Section 1: Year in Review

Chair's report

On behalf of the Board and team at Respect Victoria, we are pleased to present our 2024-25 Annual Report.

Respect Victoria was established with a clear legislative mandate to drive and sustain quality prevention work across the state so that all Victorians can live free from family violence and all forms of violence against women. This year we have continued to deliver strongly on that mandate. Together with the prevention of family violence sector, government and community partners we have continued to strengthen Victoria’s leadership and delivered progress in primary prevention.

The past 12 months saw a period of intense change and uncertainty, including continued global backlash to gender equality, sociopolitical and economic challenges, and the ongoing proliferation of misogynistic messaging online that is having a radicalising impact on boys and men and impacting the safety of Victorian women, girls and gender-diverse people. At the same time, however, we’ve seen more members of the Victorian community, including men, engaging with the conversation and action of prevention, asking what they can do to be a part of the change.

This year we launched our landmark report Willing, capable and confident: men, masculinities and the prevention of violence against women. Building on the Man Box 2024 study conducted in partnership with Jesuit Social Services, this research explores how harmful gender norms shape men’s lives. As identified in The Man Box, while most men do not personally agree with the harmful ideas of masculinity that underpin the use of violence, many Australian men still feel the pressure to conform to them. The findings in Willing, capable and confident provide a clear evidence base for interventions and opportunities to challenge these pressures and prevent gendered violence.  

This evidence became the foundation for our first major campaign aimed primarily at Victorian men, What Kind of Man Do You Want to Be? The campaign was developed with input from prevention experts, behaviour change specialists, extensive focus-group testing, and men across the Victorian community. It invites men to engage with the issue of gendered violence by understanding how gender norms can harm them and those around them. Based on the experiences of real Victorian men, the campaign explores harmful gender norms and shares men’s experience in making positive changes to create safer, more respectful relationships, families and communities. In June 2025, the campaign was viewed over 16 million times.  

Over the last year, our community mobilisation efforts to prevent gendered violence have also continued to grow. Through our statewide leadership of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence, we partnered with Safe and Equal and approximately 100 organisations including Victorian councils, Dhelk Dja Partnership Forum members, women’s health services and organisations across the specialist family and sexual violence sector. Since 2019, evaluation has shown this initiative strengthens local gender equality and violence prevention initiatives and creates lasting partnerships - between police and councils, frontline services working together, local libraries and local businesses working together to build safer communities. During the 16 Days of Activism, we also hosted the annual Melbourne Walk Against Family Violence and saw a groundswell of over 8,500 Victorians walking in solidarity with victim-survivors and their families to call for action to prevent violence.  

In Ballarat we are seeing a powerful evidence-based example of a community rallying together to drive the prevention of violence. We acknowledge the profound loss and trauma that continues to shape this community; the adults, children and young people in Ballarat who continue to experience gendered violence and abuse, and we deeply honour the lives of Samantha Murphy, Rebecca Young and Hannah McGuire – women whose names will forever be part of this movement for change.  

Following the announcement of the Ballarat Community Saturation Model to prevent gendered violence in May 2024, we have worked alongside communities, local leaders, advocates and a wide range of organisations and sectors in Ballarat, particularly the specialist family and sexual violence services, to shape the model, building on their deep commitment to prevent gendered violence.  

Community participation is essential to the success of this model. We are immensely grateful to the Ballarat community for welcoming us in and co-designing the first prevention initiative of its kind and scale in Victoria.  

Our progress in addressing gendered violence is only possible through the wisdom and expertise of lived experience advocates, the dedication of professionals working tirelessly to stem the tide of this violence, the support of government, and the courage of communities who are leading the way. Prevention is a long-term investment, and it is the only way to create lasting safety and equality for all Victorians.  

