three billion dollars
that's set aside to deal with this. They have a
plan to prioritize fewer things and do them well instead.
The Minister of a Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence,
Car Insure, is with us now morning, Karen.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
I'm wanting how are you going?

Speaker 1 (00:17):
I'm very well, thank you. What are the things you
think you need to prioritize?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
So yeah, this was off the back of the first
action Plan, of course, which we learned trying to determin
many things all at once and doing nothing well was
not working out for us. So we decided that we
needed to be more focused, more streamlined and working on
making sure that we're investing and commissioning well when we're

(00:44):
looking at these services across the sector, across agencies. We
spend one point three billion dollars in this area and
we need to make sure that every dollar is actually
making a difference in these people's lives, working towards in
that cycle of harm. We talk about generational harm here
and we need to step in and make sure that

(01:06):
it doesn't continue in our next generation has a bit
of chance at life.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Is it possible that you might cut some spending out
of this fund.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
It's not looking about cutting the spending, it's looking about
making sure that that spending is making a true change
and making sure that we're actually measuring the outcomes of
that change. So that was an important part of this plan.
How do we measure what good looks like so that
in a few years time when we're looking back, we

(01:37):
actually know that we've made a change.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Are we seeing any improvement because this fund has been
around for a little while. Now we see any improvement
from it yet, probably.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Not as much as we would have liked, But that's
because I think agencies haven't worked together as well as intentions.
But now every agency minister is on board. We've aligned
this plan with other agencies approaches as well, so we're

(02:07):
all on the same page, and we've aligned it with
our government priorities around reducing child youth offending and reducing
violent crime. But also the other important part of this
plan is it's about having a proper discussion. It actually
includes sexual violence in this plan because that's a scourge
on our society that we don't talk about often enough,

(02:30):
that causes real harm and long term issues for people
in this country, Karen.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Are those boot camp kids still behaving themselves?

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Oh yep. And I'm actually really proud of what the
young people who are out in the community trying to
change their lives around are actually doing. They're working really
hard with their family to turn that corner and I
wish them well.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, thanks very much, Karen, really appreciate that. Karen, You're
the Minister for Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
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