“Of course I knew it was a very serious and extensive problem, but I don’t think I realised the dimensions and the scale of it“, the words of Justice Marcia Neave, who was the head of Australia’s first royal commission into family violence, which reported at the end of March, after a mammoth 13 months, during which the commission heard evidence from more than 200 stakeholders to come up with a final list of 227 recommendations. The commission was set up by the government of Victoria specifically, but the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, promised to accept every recommendation, and it is hoped that the federal government will also act in areas over which they have jurisdiction, such as the Family Law Act.
The report, which is available here, includes significant mention of adolescent to parent violence, including statistical analysis and six specific recommendations. You can read comments here from Jo Howard of Kildonan Uniting Care, who is amongst those who have been at the forefront of developing services for families experiencing child to parent violence in the State of Victoria.
