Bendigo has been strongly represented in the number of formal submissions put to the current Royal Commission into Family Violence.
Submissions have been sent by Loddon Campaspe Women’s Health, the Centre Against Sexual Assault and the Loddon Campaspe Integrated Family Violence Consortium.
The consortium consists of 19 directly funded providers of family violence services in the Loddon Campaspe sub-region.
The lead agency of the consortium is the Centre for Non-Violence (CNV). Chief executive of the CNV Margaret Augerinos said that the terms of reference of the consortium’s submission were broadly focused on prevention.
“With our considerable experience we have been able to provide the royal commission with good advice and also prioritise that advice,” she said.
“The consortium submission identified that family violence is both a cause and consequence of gender inequality.”
Acting executive officer of the Centre Against Sexual Assault (CASA) Jenna Abbott said in general modern relationships are more equal than they have been in the past.
“However some people have not been able to adapt to this change and it is in those circumstances that we see domestic violence occur,” she said.
“Power is also an aspect in domestic violence. Unmet needs are met by power and control.
”From our point of view we mostly provide a therapeutic service.
“We give people an understanding of the dynamics of violence which often incorporates sexual assaults.”
Ms Abbott said these situations, when sexual assault occurs, are private and different for individuals, so people are sometimes not sure about these things.
“We help the parents and children in therapeutic sessions to understand what behaviour is acceptable and what is not.”
CASA offers a free service over a short, medium and long term basis for non-offending members of a family.
The good news is that, according to Ms Abbott, therapists see positive results and people can overcome the impact of past experiences and expectations of relationships.
“People can make changes. It doesn’t matter what has happened in the past. The damage may be deep and need specialised help. Some people will struggle more than others. We’re all different and sometimes it takes time to heal,” she said.
While people understand that violence, emotional abuse and financial control can be part of domestic violence, many are not sure if sexual assault comes within the parameters of violence. Ms Abbott said a basic criteria was that there needed to be free choice.
“Any unwanted sexual behaviour can be defined as sexual assault,” she said.
Executive officer of Women’s Health Loddon Mallee, Linda Beilharz said her organisation promoted strong support for workplace-based bystander training which addresses inappropriate sexual behaviour in the workforce and community organisations.
“Bystander training raises peoples’ consciousness around issues of gender, power and control,” Ms Beilharz said.
The Royal Commission into Family Violence is recommencing next week and will continue to focus on identifying and solving system-wide issues, rather than investigating individual cases.
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