Happy 10th birthday to the One in Three Campaign!

Today is International Men’s Day.

To the garbagemen who remove our rubbish in the wee hours; the men who construct our buildings and repair our roads; the security guards and policemen who keep us safe; the miners and loggers who risk their lives to help build our world; the long-distance truckers who keep the economy turning; the volunteer firefighters who save lives and property when nature challenges us; the hands-on dads who make such a difference in their children's lives; the elderly men who care for their wives when their health deteriorates; the teenage boys and young men who astound us with their wonderful risk-taking and testosterone-fuelled energy; the separated dads who fight to see their children; the male childcare workers who show us by example that working with young children is a proper place for men - thank you for all that you do to make the world a better place.

Today is also the 10th birthday of the One in Three Campaign. In 2009, the founders of the One in Three Campaign (a diverse group of men and women: academics, researchers, social workers, psychologists, counsellors, trainers, activists and victim/survivors) felt that we could no longer retain our moral or intellectual integrity by ignoring the authoritative and growing body of data that indicates males make up a substantial proportion of victims of family violence and abuse.

While welcoming the advances that had taken place over recent decades to support women and children suffering from violence, we acknowledged that there was a complete lack of programs, services and support to help men in the same situation. We felt that it was unjust and inequitable to abhor only that violence done to women and children while ignoring violence done to men.

We are proud of our achievements over the past decade. We regularly lodge submissions, attend consultations and appear before government inquiries and royal commissions into family violence. As a result, all the recent state and federal inquiries have recommended that better support services be provided to male victims of family violence.

For example, a 2012 NSW Government inquiry recognised the gap in services for male victims and encouraged the government to examine how services could most appropriately be provided to male victims of domestic violence.

The 2015 Victorian Royal Commission recommended that within a two year period, the Victims Support Agency and all other relevant support services should develop joint arrangements to ensure that male victims of family violence are supported in obtaining the help they need.

And the 2015 Australian Senate inquiry recommended that the Commonwealth Government recognise the need to provide appropriate services to male victims of domestic and family violence.

As a result, male victims appear to be coming forward in greater numbers than ever before. The proportion of men who reported experiencing current partner violence in the last 12 months between the 2005 and 2016 Australian Bureau of Statistics Personal Safety Surveys rose more than five-fold (a 552% increase), while the proportion of men who reported experiencing emotional abuse from a current partner in the last 12 months more than doubled (a 223% increase).

The latest National Community Attitudes Survey found that more Australians recognise that women can perpetrate domestic violence, and that men can suffer physical harm and fear from domestic violence, compared to previous surveys.

There is also some good news on the service provision front - most notably the allocation of $13.3M over four years to pilot a new service delivery model for male victims across NSW. The lead agency NTV, received 25,361 referrals for male victims of domestic violence between 1 November 2016 and 30 June 2017, of which 4,089 were referred to a Local Support Service for case management.

We have recently seen some Australian government domestic violence public service advertisements feature male victims and female perpetrators for the first time ever. 

Online discussions and comments regularly feature people asking “what about male victims” when discussing domestic violence.

We have filmed interviews with two male victim/survivors and posted them on YouTube in the hope of better conveying the personal experiences that many men go through.

We have connected many members of the mainstream media with male victims of family violence so they could publish stories about the issue.

We have supported the development of Australia's first shelter for men and their children, Jeremiah House in Bundaberg, QLD.

The main challenge we have faced is the perception that advocating for male victims is somehow an attack upon female victims or upon women in general. It’s not. It never has been.

Over the past 10 years there have been major newspaper articles on a regular basis, and even a seminar tour by an academic to a number of major Australian Universities, claiming it’s a myth that men make up a substantial proportion of victims of family violence and abuse.

We remind ourselves that our objectors may have loud voices but they are few in number. Our energy is best spent not in an attempt to change their minds, but in doing the core work of raising public awareness of the existence and needs of male victims, and improved services and support for them.

Even though there is still a long way to go, we feel we have done a great deal over the past decade to raise the profile of male victims of family violence and improve services and support for them. We have done it as a small group of passionate volunteers in our spare time, with no funding whatsoever. Nothing we have done has had a negative effect upon women or upon female victims. It has simply improved the situation for male victims. We have consistently argued that more and better services are also required for female victims of family violence. Of this we are very proud indeed.

We believe our society has the capacity to support all victims of family violence, whether young or old, male or female, gay or straight, rich or poor, wherever they live. 

Happy International Men’s Day, and Happy Birthday 1IN3!