We extend our thanks to the Hon. Vicki Ward and the Hon. Natalie Hutchins in their capacity as Minister for Prevention of Family Violence, and to the Parliamentary Secretary for Men’s Behaviour Change, Tim Richardson MP, for their leadership and commitment. We also thank the Premier for recognising prevention as critical to Victoria’s future and for her leadership on the ‘Changing Laws and Culture To Save Women's Lives’ Package which has supported Respect Victoria and the Ballarat community to bring the Community Saturation Model to life.  

We are deeply appreciative of our Board, executive and staff – a team unified in their passion and vision for ending family violence and violence against women. Over the last year Respect Victoria has been led by two extraordinary leaders. The Board would like to extend our gratitude to Serina McDuff who served as Acting CEO of Respect Victoria during a pivotal time for our organisation. We thank Serina for her incredible work over this time. During this year we were thrilled to welcome Helen Bolton as CEO of Respect Victoria. Helen’s expertise and experience is well known across the family and sexual violence sector, and our Board extend our thanks to Helen for her leadership and commitment stepping into this role.  

We are as always grateful to our colleagues from across the spectrum of family violence prevention, early intervention, response and recovery for continuing to generously share their knowledge and expertise with us.

Finally, thank you to our partners – we are always stronger together and we thank you for your partnership and joint commitment to creating a safer Victoria for all. And to every Victorian whose actions, large or small, are contributing to a violence-free future. Together we are building the foundations of lasting change for a Victoria where people are safe, equal and respected.

Professor Kate Fitz-Gibbon
Chair of the Board

Purpose and functions

Respect Victoria is an independent statutory authority dedicated to the prevention of family violence and violence against women in Victoria. Respect Victoria was established under the Prevention of Family Violence Act 2018. Our vision is a Victorian community where all people are safe, equal and respected, and live free from family violence and violence against women.  

We are committed to stopping violence from occurring in the first place, by changing the conditions that drive it. We do this by leading and supporting evidence-informed primary prevention across Victoria, and act as a catalyst for transformational social change.  

Our evidence-informed primary prevention work includes:

• driving quality, sustained uptake of prevention work across the state
• building knowledge and evidence about what works to prevent violence
• keeping prevention on the policy and public agenda
• supporting social change and educating the community that violence is preventable.

We are an independent voice, with functions, powers and duties enshrined in legislation. 

Budget Performance Output Statement

Respect Victoria contributes to the reporting on performance measures within the 2024-25 Budget Paper for the Primary Prevention of Family Violence output. This reporting is the responsibility of the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing. 

Key initiatives and projects

Driving quality, sustained prevention work across the state

Preventing gendered violence in Ballarat

This past year the Ballarat community and Respect Victoria has laid the foundations for a nation-first model to prevent gendered violence. Following the Victorian Government’s announcement of the Ballarat Community Saturation Model in May 2024, Respect Victoria commenced engagement with the local community. In 2024-25 this included building relationships with more than 100 local organisations, and delivering more than 120 presentations to networks, committees, organisations and stakeholder groups.  

A working group of 16 local community members was formed to help develop the model, supported by a series of community conversations with LGBTIQA+ communities, culturally and racially marginalised communities, young people, and men. A standalone process was established in partnership with the Ballarat and District Aboriginal Cooperative to engage young First Nations people in co-design. We also commenced a partnership with Women’s Health Grampians to support community co-design conversations with women with disabilities. We launched a public engagement platform to allow members of the Ballarat public to have their say on the model, and partnered with the Ballarat Foundation to establish a community prevention activities fund.  

Co-design and community consultation was supported by literature reviews on best-practice prevention interventions, mapping Ballarat’s prevention, early intervention and response system, and analysis of population-level data to build a picture of the Ballarat context.  

Implementation of the model will begin in the first quarter of 2025-26 and will be supported by a Theory of Change, robust governance, a monitoring, evaluation and learning framework, and targeted support of programs, activities and community actions that address the drivers of gendered violence.

Measuring statewide progress on prevention

Respect Victoria’s Statewide Theory of Change for the primary prevention of gendered violence maps short, medium, and long-term outcomes required to enable enduring change. In 2024-25 we worked with a sector-supported Monitoring and Evaluation Advisory Group to translate the Theory of Change into a Statewide Impact Framework with indicators and measures at a systems and individual level. This included assessing the readiness and availability of data to include in the Framework.  

