Overview

Domestic and family violence prevention receives funding from Commonwealth, state and territory governments. The Commonwealth is responsible for the overarching national policies designed to reduce violence, and the states and territories are responsible for the front line services and law enforcement responses.

State and territory governments develop policy with input from independent reviews and inquiries into the recurrent incidence of domestic and family violence and sexual assault in the community. In its 2009 report, the National Council to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children argued that most attempts by Australian governments to address this form of violence have ‘struggled with the complexity and embedded nature of the problem’. Since the release of the National Council report, there has been a concerted effort to bring policy and funding across jurisdictions into a cohesive national framework.