The Commonwealth Government has a unique opportunity to lead Australia’s efforts to prevent gendered violence. Through the reform it leads, the laws it passes, the systems it funds and regulates and the issues it chooses to prioritise, The Commonwealth Government has a powerful role in creating the conditions for primary prevention to succeed (27).
Gendered violence is driven by unequal power, harmful gender stereotypes and social norms that excuse or reinforce violence. These underlying drivers of gendered violence are shaped and influenced by the national direction the Commonwealth Government sets through its policies, legislation, funding, regulation and investment across areas such as gender equality, employment, taxation, housing, health, education, digital environments and family law.
This section outlines key opportunities for Commonwealth Government leadership. It explores how the Second Action Plan can better harness broader Commonwealth Government reforms to prevent gendered violence. It also examines where and how the Commonwealth can use its policy, funding and regulatory levers to embed primary prevention across the systems and settings that shape Australians’ everyday lives.
4.1 Embed primary prevention across Commonwealth reform
A life course perspective and the primary prevention evidence base provide a practical framework for identifying where Commonwealth reform can make the greatest contribution to preventing gendered violence. Progress under the National Plan depends on coordinated action across Australian Government portfolios that advance gender equality, reduce discrimination and strengthen social inclusion.
The Second Action Plan should establish a mechanism to identify, coordinate and monitor the prevention contribution of broader Commonwealth reforms. Applying a prevention lens would help ensure Commonwealth reforms reinforce, rather than inadvertently undermine the objectives of the National Plan while maximising the return on existing investment.
Many Commonwealth reforms already contribute to violence prevention, even where this is not their primary objective. Policies that improve women’s economic security, strengthen workplace gender equality and employment, support equitable caregiving, improve housing security, expand access to early years education, strengthen digital regulation or improve social inclusion all influence one or more of the gendered drivers of violence. Recent Paid Parental Leave reforms, for example, are primarily designed to improve women’s workforce participation and family wellbeing. Through a prevention lens, they contribute to gendered violence prevention by supporting more equitable caregiving, strengthening women’s economic participation and challenging traditional gender roles, all of which are recognised within Australia’s primary prevention evidence base as important influences on the gendered drivers of violence.
The Commonwealth Government’s strong focus on women’s health and mental health presents a further opportunity to embed prevention. Family, domestic and sexual violence is a leading contributor to injury, disability, trauma and mental ill health among women (6). Framing violence prevention as a core health reform, not solely a justice or social policy issue, would create new opportunities to leverage health reform and funding to address one of the most significant determinants of women’s health.
Similarly, the National Men’s Health Strategy 2020-2030 presents an opportunity to strengthen primary prevention. Improving men’s health and wellbeing, promoting healthy masculinities and supporting help-seeking are complementary to primary prevention of gendered violence. Better alignment between the Commonwealth Government’s efforts to improve men’s health across different portfolios would ensure these agendas reinforce one another while maintaining clear focus on their discrete objectives.
While the Rapid Review of Prevention Approaches and reform under the Working for Women Strategy have begun to demonstrate the value of this approach, the Second Action Plan should adopt a more systematic approach for identifying, coordinating and monitoring the prevention contribution of broader Commonwealth reforms. This would enable the National Plan to better leverage existing Commonwealth investment and strengthen alignment between primary prevention and adjacent reform agenda.
Recommendation 14
Systematically map, coordinate and strengthen the primary prevention contribution of broader Commonwealth reforms across gender equality, health, inclusion, housing, employment, education and digital policy, including Working for Women: A Strategy for Gender Equality and the National Men’s Health Strategy 2020-2030, to ensure these reforms actively support the prevention of gendered violence and the objectives of the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022-2032
4.2 Activate Commonwealth levers to prevent gendered violence
The Commonwealth Government’s greatest contribution is not only what it funds, but the conditions it creates through the way Australia’s major systems are designed regulated, governed and incentivised.
The Commonwealth Government has significant opportunities to embed prevention through Federation Funding Agreements, national legislation, regulatory frameworks, professional accreditation, national standards and major reform agendas. These levers shape the systems Australians engage with throughout their lives, including early childhood education and care, schools, workplaces, healthcare, family law, housing, disability support, digital environments and aged care. Embedding primary prevention within these mechanisms would help to ensure that mainstream systems consistently promote gender equality, challenge the gendered drivers of violence and reduce the structural conditions that drive and enable gendered violence.
The Rapid Review of Prevention Approaches has already demonstrated the value of activating these broader policy levers through recommendations relating to health, alcohol policy, online safety and gambling (9). The Second Action Plan should build on this foundation by systematically identifying opportunities to embed prevention across other Commonwealth systems, supported by coordinated implementation across portfolios.
One important area where Commonwealth leadership is particularly significant is the regulation of commercial contributors to gendered violence. While regulation of commercial industries is not traditionally viewed as violence prevention, they influence the broader social conditions in which violence occurs. As noted in Respect Victoria’s 2025 Three Year Report to Parliament, Maintain the Momentum further action on alcohol pricing, availability and advertising, gambling regulation, violent pornography and other emerging issues should complement community-based prevention initiatives by creating an enabling environment that reinforces gender equality and reduces the influence of the gendered drivers of violence (16).
Recommendation 15
Position prevention as a shared responsibility across Federal government portfolios and identify Federal levers and opportunities to address the drivers and reinforcers of violence through systems and settings across the life course. This should include examining opportunities to address systems abuse, building on the work the Commonwealth Government has already done as part of the Rapid Review.