A coalition of over 150 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, human rights, legal, disability, refugee, LGBTIQA+ and climate change organisations have submitted a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council, ahead of a major UN review into Australia’s human rights record.
When we place police in schools, what message are we teaching?
Everyone has the right to a culturally safe and responsive education. The school system in Australia is boasted as one of the finest in the world with the promise of high standards of learning.1 This promise includes individual learning programs in recognition that the one-size fits all approach will not serve students who require additional learning support. The overarching ethos of the national school curriculum aims to ‘develop students into independent and successful learners with respect for themselves, their peers and global society.’2
In this episode, we’re joined by Linh Nguyen, a mental health counsellor, social worker and Senior Practitioner, Family and Relationship Services at Centacare Catholic Country SA. Linh works with incarcerated individuals in the Port Augusta prison, providing services focused on depression, anxiety, anger management and behavioural change. She discusses the role shame, guilt and past trauma play in preventing incarcerated fathers from connecting with their children, and the approaches she has found helpful in overcoming these and other barriers. She shares how therapy homework tailored to improving individuals’ emotion regulation and interpersonal skills can support fathers to engage more meaningfully with their children, both during incarceration and after their release. Linh also explores how these learnings can be applied to support any father looking to strengthen or rebuild their relationships with their children.
This article provides an overview of the research into support programs that help children whose parents are incarcerated. It highlights the benefits of various types of programs for children with parents who are currently or have formerly been imprisoned. It also outlines considerations for practitioners on how to best support these children.
In its full truth-telling report, the Commission makes over 100 recommendations across areas of child protection, youth justice, education, and more.
This report summarises the key learnings from the 2022-24 evaluation of the Connecting Communities program, a partnership program between the Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health (MCWH) and Safe and Equal to support the learning and professional development needs of the Connecting Communities network, a network of organisations working with multicultural and faith-based communities to prevent family violence in Victoria.
This critical literature review from the University of Auckland examines the nuanced relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and child maltreatment. While income poverty is strongly linked to neglect, sexual abuse shows no consistent correlation. The review highlights that findings vary depending on data sources and analysis levels, with household-level studies showing stronger associations than regional ones. Social cohesion can buffer SES-related risks and the authors call for policy responses that address broader class disparities beyond poverty alone.
This study from Monash University, published in the Australian Journal of Social Issues, investigates how domestic and family violence (DFV) affects young Australians’ education. Based on a national survey of 1,651 young people with lived experience of DFV, the study finds that violence disrupts learning, attendance and wellbeing. It questions whether schools are adequately equipped to support victim-survivors and calls for trauma-informed practices and stronger early intervention strategies.
A landmark national survey reveals that almost 45% of Australians have experienced intimate partner violence – a confronting statistic that underscores the urgency of effective prevention and response.
Who should read this?
Policymakers, practitioners and researchers who rely on up-to-date national data to inform Australia’s strategies to end domestic, family and sexual violence.
Monash University, in partnership with ANROWS and funded by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, is conducting a national research project to strengthen responses to domestic and family violence in military and veteran communities.
As part of this project, Monash is inviting organisations to complete a short 5–10-minute survey on how your service collects data on both domestic and family violence, and military service status among your clients.
Watch this 2 min explainer video to find out more about the survey and access the participant information sheet and consent form here.