To build transparency in our own contributions to statewide change, Respect Victoria has developed an internal outcomes framework and created a dashboard to track this data.  

Victoria’s progress on preventing violence is currently supported by the Prevention of Family Violence Data Platform. The Data Platform has been structured to mirror the Prevention Domain of the Victorian Government’s Family Violence Outcomes Framework. Data sources in the Platform are updated annually, with this year’s updated sources including:

• Calls to 1800RESPECT  
• Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Labour Force Survey
• Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration data on gender diversity amongst judges and Magistrates in Victorian courts  
• Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s Gender Equality Scorecard
• Victorian Public Sector Commission’s People Matter Survey
• Victorian Parliament data on women in Parliament
• Crime Statistics Agency’s Family Violence Database  
• The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey.

Informing quality, sustained prevention work  

Respect Victoria was established to provide a ‘bird’s-eye view’ of prevention work and to help drive an effective and coordinated system of prevention. In 2024-25 we collaborated with each of the regional and statewide women’s health services to host eleven workshops across the state to map the system of prevention work in Victoria.  

Each workshop identified barriers and enablers affecting the impact of local gendered violence prevention efforts. The process revealed shared challenges and priority areas across regions in Victoria – including engaging men in prevention efforts, addressing the impact of climate change, and strengthening and sustaining the prevention workforce. The workshops also demonstrated the depth and breadth of prevention programming underway across the state, enabled by the long-standing backbone support and leadership of women’s health services.  

In 2022, Respect Victoria launched its Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Toolkit, an online resource to help prevention practitioners monitor and evaluate their work. In 2024-25 we continued to present and share the toolkit and other MEL resources like the Data Platform to practitioners across the state. We facilitated a ‘MEL in focus’ session with evaluation colleagues from across the sector on measuring behaviour change. We also commenced a refresh of the toolkit content, including updated resources and guidance for working with diverse communities, that will launch in the 2025-26 financial year.  

In 2024-25 we continued to lead and coordinate a statewide alliance of organisations delivering prevention activities across the community, including:

• the Municipal Association of Victoria, the peak body for Victoria’s local councils
• Our Watch, a national leader for the primary prevention of violence against women and their children
• Safe and Equal, the peak body for specialist family violence services in Victoria
• Sexual Assault Services Victoria, the peak body for sexual assault and harmful sexual behaviour services in Victoria
• Women's Health Services Council, representing the leadership of 12 women’s health services across Victoria
• Rainbow Health Australia, a program supporting LGBTIQA+ health and wellbeing
• Zoe Belle Gender Collective, a trans and gender diverse-led advocacy organisation in Victoria
• Jesuit Social Services, a social change organisation that leads The Men’s Project initiative.

The alliance met throughout the year to focus on key issues, including workforce development, the identification and alignment of shared priorities across the sector, and emerging external trends impacting the prevention landscape. 

Building knowledge and evidence about what works to prevent violence

Engaging men in the prevention of violence against women

In 2024-25 we launched Willing, capable and confident: men, masculinities and the prevention of violence against women. It is the second report published from The Man Box 2024, a study of attitudes to manhood and the behaviours of Australian men, led by The Men’s Project at Jesuit Social Services and conducted in partnership with Respect Victoria. 

Willing, capable and confident explores how men perceive and experience social pressures about what it means to be a man, and how they conform to, navigate, or challenge the harmful expressions of masculinity linked to the use of violence. In doing so, the report identifies opportunities to build men’s willingness, capacity and confidence to resist these harmful pressures and engage in actions to prevent violence.  

We launched the research alongside the Parliamentary Secretary for Men’s Behaviour Change, Tim Richardson MP, with colleagues from across the family violence, men’s behaviour change, and gender equality sectors. The research has informed the development of our What Kind of Man Do You Want to Be? campaign, and is a contribution to the collective efforts of practitioners and policy-makers.

