Introduction

Summary

Respect Victoria commends the Victorian Government for explicitly prioritising working in partnership with people with disability towards preventing violence against adults and children with disability, under the current Victorian State Disability Plan (2022 – 2026). While Victoria has made progress towards preventing family and sexual violence, violence against women and gendered violence, these issues persist and people with disability remain overrepresented among both victim survivors and those at risk of experiencing violence. Intimate partner violence, while preventable, is the leading contributor to death, disability and illness in Australian women aged 18 to 44. (1) Preventing violence is a critical and persistent issue that requires a whole-of-government and whole-of-community approach. The renewal of Victoria’s State Disability Plan and Autism Plan represents an opportunity to sustain and deepen this focus to uphold the right of all people with disability to live free from violence, in dignity, safety and equality.  

Respect Victoria highlights the following opportunities to continue and strengthen the focus on primary prevention of violence against people with disability, particularly women, children and gender diverse people, in the State Disability and Autism Plan renewal:

1. Under the pillar of Fairness and Safety, continue to prioritise working in partnership with people with disability to prevent family and sexual violence through understanding and highlighting the underlying gendered and ableist drivers of family and sexual violence against people with disability and, in particular, the high rates of gender-based violence and discrimination against women, children and gender diverse people with disability.
   1. continue to promote and support positive community attitudes towards people with disability.
2. Continue to support collaboration and partnership between the disability and violence prevention sectors to enable:
   1. capability building within the disability sector to understand and counter the underlying drivers of violence against people with disability (particularly women, children and gender diverse people)
   2. capability building within the sectors that address gendered violence, including the prevention sector, to design and deliver primary prevention, early intervention, response (including first responders and justice settings), recovery and healing initiatives that are tailored, inclusive and relevant for people with disability
   3. resourced collaboration and partnerships between the disability and primary prevention sectors that elevate the disability sector as a priority setting for violence prevention and support cross-pollination of skills, knowledge, confidence and impact to prevent violence against people with disability.
3. Prioritise access to inclusive and tailored information, education and supports on respectful relationships, sexual and reproductive health for people with disability delivered via the Victorian Curriculum. In particular:
   1. continue to support participating schools to implement and embed the Respectful Relationships whole-of-school approach, including by resourcing and supporting mainstream and specialist schools to continue to build the knowledge, confidence and capability to tailor and deliver Respectful Relationships education in the most effective, inclusive and accessible way for students with disabilities, including autism.
4. Explore tailored and inclusive digital literacy and online safety education and support for people with disability to promote and enable safer online experiences, including through mitigating the influence of online misogyny, radicalisation and technology-facilitated abuse.
5. Continue to support and enable equal economic participation of women and girls with disability through legislative, policy and regulatory levers.
6. Continue to prioritise effective data and outcomes reporting, with a strengthened focus on better mechanisms to collect and report gender and disability disaggregated data about all forms of violence against people with disability.
7. Consider opportunities to embed, complement and/or support key recommendations within Maintain the Momentum, Respect Victoria’s Three Yearly Report to Parliament on the Progress of Prevention 2022-2024, that impact on the rights and safety of Victorians with disability and/or Autism, including:
   1. Recommendation 2f – Provide dedicated and enduring funding for primary prevention. This includes: continuing to facilitate funding arrangements that support community-led and targeted prevention with priority communities (including work led by and for people with disability) including through resourced partnerships with mainstream organisations.
   2. Recommendation 4 – Work with and advocate to the federal government and other jurisdictions for effective strategies to safeguard against new and/or escalating gendered harms in the digital space.
   3. Recommendation 6c – Continue to strengthen prevention system infrastructure and coordination through dedicated and enduring funding for: the prevention workforce and sector, including specialist organisations, particularly organisations led by and for people with disability.
   4. Recommendation 7e – Actively work to grow and strengthen the primary prevention workforce in Victoria by: enabling the sector to continue to embed intersectional and inclusive practice, including through resourcing community-led and specialist organisations to deliver capability building initiatives and to engage in partnerships with mainstream organisations.
   5. Recommendation 8d – Strengthen prevention data quality and evaluation through: strengthening data collection capability, data linkage and use of existing evaluative data for prevention activity.
   6. Recommendation 10d – Require, remunerate and resource inclusion of the perspectives and priorities of marginalised communities and under-represented voices in relevant government funded prevention policy and program design, including people with disability.

