SEND A MESSAGE TO THE AUSTRALIAN STATE & FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS

To send a message to the Australian Governments that all victims of violence and abuse deserve services and support,

  1. If you use an email client such as Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail, iPhone/iPod Touch, Thunderbird or Lotus Notes, click here to generate a new outgoing email. If you use a webmail service such as Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail or AOL Mail, please manually create a new outgoing email addressed to:

    , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

  2. Click here to find the name of your local member of Federal Parliament. Click on the ‘parliamentary profile’ link to find their email address and add it to your outgoing email.

  3. Copy the suggested email message below and paste it into the body of your outgoing email

  4. If you wish, edit the message to reflect your personal views (this is strongly recommended)

  5. Add your name, address and contact details at the bottom of the message 

  6. Send your email

Suggested email message

To the Federal, State and Territory Ministers for Women, Attorneys General, and the Chair of the Violence against Women Advisory Group,

Up to one in three victims of sexual assault and at least one in three victims of family violence and abuse is male (perhaps as many as one in two - please refer to the website http://oneinthree.com.au/overview for more details). While many services have quite rightly been established over the past three decades to support female victims of family violence, the needs of male victims remain largely unmet.

Historically government policies have been based on the assumption that all perpetrators are male and all victims are female, and the policies of current governments are still based on this erroneous position. Indeed, regretfully, the National Council to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children did not include male victims in their otherwise laudable March 2009 recommendations. Their report, Time for Action: The National Council's Plan for Australia to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children, 2009-2021, states:

"Why is the Plan of Action focused on women and their children? While both women and men can be perpetrators and/or victims of sexual assault and domestic and family violence, research shows that the overwhelming majority of violence and abuse is perpetrated by men against women... This Plan of Action... focuses primarily on the rights of the majority of victims of domestic and family violence and sexual assault, women and their children."

Why a large minority of victims - at least one third and possibly one half - doesn't deserve support is never explained. The report focuses only on the needs of women, neglecting the government's legal and moral obligation to provide services and support for the substantial male population of victims of sexual assault and family violence:

"Violence against women and their children is wrong. It is a fundamental breach of human rights... No woman should be a victim of sexual assault or domestic and family violence... Australian women and their children have a right to protection from violence... Services [are required to] meet the needs of women and their children."

Using this rationale, Governments would stop providing services to female victims of heart disease or to females who need occupational health and safety programs (as the minority of heart disease and workplace illness and deaths are female). Sensibly they don't do this, so why ignore male victims of family violence and abuse just because they might be in the minority?

The Time For Action report is being enthusiastically supported by the Federal Government, which has so-far allocated 41.5 million dollars to meet the needs only of women. This funding for women is of course laudable, but men need funding for services and support too. This conscious neglect of males is in itself a form of social violence – the Australian Government's human rights obligations require it to cater equitably for the needs of all, regardless of gender. One in three is enough to reject the politics of ideology. It is time to care for all those in need, whether male or female. Now is the time for action by politicians and community leaders to recognise that a comprehensive approach is required to combat the scourge of family violence.

I urge you to consider making all services, programs and campaigns for victims and perpetrators of violence and abuse targeted equitably to all that need them - whether male or female.

Yours sincerely,

<Your name, address and contact details>