Joint response: Accept in principle
Status: In progress
What has been achieved to date
The National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022–2032 (National Plan) acknowledges the findings from the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitations of People with Disability (DRC) must guide future work under this national plan towards ending violence against women and girls with disability.
In August 2023, the National Plan’s First Action Plan 2023-2027 (First Action Plan) was launched, which includes 10 actions to address gendered violence against women and children. To provide further clarity and guidance on how these actions specifically apply to women and children with disability, in June 2024 the department contracted Pragma Partners to develop a disability lens to the First Action Plan (DL1AP).
Extensive stakeholder engagement to inform the disability lens was conducted between September and November 2024 with state and territory governments, people with disability, the family, domestic and sexual violence (FDSV) sector and the disability sector.
What the Disability Royal Commission said in the final report
The Australian Government and state and territory governments should develop a five-year Action Plan for Women and Children with Disability to accompany the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022–2032. The Action Plan should:
- be developed by and for women with disability
- prioritise cohorts at greatest risk of violence
- coordinate with other relevant plans and strategies, in particular the forthcoming Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action Plan and Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021–2031.
The Action Plan should include comprehensive actions and investment to address violence experienced by women and children with disability across the focus areas of:
- prevention
- early intervention
- response
- recovery and healing.
Joint Government response July 2024
Through the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022–2032 (National Plan), all governments agreed that the findings of the Disability Royal Commission would guide future work to end violence against women and girls with disability.
The Australian Government and state and territory governments are committed to ending violence against women and girls with disability and acknowledge more needs to be done to address the disproportionate rates of violence experienced, through responding to the drivers of violence and recognising the specific experiences of women with disability across the National Plan’s four domains of prevention, early intervention, response and recovery; and healing. The National Plan promotes actions across the domains that respond to the diversity of women and children, to ensure access to systems and services are accessible to individual needs.
On 16 August 2023, the Australian Government released the First Action Plan 2023-2027 (Action Plan) to drive delivery of the shared commitment under the National Plan to end gender-based violence in a generation.
Development of the Action Plan drew on the extensive consultation undertaken with diverse stakeholder groups to inform the National Plan. These consultations listened to the diverse lived experiences of people from regional and remote areas, First Nations people, culturally and linguistically diverse communities, LGBTIQA+ people, people with disability, young people and older people.
The First Action Plan is the first 5-year action plan to drive the work needed to meet the objectives of the National Plan.
Rather than developing a new action plan targeted at women and children with disability, all governments are committed to applying a disability lens to the implementation of the 10 actions within the existing action plan, including ensuring that policy, program and service reform and change is responsive to the needs of women and girls with disability and that associated communication material and resources are accessible.
More recommendations
View progress on other recommendations made by the Royal Commission.