About this response

Respect Victoria is the state’s dedicated organisation for the prevention of family violence and violence against women. Our vision is a Victorian community where all people are safe, equal and respected, and live free from family violence and violence against women.  

Respect Victoria welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the development of the next Victorian State Disability Plan and the State Autism Plan (2027–2031). The following advice focuses on:

• the prevention of family and sexual violence, and all forms of gendered violence (hereafter referred to collectively as ‘gendered violence’) experienced by people with disability and autistic people, particularly women, girls and gender diverse people, and  
• the opportunity for Victoria to strengthen the integration between disability reform, autism policy and primary prevention of violence frameworks.

This feedback draws on evidence from Respect Victoria’s 2021 research report ‘No more excuses – Primary prevention of violence against women with disability’, alongside findings from the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability, Our Watch’s Changing the Landscape framework, research literature relating to violence prevention and disability, and consultation with specialist prevention, disability and family violence organisations. It has also been informed by the findings and recommendations of ‘Maintain the Momentum’, Respect Victoria’s three yearly report to Parliament on the progress of prevention 2022-2024. This feedback has been considered amongst the current Victorian policy settings contained within the current Victorian State Disability Plan and Victorian Autism Plan.

Respect Victoria notes that both lapsing plans contain important commitments that strongly contribute to primary prevention of gendered violence in relation to inclusion, accessibility, co-design, workforce capability and safety. Inclusive Victoria: state disability plan (2022–2026) represented a significant advancement in recognising ableism, embedding intersectional approaches and strengthening accountability across government systems. The Victorian Autism Plan (2023–2027) similarly established an important framework for improving inclusion, community understanding and service accessibility for autistic Victorians. We commend the Victorian Government for demonstrating leadership through initiatives such as the Gender and Disability Workforce Development Program, disability-inclusive prevention activities delivered by Women with Disabilities Victoria, family violence and disability practice leader roles and investments in behaviour support workforce capability.

The renewal of both plans presents an opportunity to build on these strong foundations by further integrating primary prevention approaches across systems, settings and policy portfolios. In doing so, Victoria can continue to strengthen alignment between disability reform, gender equality and family, domestic and sexual violence prevention policy.

Violence against people with disability, particularly women, girls and gender-diverse people is not inevitable. A primary prevention approach aims to stop violence before it starts by addressing the social norms, attitudes, structural inequalities, institutional practices and unequal power relationships that drive this violence. For people with disability and Autistic people, these dynamics can intersect with ableism, social exclusion, economic inequality and barriers to participation in ways that increase vulnerability to violence and diminish autonomy and safety.

The next phase of reform provides an opportunity to recognise and leverage primary prevention of violence as key to reducing demand on the disability sector (through preventing injury and disability itself) and building the capability of the disability sector to deliver stronger outcomes for women with disability that support their safety, equality and wellbeing. It provides an opportunity to further strengthen how primary prevention of violence against people with disability is embedded across education, employment, housing, digital participation, justice, service systems and community inclusion initiatives. Importantly this includes recognising inclusion, autonomy, accessibility and supported decision-making not only as rights-based objectives, but also as foundational violence prevention strategies that support community safety.

Disability, autism and gendered violence

People with disability face significantly higher rates of all forms of violence, abuse, and neglect than people without disability (2, 3) (footnote 1). These forms of violence are often gendered and further compounded for women and gender diverse people who experience higher rates of violence than both men with disabilities and women without disabilities (3). National data analysed by the University of Melbourne found that 65 per cent of women with disabilities report having experienced at least one incident of violence since the age of 15, including physical, sexual and intimate partner violence, emotional abuse and/or stalking (32).

