Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence Minister Sabine Winton says parents must do more in DV fight

Parents must take responsibility for speaking to their children about toxic behaviours instead of relying on teachers and others, according to one of the drivers of WA’s fight against domestic violence. In a wide-ranging interview with The West Australian on the launch of the State Government’s 16 Days in WA Stop Violence Against Women campaign, Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence Minister Sabine Winton said parents played a critical role in the development of their kids’ attitudes towards females. The former teacher and mother-of-three said the rise of social media had amplified problematic views towards women — a significant cause of family violence — meaning parents needed to be aware of what their children were seeing and teach them how to call out bad behaviour. Ms Winton said while families were busy it was absolutely no excuse. “Children, ultimately their number one teacher are their parents and families and that doesn’t change,” she said. “Social media is, I think, amplifying the kinds of attitudes that have always been there. “Family and domestic violence is not a new thing . . . but I think social media now allows those kind of attitudes to get a platform that once they didn’t and that’s difficult to overcome. “Schools have a role to play but I also think parents have a role to play in terms of not only modelling good behaviour but actually being deeply committed to what their children do and what their children consume and what their children say and that’s difficult. “It does require that constant commitment to wrap around your children, to have those conversations all the time, to challenge unacceptable language or content or things that they hear and to be constantly challenging it.” Ms Winton said there was a need to support survivors with more than just a roof over their heads, to pursue change through both legislation and education and her desire to take advantage of what she sees as “momentum” around the issue. She also defended the Federal Government’s social media ban, likening it to campaigns against smoking and underage drinking: even if some kids find a way around it, the ban still empowers parents to keep their kids off social media and sends a powerful message to young people. “What we really need to do is school our children in being critical consumers of that (online) information. . . and to empower young people to stand up and not walk past that toxic behaviour,” she said. “And that’s hard because you want to fit in and sticking your head up and calling it out is hard, even for adults: we see toxic behaviour in family or friendship groups or at the pub and it takes a bit of courage to say, ‘Hey there, that’s not on.’” One priority for the Cook Government, which earmarked a $96.4m funding package to fight family and domestic violence in this year’s budget, is criminalising coercive control, a form of domestic violence that can involve controlling a partner’s finances, movements and relationships. It is already criminalised in NSW and Queensland but planned new WA laws will not come into effect until after next year’s State election — a delay that has been criticised by WA Liberals leader Libby Mettam. Ms Winton said the focus was now on education for both the community and the judiciary. “I think there’s been a huge shift (in awareness) and we know that in other jurisdictions they are also making moves or have made moves to legislate around coercive control but. . . legislating for a law in of itself doesn’t mean there will be change,” she said. “Women and men and the community have to actually understand what those behaviours are and that they’re unacceptable and will be criminalised.” She said she would like to see public awareness campaigns, like the $5m one the government is running on coercive control, become more commonplace. “I‘m very keen on this becoming a standard part of government business,” she said. “Think back to very successful health campaigns over generations: when you talk about smoking, alcohol, wearing seatbelts: they didn’t have their success by a one-off campaign. . . the message doesn’t get through the first time.” For help with family or domestic violence call 1800 737 732 Women’s Domestic Violence Helpline 1800 007 339 Men’s Domestic Violence Helpline 1800 000 599