Understanding Victorian attitudes towards violence against women

In 2024-25 we progressed secondary analysis of Victorian data from the 2021 National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey (NCAS). Respect Victoria funded ANROWS to collect a greater than normal Victorian sample as part of the national study, which has allowed us to conduct a novel and more complex investigation of how attitudes measured in NCAS play out in Victoria. With the support of the Social Research Centre, we applied statistical methods and models to examine Victorian NCAS data in new ways, with the aim of building a more nuanced understanding of where progress is being made in primary prevention and where more targeted attention is required to expedite further positive change.  

This analysis will be captured in two technical papers, which will consider:

• how different clusters of attitudes measured in the NCAS fit together
• what sits under Victoria’s NCAS state averages, including where we can see greater polarisation or backlash despite broader positive progress
• which attitudes might have the most influence when targeted.  

Draft papers have been reviewed by stakeholders and findings presented to the Victorian Government and Primary Prevention Sector Reference Group. They will be published in 2025-26, with accompanying research translation outputs to ensure key findings are accessible and useful to practitioners and policy-makers. 

Preventing image-based abuse between children and young people

The rapid evolution of social media, artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and the online world has implications for how we work to prevent gender-based violence, particularly between children and young people growing up with these technologies. In 2024-25, we partnered with Body Safety Australia to undertake a joint research project on preventing this abuse.

Drawing on focus group discussions with Body Safety Australia’s respectful relationships educators, the project seeks to nuance what we mean when talking about prevention in ‘online’ spaces. The research explores the role of social media recommender algorithms in contributing to gendered violence, the gendered socialisation of children through digital content, how children talk about risk, harm and culpability in their online behaviours, and the importance of teaching image autonomy from a young age. The research will be published in the 2025-26 financial year.

Sharing prevention knowledge and evidence  

Throughout 2024-25, Respect Victoria participated in several research advisory and working groups, and symposia including:

• ARC Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (CEVAW), led by Monash University and University of Melbourne
• Detecting, Preventing and Responding to Sextortion workshop (RMIT University)
• NCAS Advisory Group (ANROWS)
• Personal Safety Survey Advisory Group (Australian Bureau of Statistics)
• Radicalisation, Misogyny and Young Australians symposium (Office of National Intelligence)
• Our Watch and Rainbow Health Australia (LGBTIQA+ Primary Prevention Framework).

Keeping prevention on the policy and public agenda

Bringing people who use violence into focus

Data relating to how, why and where people use family violence is critical to targeting efforts to prevent this violence. Respect Victoria’s submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry into capturing data on family violence perpetrators in Victoria explored the type of data most useful to guiding prevention efforts. We highlighted the need for a nationally-representative, population-based survey of perpetration behaviours. This data would deepen our understanding of the drivers of gender-based violence, reinforcing risk factors and pathways into prevention.  

Respect Victoria also appeared before the public hearings for the inquiry. Our advice and recommendations were reflected in the final report from the Inquiry, which is under consideration by the Victorian Government.

The role of prevention in supporting justice responses to sexual violence

To prevent sexual violence from occurring, escalating, or reoccurring, the justice system’s response to this violence must be trauma-informed, safe and effective. Respect Victoria’s submission to the Australian Law Reform Commission Inquiry into justice responses to sexual violence highlighted the role of whole-of-population and cohort-specific primary prevention approaches.  

Our submission explored opportunities to harness the justice system to help drive the long-term systemic and cultural change required to eliminate sexual violence. This includes building the knowledge, skills, capabilities and accountability of those working within the system to not only provide safe and effective responses for people experiencing violence and hold people who’ve used violence to account, but also to take every opportunity to counter myths about sexual violence and challenge harmful attitudes, behaviours and social norms that allow sexual violence to continue.