Women with disabilities are more likely to experience violence more frequently, over longer periods, across a broader range of settings, and from a wider range of perpetrators – including intimate partners, family members, strangers, paid or unpaid carers, co-residents and service providers (4). However, under-reporting, barriers to accessing justice and attrition within the criminal justice system remain real and pressing issues.

The 2023 Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability (Disability Royal Commission) identifies that violence against women and girls with disabilities can take many forms, including physical, sexual, emotional and economic abuse, as well as distinct forms of violence, such as threatening to or actually withholding assistive devices, using restrictive practices and restraints, or undertaking medical procedures without informed consent, including forced contraception, termination of pregnancy and sterilisation (5).  

Notably, evidence presented to the Disability Royal Commission highlighted widespread experiences of violence across disability services, education, justice, health and residential settings. In the 2021-2022 reporting period, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) reported 1.4 million unauthorised uses of restrictive practices against participants (6).  

People with disability are not homogeneous and different forms of disability may influence a person’s experience of violence. Research demonstrates heightened experiences of violence among women with psychological disability, intellectual disability and complex communication needs, young women and First Nations women with disability (2,5). For some people with disability, the risk of violence is further compounded by the intersection of gender inequality and ableism with other forms of discrimination, such as racism, ageism, homophobia and transphobia.

It must be noted that the heightened rates of violence are not caused by disability or autism themselves, rather they reflect the interaction between:

• ableism
• gender inequality
• social exclusion
• institutional power imbalances
• barriers to autonomy and participation.

The renewed plans therefore provide an opportunity to strengthen community understanding that safety is shaped by broader conditions of equality, inclusion, respect and autonomy.

Primary prevention highlights the importance of addressing violence not only within interpersonal relationships, but also across service systems and institutional environments.

Structural and institutional violence

Research demonstrates that people with disability experience violence not only in interpersonal relationships, but also through systems, institutions and service settings. The Disability Royal Commission identified widespread patterns of abuse, neglect, coercion, exclusion and exploitation embedded within institutional structures and unequal power relationships. These findings reinforce that preventing violence against people with disability cannot be limited to criminal justice or safeguarding responses alone and that a whole-of-community and systems-level primary prevention approach is crucial.

The Disability Royal Commission identified widespread experiences of:

• restrictive practices
• coercive control
• institutional neglect
• abuse within residential and service settings
• barriers to reporting violence
• overuse of substitute decision-making
• practices that limit autonomy and participation of people with disability.

In some contexts, harmful behaviours may be normalised or reframed as care, protection or behavioural management. Prejudicial or inaccurate assumptions about incapacity or dependence can contribute to the minimisation of coercive control, financial abuse and restrictive practices against people with disability.

A primary prevention approach therefore requires recognition that violence can be embedded within systems, policies and institutional cultures. 

The renewed plans should strengthen recognition that disability systems themselves are key settings for violence prevention. This includes ensuring government-funded systems actively identify, address and prevent violence-supportive norms, over-use of substitute decision making, coercive practices and barriers to autonomy.

Violence as both a cause and consequence of disability

An important dimension of the relationship between disability and gendered violence is that experiences of violence can exacerbate pre-existing disability and/or contribute to the acquisition of a new disability.  

Family violence and other forms of gendered violence are increasingly recognised as causes and contributors to acquired brain injury, psychosocial disability, chronic illness and long-term neurological impairment. Australian evidence demonstrates that repeated assaults to the head and non-fatal strangulation from intimate partner violence can result in traumatic brain injury and long-term cognitive impacts, particularly memory loss and learning difficulties (10). A 2018 study by Brain Injury Australia found that approximately 40% of victim-survivors of family violence who presented to Victorian hospitals over a ten-year period had sustained a brain injury (33).

The Disability Royal Commission identified that violence experienced by people with disability is frequently:

• under-identified within clinical settings
• fragmented across systems
• poorly captured within administrative data
• misattributed to behavioural issues rather than recognised as violence.

