Is Tanya Plibersek up to tackling her inbox at Social Services?

The post-election reshuffle has gifted us a new minister heading up the department responsible for delivering the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children and its bold promise to end gendered violence “within a generation”: Tanya Plibersek. Plibersek has returned to the Department of Social Services, and, in many ways, it’s a homecoming for the minister who played a key role in the development of the first national plan fifteen years ago.

Since returning to the portfolio, Plibersek has been in listening mode, travelling all over the country to hear from experts, policymakers, frontline services and, most importantly, victim survivors. What has she heard?

She’s resoundingly been told that the second National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children — which was launched three years ago with the bold aim of achieving what author and advocate Jess Hill has called “net-zero gendered violence” — cannot be treated as set and forget.

Over the past three years, many in the sector have been frustrated by the previous minister for social services Amanda Rishworth’s tendency to recite robotic talking points about what the national plan was already doing and the quantum of investment ($4 billion since 2022 across 113 initiatives), while talking over or past those raising concerns about the plan’s myriad of blind spots. These include emerging evidence that has called into question the efficacy of the plan’s theory of change, namely that greater gender equality will eradicate men’s violence against women and children — not to mention whether the plan’s worthy words are matched with funding commensurate with the scale of the crisis.

Over and over again, Plibersek would have also been told that the frontline is in crisis — insufficiently funded to respond to ever-growing calls for help with workers suffering moral injury and burnout.

Many in the sector are hopeful the new minister will help bring about a much-needed course correction.

Last week marked the second anniversary of the Murphy Review, and some family violence advocates are asking when (and if) the government will ever respond to the review’s recommendation for a total ban on gambling advertising. Evidence shows gambling can increase the intensity and severity of domestic and family violence, and economic abuse is widespread among women partnered with problem gamblers.

That call was seconded by the Albanese government’s own “rapid review” into the prevention of violence against women last year. The review also criticised the country’s national primary prevention of violence against women framework, Change the Story (developed by the country’s leading prevention organisation Our Watch a decade ago, it provides the theory of change for the national plan), for designating “known risk factors for violence” including gambling, alcohol, and child maltreatment “as ‘reinforcing factors’ secondary to the gendered drivers of violence”.

The rapid review was commissioned after new figures from the Australian Institute of Criminology indicated that the femicide rate had increased by 28% in a single year, which prompted another round of women’s marches, “crisis talks” convened by domestic, family and sexual violence (DFSV) commissioner Micaela Cronin, and two dedicated national cabinet meetings.

The rapid review had a total of 21 recommendations, among them that Change the Story be independently reviewed. Other recommendations included a national approach to strengthening system responses to high-risk perpetrators, including the trial and evaluation of a DFSV threat assessment centre. The Albanese government has yet to respond to the rapid review’s recommendations — and this now sits in Plibersek’s inbox.

In another area where further reform has been called for, last week sex discrimination commissioner Dr Anna Cody released a “landmark” report on sexual harassment, which is calling on the Albanese government to take further, stronger action. The commission recommended new legislation to restrict the use of non-disclosure agreements, which extends well beyond the original Respect@Work sexual harassment report commissioned at the height of the #MeToo movement and released in 2020.

The Respect@Work report only produced best-practice guidelines for the use of NDAs, which subsequent research has revealed are ineffective. What’s more, the new report recommends that the Australian Human Rights Commission be given enhanced regulatory powers to ensure the relatively new “positive duty” — introduced in 2022, obliging employers to take active steps to prevent sexual harassment — is more effective. This includes giving the commission the ability to impose civil penalties on those who fail to comply with the duty.

If Plibersek shows a willingness to listen — and can effectively advocate within cabinet for the Albanese government to respond to what she’s heard — the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children could be at a turning point. This, for both Plibersek and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, is a legacy-building opportunity.