Prevention priorities for First Nations family safety

Australia’s first National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Family Safety Plan (‘National Plan’), Our Ways – Strong Ways – Our Voices, will guide a whole-of-society approach to addressing the unacceptable rates of violence impacting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, particularly women and children. In addition to participating in consultations to inform the National Plan, Respect Victoria published key priorities and principles for consideration in the development of this landmark National Plan. These priorities include the importance of primary prevention, addressing the impacts of colonisation and systemic racism, self-determination, collaboration and partnership, and First Nations data sovereignty.

Reporting on the progress of prevention

Every three years, Respect Victoria reports to the Victorian Parliament on the progress, trends, outcomes and collective impact of work across Victoria to prevent violence against women and family violence. Throughout the year we worked with government and sector partners to inform the development of the next report that will be tabled in the Victorian Parliament in late 2025, covering activity from the beginning of 2022 to the end of 2024.

We collected data from various sources to inform the report, including an online survey that received over 150 responses, more than 50 key informant interviews and consultations with governance groups and networks, formal data requests to government departments and other data custodians, and a desktop review of significant milestones, program evaluations and publications across the sector.

Working together with government and the family violence sector

Respect Victoria continued to support collaboration, knowledge-sharing, expert advice and governance between and among the family violence sector and the Victorian Government. Alongside Family Safety Victoria, in 2024-25 we co-chaired the Primary Prevention Sector Reference Group. We were also active members of the following groups:

• Dhelk Dja Partnership Forum
• Indigenous Family Violence Primary Prevention Framework Refresh Advisory Group
• Family Violence Reform Advisory Group
• Family Violence Reform Board
• Family Violence Reform Policy Steering Committee
• Primary Prevention Working Group  
• Victorian Strategic Alliance on Elder Abuse  
• Respectful Relationships Advisory Group
• Inter-Departmental Committee on Workplace Sexual Harassment Non-Disclosure Agreement Reform
• Safe and Equal Prevention Strategy Advisory Group.    

To inform and influence prevention policy reform, we undertook bipartisan engagement with Members of Parliament, Commissioners and government departments at both State and Federal levels. We also contributed prevention advice and insights through participating in consultations on topics ranging from the Federal Rapid Review into Prevention Approaches, engaging with men and boys, the development of a national framework for preventing violence against LGBTIQA+ communities, and establishing ‘guardrails’ for Artificial Intelligence in high-risk settings.

Influencing public conversation

Respect Victoria is a leader in communicating about preventing violence. In 2024-25 Respect Victoria had 262 mentions across local, state and national media outlets. Many of these focused on the Ballarat Community Saturation Model, the 16 Days of Activism and Walk Against Family Violence, the What Kind of Man Do You Want to Be? campaign, and discussions around high-profile cases of gendered violence.  

There was also significant uptake from media on the our ‘relationship red flags’ content series, with quotes from those pieces regularly added to news articles about gendered violence and relationships.  

Media engagement throughout the year focused on building knowledge of the Ballarat Community Saturation Model, making prevention actionable and accessible, and supporting journalists to build a prevention lens into their reporting.

Supporting social change and educating the community that violence is preventable

Encouraging men to reflect on harmful expressions of masculinity

We know that for prevention to work, we need men to be a part of the conversation. In 2024-25, Respect Victoria launched a new campaign aimed at engaging men in the prevention of gender-based violence. What Kind of Man Do You Want to Be? encourages men to reflect on the social pressures associated with masculinity and consider their role in creating safer, more respectful relationships, families and communities. Drawing on insights from The Man Box study, the campaign features 12 men from across Victoria sharing their personal experiences of navigating harmful gender norms and taking accountability for their actions.  

Development of the campaign was informed by extensive sector consultation and expert input from the fields of family violence prevention, communications, and social change. Focus group testing with Victorians helped to refine both the messaging and creative approach.

The campaign commenced with a soft launch over December 2024 and January 2025, followed by a full launch throughout June 2025. It performed strongly across social media, achieving greater reach and engagement than previous Respect Victoria campaigns. The June burst reached over 9 million viewers, with videos viewed over 16 million times, and over 22,000 clicks through to Respect Victoria’s website.

