Central to the success of any plan, campaign, action or service that seeks to eliminate violence against women and children is to centre, honestly and radically, the voices of victim-survivors: their stories, their knowledge, their professional understanding, their expertise, their wisdom, their solutions and their criticisms. Lula Dembele is a victim - survivor of men's violence, and a Special Advisor to the Illawarra Women's Health Centre. She is formidable, fiercely intelligent, and relentless in her work to support victim- survivors, ensuring they are at the centre of designing, driving and evaluating change. Equally, and as importantly if change is to occur, she works to make those who perpetrate violence against women and children are held clearly and fully responsible and accountable for their actions.

Ms Dembele on behalf of the national Independent Collective of Survivors spoke at the launch of the National Plan. This is her speech.

My name is Lula Dembele. First and foremost, I am a survivor advocate. Thank you for having me here today. I want to start by acknowledging we meet on the lands of the Wurrundjeri people, and pay my respects to elders past and present and first nations people here with us today.

I want to acknowledge the tireless and fearless work of First Nations women who have been speaking truth to power and talking up; fighting against and living with the ongoing impacts of colonisations in their communities that compound the experiences of domestic, family, and sexual violence.

Despite the recent lean towards professionalising the work of preventing and responding to gendered violence, this work has always been led by those who have experienced it.

This work has always been carried by the voices of those who have been marginalised, degraded, and experienced discrimination. It is time now, to bring the lived expertise of those who have been marginalised to the centre of this work.

I want to acknowledge and offer my solidarity to the victim survivors here today as well. So many people with lived experience have contributed to the development of this plan in a myriad of ways. We must acknowledge that we have a lived experience workforce, and remove all forms of shame and stigma from the experience of being a victim.

Victims of gendered violence have, and still are this very minute leading advocacy, providing advice to peak bodies and governments, leading research, leading organisations for peer navigation through legal and justice systems, leading organisations that provide long term support and healing, and fighting for police accountability and that police have a duty of care to victims.

Victim survivors work in primary prevention, they are therapists, they are GPs, they are case workers, they are men's behavioural change practitioners, they are public servants, they are journalists, they are lawyers, they are Ministers.

As a survivor myself, I have been fortunate to lend my knowledge, my insights, and my passion for change to the development of this National Plan. I am proud, and relieved, to see that the priorities I have fought for over the past few years have been represented in this plan:

The inclusion of lived experience at the decision-making table; that long term healing and recovery are recognised as essential; engaging boys and men in gender equality and the prevention of violence; and that people who choose to use violence are held accountable.

Minister Rishworth was asked today by Nour Haydar on ABC news what has changed in this national plan that will see a reduction in violence against women and children where the previous plan failed to achieve that. For me, the answer to that is a clear and deliberate focus on reducing the perpetration of gendered violence.

Unless we as a nation shift our focus to perpetration, and perpetrator's behaviours, we do not truly have a reduction strategy and we will not see in a reduction of abuse and violence in the outcomes.

Until we understand perpetration of domestic, family and sexual violence is the problem we are trying to solve, we will continue to burden victims as responsible for stopping the abuse perpetrated against them.

Until we measure and understand the prevalence and nature of perpetration in this country we will not end gendered violence.

Today we launch the strategy, but tomorrow the hard work begins. Any strategy or plan is only as good as its implementation and so I look to all of you here in the room today to use your influence, use your power, use your budgets and commit fully to this work.

This is more than an announcement, this is people's lives, for too many, this is a matter of life and death.

I want to end today by reading the victim survivor statement that opens the National Plan. This statement was a collective effort drafted by my peers and members of the Independent Collective of Survivors. I am so proud to be the vessel to read their words, to give voice to their pain and frustration, and to demand change happens now.

Statement from Victim Survivors for National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022-2032

It is time to transform our pain into action. There can be no more excuses - that it is too hard, we don't know what to do, it's too complex. It is everyone's responsibility to end the perpetration of violence against women and children, and all victims of gendered violence.

We are your mothers, your sisters, your brothers, your aunties, your uncles, your cousins, your children, your partners, your colleagues, your friends, your family, your kin, your community.

Do not continue to shame us for what other people have done to us. We did not ask for abuse. We have resisted violence, or done what we needed to do - to protect ourselves, our families. To survive.

Stand with us, do not look away when we show you our pain. See what is happening all around you everyday, from the sexist comment or homophobic joke; to the excuse 'boys will be boys'.

Discard the disbelief that just because you know someone, they could not possibly hurt or abuse another. The people who use abuse and violence against their families, partners, children, colleagues, friends, dates are people you already know. People you like. People you love.

For many of us, the people who have abused us are people we knew; people we liked; and most often people we loved.

Too many of us are being re-traumatised trying to engage with systems that are meant to 'protect' us but fail. Systems that create barriers to access and have costs beyond our means because services are not designed for the realities of our lives. Instead they perpetuate the same dynamics of power of control as our abusers. Systems that wait until the worst has happened before it responds, then blame us for not reporting or leaving.

We should not have to die to get your attention.

We should never be forced to choose between violence in our homes or being homeless and facing violence on the streets, or having our families torn apart in ways we never wanted and that cause further harm.

This is not safety.

The time is now to remove the inequalities that allow perpetrators to exercise power over others because our society does not believe women; does not value all women equally; does not hear the voices of First Nations women and learn from their diverse experiences; does not reward women equally for work; does not value women's unpaid labour; does not believe children can be trusted to tell the truth about abuse; does not view people with disabilities as equal or able; punishes those who do not conform; and creates disadvantage and poverty as a problem of individuals.

It is time to stop people and institutions choosing to use violence, feeling entitled to control and dominate, to degrade others' value based on their sex, gender, sexuality or perceived 'rights'.

We are not damaged goods. We are not incapable or less than you because we experience trauma. We are survivors. We will not be silenced, pushed into the shadows nor spoken for any more.

We hold knowledge and answers that others simply do not.

We are diverse but galvanised by a common cause. We know what needs to change. No meaningful solutions can be made about us without us.

Stopping our suffering is dependent on all of us choosing to do something differently. We cannot repeat more of the same and expect to achieve change.

Abuse and violence is a problem for victims, but it is not a victims' problem. Genuine change begins with a willingness to listen. We must stop protecting perpetrators with our silence, and through inaction. We must be willing to sit in discomfort.

It is time to be brave.