Friday 4 September 2026
Health Justice Australia calls for investment in the infrastructure that supports integrated responses to family, domestic and sexual violence.
Health Justice Australia (HJA) has called on the Australian Government to invest in the workforce capability, partnership development and infrastructure needed to turn the commitments of the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032 (National Plan) into practical change.
The national organisation for health justice partnership has made a submission to the consultation process to develop the Second Action Plan for the National Plan, drawing on more than a decade of experience supporting partnership across health, legal and social services.
Across Australia, there is widespread recognition that cross-sector services need to work better together. Improving safety, wellbeing and long-term outcomes for people and families affected by family, domestic and sexual violence (FDSV) requires coordinated responses across sectors, that reflect the reality that people rarely experience health, legal and social issues separately. These issues often intersect and intensify as a result, creating complex challenges that fragmented systems struggle to respond to effectively.
Health Justice Australia’s CEO, Lottie Turner, said, “People experiencing family violence should not be left to map a complicated service system on their own. Their health, legal, safety and social needs are connected, and our services need to be connected too. That takes more than goodwill. It requires deliberate investment in the capability, relationships and infrastructure that make collaboration work.”
Health justice partnership demonstrates what this can look like in practice, bringing legal, health and community services together around people’s needs. Across Australia, HJA has identified 154 health justice partnerships, including 104 working with people experiencing, or at risk of, family and domestic violence. Their experience provides practical insight into what enables effective collaboration and the barriers that continue to limit it.
While the number of integrated approaches continues to increase, investment in the infrastructure that supports collaboration has not kept pace. HJA says “the realities of implementation are complex, and successful integration can be difficult to achieve in practice.” Workforce capability, evidence-based insights, and the knowledge needed for services to work effectively in practice remain limited.
HJA’s submission argues that meaningful collaboration does not occur simply because services are encouraged to work together. It requires investment in the relationships, capability, governance, evidence and infrastructure that allow different sectors to align around the needs of individuals and families.
The submission also identifies that an immediate priority for the Second Action Plan is to understand what is needed to enable effective cross-sector collaboration and to invest in the infrastructure that builds and sustains system-wide capability for integrated service delivery.
Drawing on lessons from existing health justice partnerships, HJA is calling on the government to:
- Commit to long-term investment of HJP to support the expansion and sustainability of this cross-sector service intervention for individuals and families at risk of, or experiencing FDSV.
- Recognise legal assistance as a core component of the comprehensive and integrated service response to FDSV, particularly in settings where victim-survivors commonly seek help, including health, community, family and early childhood services.
- Commit dedicated investment to the national infrastructure required to build system-wide capability for cross-sector service integration, providing the mechanisms, relationships, processes and supports needed to connect and coordinate different parts of the service system.
Dedicated infrastructure can build and sustain cross-sector collaboration and integration in practice to support those most at risk of FDSV, including First Nations women and children, young women and their children, older people, and people in rural and remote areas.
HJA’s submission argues that the Second Action Plan provides an important opportunity to move beyond viewing integration as a desirable practice approach and instead to recognise it as a core system capability.
The submission notes that by investing both in integrated service delivery models and in the infrastructure that supports collaboration across sectors, governments can strengthen early intervention, improve access to justice and support, reduce service fragmentation, and ultimately improve safety and wellbeing outcomes for women and children.
Read Health Justice Australia’s submission to the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022–2032 to learn more.
Contact us for comment.
For comment, contact Gail Rutledge, Communications and Engagement Lead.
Email gail.rutledge@healthjustice.org.au.
About Health Justice Australia
At Health Justice Australia, we help health, legal and social services work together to better meet people’s needs. We strengthen access to legal help through services that support health and wellbeing.
Through evidence, practical tools and collaboration with policy makers, we enable and support services to work together so people and families can get the right support whenever and wherever they need it.
Read more about Health Justice Australia on our website, or visit us on LinkedIn.
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