Key Points
- An International Women’s Day event at the Victorian Parliament called for equitable funding to address and prevent family violence in multicultural communities
- A panel of women including academics, legal experts and Victoria Police shared their insights and said that the narrative of family violence needs to be changed
- Members of the Victorian Parliament agreed that the government should develop culturally appropriate pathways to provide services to families from multicultural backgrounds
Organised by the Multicultural Women’s Alliance Against Family Violence (MWAAFV), the event saw a panel of speakers focus on how cultural competency is key when addressing domestic and family violence with multicultural individuals and groups.
Members of the Multicultural Women’s Alliance Against Family Violence (MWAAFV) at the Victorian Parliament on the 7 of March 2023. Credit: SBS Hindi
Ms Hegarty spoke about research in the health system that indicates that women want universal education about healthy relationships and a private confidential space where they can be listened to in a non-judgemental way.
Ameena Rahimi, a community lawyer, said that in her experience there are too many challenges that prevent victims from accessing and utilising services and even knowing what services are available.
She talked about the stigma attached to calling the police in certain cultures.
"The narrative should be changed to focus more on other avenues of seeking help like applying to the court directly for an intervention order. Call the police only when your life is at immediate risk or in a very serious situation. If it is verbal and emotional or psychological abuse call the court, the registrars are very helpful and they can help with filling out the intervention orders or call 'such and such' organisation for a confidential chat," said Ms Rahimi.
From left to right: Akuch Anyieth, social researcher at LaTrobe University, Professor Kelsey Hegarty, University of Melbourne, Ameena Rahimi, community lawyer, and Sonali Deshpande, Acting Inspector, Victoria Police. Credit: SBS Hindi
She said that one of the issues raised by the men is the lack of recognition of their traumatic background, coming from a war-torn community. Potentially affected by PTSD, they struggle to find appropriate services that are culturally safe and understanding of the gravity and impact of the war on these men is very limited. And those experiences and that trauma is manifesting in violent ways.
According to Ms Anyieth, in order to assist women and children, men need to be addressed through the lens of trauma, background and mental health.
Sonali Deshpande, Acting Inspector, Victoria Police, addressed the challenge of building a trusted relationship with people from diverse communities.
Ms Deshpande, who is the first female police officer of Indian heritage in the Victoria Police, revealed that police attended more than 90,000 incidents of family violence in the last financial year.
"Other statistics suggests that only 30 per cent of family violence incidents are reported to police," she said.
Ms Deshpande emphasised the need to educate communities about different ways of family violence that includes elder abuse.
She said that the specific duties of the police are to be reactive, not proactive but they do get involved in the proactive environment that aims for the prevention of family violence with other service providers. According to her, training is offered to all police officers to ensure that safety is a priority.
Members of the Victorian Parliament – Dr Samantha Ratnam, Cindy McLeish and Georgie Purcell – agreed that support program policies and practices should reflect culturally safe, competent and relevant domestic violence services to address the cultural needs of CALD communities.
From left to right: Georgie Purcell, member for Northern Victoria, Samantha Ratnam, member for Northern Metropolitan Region, and Cindy McLeish, state member for Eildon, at the Multicultural Women's Alliance IWD event in Victorian Parliament. Credit: SBS Hindi
She reflected on one of the huge challenges that are present in developing more culturally responsive services.
"It is to listen to the communities, recognise that power imbalances are going to look different, but you will not know what those differences are until you stop and take time to listen to communities," she said.
Cindy Mcleish, Liberal Member for Eildon, said she found it very insightful to listen to the different speakers and stories to understand the interwoven elements at play.
She said it is important to stop and reassess where people are with every wave of migration, as someone who is in the first year of migration will have a different experience to someone who has been here for longer.
We know that one hat does not fit everybody, it's different for different cultures and backgrounds.Cindy Mcleish, Liberal member for Eildon
Georgie Purcell, the Animal Justice Party member for Northern Victoria, echoed similar sentiments to other speakers and also spoke about gender-based inequities, however, she pointed out that as a 'white woman,' she may not have the lived experience of racial inequality on top of that.
She drew parallels from her own experience of working as the youngest female MP in the Victorian Parliament.
"We have a lot of work to increase female representation (in Parliament) for sure but we are hugely lacking in young people in this place even though the decisions made in here affect our lives every single day, sometimes more than the older generation because we are young and live with these decisions for longer," said Ms Purcell.
Ministers from the Labor Government were invited but unable to attend, according to the organisers.
