Our principles

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Principles are important ideas we need to work on to reach our goal.

A person holding a clipboard with the number 6 on it. There is a violence symbol with a circle and cross through it.

Our Plan has 6 principles.

They will help us work together to end violence against women and children.

1. Gender equality

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We will have gender equality when people in Australia believe all genders are equal.

Your gender is what you feel and understand about who you are as a person.

It isn’t about whether your body looks male or female.

A violence icon and a scales icon, with one side weighted more than the other.

Gender equality is a big part of ending violence against women and children.

Violence happens more often when women are not treated equally.

For example, when:

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women are forced to stay home to care for children

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not many women are leaders.

2. Lived experience

People with lived experience of violence:

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have experienced violence before

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know what life can be like for people who experience violence

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can tell their story to help others.

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People with lived experience are an important part of making our Plan.

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They might have used support services before.

So they know what we can do better.

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We must include people with lived experience when we:

work out how to fix problems
set goals
make plans to achieve these goals.

3. Closing the Gap

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Governments must work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to end violence against women.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples know the best way to:

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support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children

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work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

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They also know the best way to provide services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

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The Australian Government wrote a plan for how to work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

It’s called ‘Closing the Gap’.

Our Plan will work to support these Closing the Gap goals.

4. Focusing on what each person needs

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Support services must think about what is best for each person when they experience violence.

They must focus on what each person wants.

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Different services must work together to support women and children who experience violence.

They must share information about what support works well.

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This includes government services and community organisations.

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These services must work well across a person’s whole life to help them.

And they must not make things harder for them.

5. Intersectionality

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Some people are treated differently because of:

who they are attracted to
their disability
their age
their background.

A person pointing to two circles overlapping. Where they overlap is shaded in.

When people are treated differently because of more than one thing about them, we call it intersectionality.

For example, if they are a woman and they have a disability.

A woman pointing at herself, with an intersectionality symbol above her head. She has a thought bubble with a violence icon in it.

Women who experience intersectionality are more likely to experience violence.

And they’re less likely to get support.

Two people talking.

We must work with these women to understand:

how they experience violence
what support they need.

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We explain more about intersectionality in Part 2 of our Plan.

You can find it on our website.

www.dss.gov.au/ending-violence

6. Making the right people responsible for their choices

Four people with a violence icon above them. There is a magnifying glass icon.

Violence against women and children won’t stop unless we focus on the people who use violence.

A person with their hand raised. They have a speech bubble with a violence icon in it, and a cross on the violence icon.

People who use violence must be responsible for their behaviour.

It’s their job to stop using violence.

It’s never the fault of the person who experienced violence.

A violence icon with a stack of calendars.

Most violence against women doesn’t just happen once.

It happens over a period of time.

A judge and a person in a suit looking at documents, with stacks of calendars above them.

The courts and law must work together to recognise violence that happens over a long time, like coercive control.

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The courts and law must also protect people who experience violence.