Joharna Wynaden: Holding men to account is key to addressing family violence
What if we thought beyond using electronic monitoring and started intervening before violence restraining orders are breached?The WA Government's Family and Domestic Violence Path to Safety strategy lays it out: invest in early legal advice, challenge denial with hard truths, and stabilise risk through co-ordinated, wrap-around support. This is perpetrator intervention done right: early, accountable, and effective.WA is demonstrating to the rest of the country how this can be done.Sussex Street's respondent program is based on early legal advice and education, accountability and multi-disciplinary stabilisation, and is quietly changing how risk is managed across the family violence system. The Sussex Street model moves beyond reactive enforcement and instead treats perpetrator risk as something to be assessed, stabilised, and interrupted at every stage — from when the FVRO is first served through to court appearances and parenting negotiations.And the data speaks volumes. The breach rate for FVROs made final at trial in WA is 15 per cent. For those resolved through the conduct agreement orders or undertakings facilitated by Sussex Street at shuttle conferencing, just 1 per cent are breached.This is not theoretical. This is prevention operationalised — reducing trauma and making women and children safer.
None of this detracts from the critical importance of services for victim-survivors, rather, it reinforces them. As the Bringing Pathways to Accountability Together report notes, perpetrator accountability is not the opposite of victim safety: it is its foundation.Take Rob, who is 49 years old. He starts by calling the Sussex Street legal advice line. The advice line is a free, State-wide service open to anyone who has been served with a FVRO. Rob was given Sussex Street's details by the police officer serving his FVRO. In his first phone call, he is challenged by the lawyer who advises him that there does not need to be physical violence for domestic violence to take place. It is the first time Rob has thought about this. In this first call, Rob admits that he has already breached the FVRO. He is told about the consequences of continued breaches and its potential impact on his work and any family court matters he may have. Without this advice, Rob would have gone on to breach his FVRO multiple times.The first court appearance for many respondents to a FVRO is a shuttle conference. A shuttle conference finds an agreement that the person protected feels safe with and the respondent can accommodate, usually a conduct agreement order or an undertaking. Rob attends the shuttle conference and meets another Sussex Street lawyer. During the conference, Rob's lawyer provides him with advice about his likelihood of success if the matter went to trial, as well as the consequences of breaching an undertaking or order. Although Rob requires a significant amount of 'reality testing' of his position, he agrees to enter into a two-year conduct agreement order. He is anxious not to further impact his relationship with his child in future Family Court proceedings and does not breach the order.
Representation is also provided if the matter does not settle at shuttle conference and goes to hearing in court. For clients who have children with the person protected by the FVRO, and who meet eligibility criteria, Sussex Street also provides family law help to agree safe and appropriate access. A key part of this program is an analysis of the intersectional factors impacting the respondent's life. By addressing the factors that impact on the decision to use violence, we are actively minimising the risk of ongoing violence.In WA, respondents are supported to reduce the risk of using family violence through increased understanding of its nature and impact, and reinforcement of their obligations to prevent harm. Critically, support also focuses on addressing the underlying issues and situational pressures that may escalate risk or destabilise circumstances leading to violence.In this scenario, Rob is provided with an assessment during his phone advice call. The assessment shows Rob is struggling with his finances since receiving the FVRO and he is referred to our in-house financial counsellor. At the same time his repeated drug use is assessed as needing an external referral to alcohol and drug services.
WA is leading the way in connecting the dots across prevention, enforcement, and long-term compliance.Both the State and Commonwealth governments recognise the importance of holding perpetrators to account and supporting behavioural change. However, funding at the State and national level is wholly inadequate. The Commonwealth's recent $25 million commitment over five years to innovative perpetrator responses is one step forward but falls short of the commitment required to drive systemic change.Despite assisting thousands of clients over the past five years, Sussex Street's telephone advice line and family law program remain unfunded beyond June. Perpetrator intervention is not optional but rather central to any credible prevention strategy. WA has the blueprint. What's needed now is bold, sustained investment to fund existing programs and expand the model across regional courts and, ultimately, nationwide. We can wait for harm, or we can prevent it.
Joharna Wynaden is the Principal Solicitor of Sussex Street Community Law Service
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