Quotes attributable to Our Ways Strong Together CEO Olga Havnen AM
A grand final should not make a home less safe.
As people prepare for one of the biggest weekends in Australian sport, family violence services are also preparing. Victoria Police has previously reported an increase of around 20 per cent in family violence on AFL Grand Final day, and services have reported sharp increases in demand around both AFL and NRL grand final weekends.
The game does not cause violence. Alcohol does not excuse it. Heightened emotions do not remove responsibility.
These events can increase risk where violence, coercive control and harmful attitudes already exist, and they expose the structural conditions that allow violence to continue.
For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children, prevention must mean more than a warning. It requires governments and institutions to:
- resource Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations for predictable periods of higher demand;
- invest in prevention and culturally grounded healing;
- ensure police, health, housing and crisis systems provide safe and connected responses;
- address the gendered and structural drivers of violence; and
- measure whether women and children actually receive safety and support.
Australia has already agreed on the direction, through the Our Ways - Strong Ways - Our Voices National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Plan to End Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence 2026-2036. The task now is implementation.
Violence is not inevitable. But preventing it requires authority, resources and accountability to sit with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and communities closest to the solutions.
A safe celebration should be safe for everyone.