We launched the campaign at events alongside stakeholders, including the Parliamentary Secretary for Men’s Behaviour Change, Jesuit Social Services, the Western Bulldogs Community Foundation, the family violence and prevention sector, and the men featured in the campaign.

What Kind of Man Do You Want to Be? will continue throughout 2025-26. Future phases of the campaign will deepen men’s understanding of the link between rigid gender stereotypes and violence and equip them with tools to challenge these pressures in safe and meaningful ways.

Mobilising Victorians to prevent violence

Across November and December 2024, Respect Victoria once again supported the state’s participation in the global 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, a grassroots campaign to end violence against women and girls. Respect Victoria partnered with peak body Safe and Equal to fund organisations to bring the 16 Days of Activism to communities across the state, including:  

• 73 local councils across Victoria  
• 8 regional women’s health services and their regional prevention partnerships (including health and social services, sporting clubs, businesses, education and training organisations, and other community organisations)
• 1 statewide women’s health service
• 6 Aboriginal community-controlled family violence prevention and legal services.  

We supported organisations, workplaces and communities across the state to join the campaign, using the 16 Days of Activism Toolkit. The toolkit includes information, tools, resources and campaign assets to help organisations engage in violence prevention.  

To commence the 16 Days of Activism, Respect Victoria led the annual Walk Against Family Violence in the Melbourne CBD. We partnered with content creators to promote the Walk, and on the day over 8,500 Victorians joined the event (the highest attendance to date). The event included speakers, performers and stall holders representing a wide spectrum of survivor advocates and organisations.  

The Walk was covered by all major broadcasters, including 10, 9, 7 and ABC, and articles ran in the Herald Sun, AAP and regional press. Media coverage platformed a diversity of spokespeople, including survivor advocates, Women with Disabilities Victoria, She Is Not Your Rehab, Respect Victoria Chair Professor Kate Fitz-Gibbon, and the Minister for Prevention of Family Violence.

Telling the story of prevention

Respect Victoria’s communications aim to educate Victorians that violence is a social problem, and the actions they can take as individuals and communities to prevent it. In 2024-25 we focused on collaborative partnerships to expand the depth and reach of our content, including collaborations with artists, comedians, sports professionals, survivor advocates, prevention and men’s behaviour change practitioners.  

Throughout the year we explored topics including what men can do to prevent violence against women, relationship ‘red and green flags,’ sexual strangulation, consent, supporting healthier relationships between men and trans women, the social pressure to engage in harmful expression of masculinity, the gender pay gap, and pornography, breaking them down in ways that made them relevant and accessible to individuals.  

We also partnered with Women with Disabilities Victoria (WDV) to bring the voices and expertise of women and gender diverse people with disabilities to the front in a social media campaign Agency, Access and Action, a series of 13 short videos exploring respect, ableism, workplace access, dating, fashion and disability pride. We launched the campaign during 16 Days of Activism across Respect Victoria and WDV channels. With one video from the campaign going ‘viral,’ the campaign videos were viewed over 2.4 million times and generated over 264,000 engagements.

The accessibility and relevance of our content was reflected in the performance and growth of our channels, including:

• our social media audience grew by 42% on the previous year; this amounts to an additional 18,423 followers, compared to 10,878 the previous year
• over half a million engagements on social media (more than double the previous year)
• 355,353 visits to our website by 286,126 unique users, with an average engagement rate of 57.08%
• 664 new mailing list subscribers.

Building a trusted and effective organisation

In 2024-25, the initiatives and projects outlined above were enabled by a strong financial management and governance approach. Respect Victoria continued to deliver business-as-usual finance, corporate services and governance requirements, including activities to fulfil our compliance and regulatory obligations, manage risk, maximise efficiency, and support board effectiveness. Project managers were supported to build their capabilities through quarterly budget and Business Plan review discussions, planning and reporting tools and templates, and information sessions on procurement, risk management, and other key organisational policies and procedures