Statement From The Minister For The Prevention Of Family Violence

I thank Natasha Stott Despoja AO for her incredible leadership, tireless work, and passionate commitment to the prevention of family violence through her eight years as the inaugural Chair of Our Watch.

The Victorian Government is immensely proud of its relationship with Our Watch, which has become the national foundation for the prevention of violence against women and children.

We have a ten-year partnership; indeed we’ve been with Our Watch from the start, working together to ‘change the story’ of family violence in Victoria, and Australia.

I am grateful to have worked closely with Natasha and Our Watch through the ongoing implementation of Victoria’s world-leading Free from Violence strategy and supporting us to deliver a range of ground-breaking initiatives including our Educating for Equality model for universities, our Men in Focus programs and building the capacity of multicultural communities through our Safer and Stronger Communities Pilot.

By making it a priority to understand what is happening where we live, work and play, we now have a far greater understanding of the drivers of violence against women.

And this, in turn, is helping us to change attitudes and behaviours and stop this violence before it starts.

While there is still much to be done, Natasha’s leadership has contributed to real tangible progress towards eliminating gender-based violence.

I wish her well as she takes this work to a global scale, as a member of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.

We will work with the Commonwealth and the Our Watch Board on the selection of the new Chair, continuing our vital partnership and our progress toward a Victoria free from violence against women.