Monday 13 July 2015

Royal commission into family violence opens with minute's silence for victims

Extract from The Guardian

Commissioner Marcia Neave says evidence to be presented at first inquiry of its type will be confronting and distressing, and warns there is a large task ahead
Justice Marcia Neave AO, who is leading the inquiry.
Justice Marcia Neave AO, who is leading the inquiry. Photograph: Victorian royal commission into family violence
Australia’s first royal commission into family violence should become symbolic of the moment when “society committed itself to overcoming this vile social ill”, Justice Marcia Neave said in her opening address.
A minute’s silence to acknowledge those who had been killed or harmed as a result of family violence was held before the hearings of Victoria’s royal commission began on Monday in Melbourne’s old coroner’s court.
“This includes the women and men and boys and girls who have died as the result of family violence or have been, or are still, suffering as a result of physical violence or emotional or financial abuse from a member of their family,” Neave said.
“It includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, it includes people of all abilities and all age groups, including children who are the direct targets of violence.”
Neave warned that some of the evidence revealed in the next month of public hearings would be confronting and distressing. The commission faced a large and difficult task in determining how to prevent and address family violence, Neave said.
However, an enormous amount of work to raise awareness of family violence and to support victims had been carried out over the past two decades.
“Our task is now to learn from and build on what has been done by others and make recommendations that set a strategic direction for the future.
“There are some controversies about the most effective responses to family violence. One of the tasks is to explore debates and competing views about the best way forward.”
This was a different kind of royal commission, Neave said. Its purpose was not to look forensically at the causes of particular events or the perpetrators involved in those events, she said.
Instead, its task was to make recommendations about strategies and policies which affected the broader responses to family violence, whether these were effective, and how they could be improved. It would not be adversarial, Neave said.
“We hope it will mark a moment in time where the whole community committed itself to overcoming this vile social ill,” Neave said.
Counsel assisting, Mark Moshinsky, said it was accepted that family violence extended beyond physical violence and included emotional, psychological, and financial abuse. It occurred in a variety of different relationships, including same-sex relationships, between parents and children, towards both women and men, and to the disabled and elderly, he said.
“Family violence occurs in such a variety of forms and circumstances it is almost impossible to attribute it to any one factor or list of factors,” Moshinsky said.
“In countries where men and women have more equal relationships, the prevalence is measurably lower, and suggests a strong correlation between gender imbalances and violence against women.”
One in six women and one in 20 men were affected by family violence in Australia, he said, figures which indicated the problem might be worse here than in Canada or the UK.
The Australian Institute of Criminology’s national homicide monitoring data showed that over the decade to 2012, 1,088 of of the 2,631 homicides recorded were domestic.
“On average there were 115 victims of domestic homicide per year nationally,” he said.
“Three quarters, or 76% of intimate partner homicides, resulted in the death of a female.” Children were the next most likely to be killed in homicide cases, he said.
The figures revealed family violence remained a pervasive problem, Moshinsky said.
“Our health system is filled with patients whose medical needs are rooted in experiences of family violence,” he said.
“Families are torn apart. Lives ruined. Children damaged. What does this violence say about us as a society here in Victoria in 2015? Does it not reflect on us as a society if we allow this to continue?”
Following the opening addresses, the commission was due to hear evidence from the assistant commissioner of Victoria police, Wendy Steendam, and the chief executive of Good Shepherd youth and family service, Rhonda Cumberland. Monday was scheduled to focus on defining family violence and assessing its causes.
On Tuesday, the commissioners will hear from those who work with and respond to child victims. Each day of the 20-day public hearings will be dedicated to a different aspect of family violence, including child abuse, drugs and alcohol, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and people living with disabilities.
The public hearings are being broadcast live and are open to the public.
The National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service can be reached at 1800 737 732
The Men’s Referral Service provides anonymous and confidential telephone counselling, information and referrals to men to help them take action to stop using violent and controlling behaviour: 1300 766 491

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