Funding behaviour change programs, educating boys on healthy relationships vital, women's safety advocates say

Lawyer Taylah Gray has worked on domestic violence cases and believes that women will not be safe from abusive men until the underlying causes of their aggressive behaviour are addressed.

The Wiradjuri woman describes the practice of sending perpetrators to jail without addressing their behavioural issues as a "speed bump approach" to tackling the national crisis.

"We can no longer flee houses and be put into emergency accommodation.

"The men are just roaming around … we're not addressing their behaviour."

Ms Gray, who practises law in the New South Wales Hunter region, says more funding for men's behaviour change programs is essential.  

"Working as a crime lawyer … I've dealt with many DV cases and the courts' automatic response is to just throw them in jail," Ms Gray said. 

"We need programs that address their underlying DV behaviours.

"We only have one service that addresses men's DV [behaviour] in the Hunter region, there's just not enough."

Ms Gray's comments come as the demand for men's behaviour change programs grows, with one major service provider reporting that more than 200 men across New South Wales are waiting for places in its programs.

'High demand' for men's behaviour change programs

In the past five years, there has been an overall statewide increase of 16 per cent in the number of domestic violence suspects police have taken action against, according to the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.

But a closer look reveals that the increase in the Hunter Valley is double that, with police taking action against 766 suspected offenders in 2023 — an increase of 32 per cent over five years.

Relationships Australia New South Wales (RANSW) runs men's behaviour change programs in the Hunter, Illawarra, Sydney and online.

It's the only provider in the Hunter region and can only afford to operate in one location, with each area costing $470,000 every year.

Newcastle-based family and safety programs manager Sian Ord said there were always more than 200 men on wait lists across RANSW's four locations and there was a particular demand for these services in the Hunter.

She said the organisation received about four new inquiries for men to attend these programs every day — either as court-mandated referrals or as self-referrals by men who wanted to change their behaviour.

Once a man is off the waitlist, he is assessed for underlying issues such as mental health concerns, trauma and substance abuse before starting the program. If necessary, RANSW brings in other services to work with participants alongside its counsellors.

Under the program, the men have 12 individual sessions and 18 weeks of group work, with RANSW typically catering for between 80 and 100 clients each year. 

Vulnerable communities

Gener Lapina is a case management specialist at Mosaic Multicultural Connection, which assists migrants and refugees in the Hunter region.

"For a newly arrived refugee or newly arrived migrant, life is stressful and people are often in poverty and people often carry trauma," Mr Lapina said.

Ms Ord said multicultural and Indigenous communities were often hard to reach for myriad reasons, but they were among those who needed the most support.

Mr Lapina agreed and said the Relationships Australia program did not suit some of his clients.

"There can be language barriers, there can be cultural safety issues, there can be availability, so there are many factors affecting a man from a multicultural background participating in a men's behaviour change program," he said.

According to Australian government health data from 2021 to 2022 , First Nations people were 31 times more likely to be hospitalised due to family violence than non-Indigenous Australians.

The data shows Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are over-represented as both victim-survivors and perpetrators of family and domestic violence.

"Every time it [DV] involves an Aboriginal man, they're more likely to go to prison," Ms Gray said.

"Aboriginal men are the most incarcerated people in Australia … every time there's a DV case that arises … the avenue for men is jail.

'We need to educate boys' 

Ms Gray wants to see more education for young males on how to engage in healthy relationships with girls and women, and singled out coercive control as an area that was not well understood. 

"We need to educate young boys, we need to educate the men … at the grassroots level, [people] just don't know enough about it, they don't know what they're doing is this coercive control behaviour," she said.

The New South Wales government's $230 million package to improve domestic violence prevention and support includes $5 million for research into perpetrators and effective interventions.

While Relationships Australia is currently funding its own research, Ms Ord said more data was needed to prove that the programs actually worked.

The goal for RANSW is for clients to receive appointments within a week of being referred to the program and is calling for more funding in the New South Wales budget mid-June.

Ms Ord said they were a long way from achieving that goal, but it was a good sign that governments were finally openly discussing the problem of violence against women. 

"There is some hopefulness that comes for people working in the sector, when there's this much publicity, because my hope is that it will make a difference that it's actually on the table," she said.

The NSW Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Minster Jodie Harrison said the government will continue to engage with stakeholders on responses to domestic and family violence, including Men's Behaviour Change Programs.