This has implications not only for service responses, but also for violence prevention policy and long-term planning. The renewed plans provide an opportunity to strengthen integrated approaches to evidence collection and data development relating to:

• violence-related disability acquisition
• acquired brain injury linked to gendered violence
• institutional violence
• violence experienced by autistic people
• long-term physical and neurological health impacts of coercive control and cumulative abuse. 

Primary prevention of gendered violence

Primary prevention focuses on stopping family, sexual and all forms of gendered violence before it starts by targeting the deep underlying social drivers and conditions that allow it to occur in the first place.    

Change the Story is Australia’s national framework to prevent violence against women. It identifies the key gendered drivers of men’s violence against women as:    

• Condoning of violence against women.    
• Men’s control of decision-making and limits to women’s independence.  
• Rigid gender roles and stereotyped constructions of masculinity and femininity.    
• Male peer relations that emphasise aggression and disrespect towards women.    

Effective, upstream prevention initiatives can, over time, reduce perpetration of family violence and gendered violence (11). These drivers must be considered alongside the unique drivers of violence against people with disability when working with different communities.

Additional drivers of violence against people with disability

The evidence base increasingly recognises that violence against women and girls with disability is driven by the interaction of gender inequality, ableism and other intersecting inequalities.

Women and girls with disability experience many of the same gendered drivers as women without disability. However, women with disability experience additional underlying drivers of violence linked to ableism, social exclusion and barriers to participation.

Changing the landscape: A national resource to prevent violence against women and girls with disabilities is Our Watch and Women with Disabilities Victoria’s national, evidence-based resource to guide the prevention of violence against women and girls with disabilities.

Changing the landscape extends the national prevention framework Change the Story, by identifying how disability discrimination intersects with the gendered drivers of violence. The resource highlights that violence against women and girls with disabilities is driven by ableism and sexism and reinforced through systemic practices and social norms that restrict autonomy, undermine credibility, limit participation and normalise control. The ableist drivers of violence are identified as:

• stereotypes that women with disabilities are incapable, burdensome, asexual, childlike or lacking decision-making capability
• accepting or normalising violence, disrespect and discrimination against people with disabilities
• assumptions that carers or support workers are inherently trustworthy  
• social structures that segregate or isolate people with disability from community participation, education, employment or leadership.

Women and girls with disability may often experience reduced economic independence, lower workforce participation, increased social isolation, exclusion from leadership and decision-making, paternalistic attitudes, and assumptions of incompetence or dependence (4). These attitudes and inequalities compound across the life course and contribute to conditions in which violence is more likely to occur and less likely to be recognised or addressed, and at times normalised (12). This heightened risk is not caused by disability itself. Rather it reflects the intersection of gender inequality, ableism and other structural inequalities which together shape the conditions in which violence occurs.  

As highlighted in the Inclusive Victoria: state disability plan (2022-2026), ‘people with disability are diverse in their culture, language, sexuality, gender identity, age, ability, socioeconomic status and life experiences’. Other forms of oppression and systemic discrimination such as racism, impacts of colonisation, ageism, classism, homophobia and transphobia can intersect with gender inequality and ableism to influence the prevalence, nature and dynamics of violence perpetrated against women and gender diverse people with disabilities (12).  

The Disability Royal Commission identified that people with disability are less likely to be believed when disclosing violence and are often perceived as less credible witnesses in criminal justice settings. Such experiences can cause people with disability to fear that they will not be believed or adequately protected by police and the justice system, causing reluctance to seek support and protection and putting victim survivors at risk of ongoing or escalating violence (5).  

Changing the landscape therefore emphasises that preventing violence against people with disability requires broad social and institutional change, rather than simply teaching individuals to recognise or avoid violence.

The renewed State Disability Plan and Autism Plan (2027-2031) should explicitly recognise ableism alongside gender inequality as a driver of violence against people with disabilities and embed this understanding across policy, workforce development, education and community prevention initiatives. 

Footnotes