When the Royal Commission into Family Violence handed down its final report in March 2016, Victoria’s crisis response system was quietly overwhelmed and largely invisible to the public. Safe Steps Family Violence Response Centre — the state’s only 24/7 specialist family violence service — was operating with resources that advocates had long argued were inadequate for the scale of need. What followed was the largest single investment in family violence reform in Australian history, and Safe Steps sat at the centre of it.
This is an explainer on what that transformation looked like, where the service stands now, and what the ongoing resourcing picture means for Victorians who need help.
Where Safe Steps started #
Safe Steps has operated since 1991, initially known as the Domestic Violence and Incest Resource Centre crisis line. For decades it functioned as a telephone crisis service — a critical but under-resourced lifeline for people experiencing family violence who had nowhere else to call in the middle of the night.
Before the Royal Commission, the service was already operating around the clock, but with limited capacity. Workers described taking calls from women sheltering in bathrooms, cars, and public toilets while trying to manage an intake process that had few places to send people once the immediate crisis was assessed. Crisis accommodation was — and to a significant degree remains — chronically short. The commission’s 227 recommendations documented this reality in detail.
What the Royal Commission recommended — and what the government funded #
The Royal Commission into Family Violence, led by the Honourable Marcia Neave AO, delivered its final report in March 2016 after examining evidence from more than 450 witnesses. It found that Victoria’s family violence system was fragmented, underfunded, and ill-equipped to meet demand. Safe Steps was identified as the appropriate body to anchor an expanded statewide crisis response.
The then-Andrews Government committed $572 million in its initial response to the commission — the largest package of its kind in Australia at the time — with subsequent budgets adding further funding. For Safe Steps specifically, the investment translated into several concrete changes.
The service’s mandate was formally expanded. Where it had primarily operated as a telephone crisis line, it became the designated statewide intake point for women and children experiencing family violence in Victoria. This meant Safe Steps was no longer simply answering calls — it was now responsible for assessing risk, triaging need, coordinating referrals, and in some circumstances arranging emergency accommodation and relocation across the state.
Staffing grew substantially. The organisation recruited specialist family violence practitioners, risk assessment workers, and intake coordinators. The service also invested in its interpreter capacity, recognising that callers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds faced additional barriers to accessing help.
The 24/7 model: what it actually means #
Safe Steps operates around the clock, every day of the year, including public holidays. That is not unusual for a crisis line — but what distinguishes Safe Steps from a generalist crisis service is the specialist training of every worker who answers the phone.
Workers are trained in the Common Risk Assessment and Risk Management Framework (CRAF and its successor, MARAM — the Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management Framework), which is the Victorian government’s standardised tool for assessing the severity of family violence and the risk of serious injury or death. This means a person calling at 3am on Christmas Day is connected to someone who can conduct a structured risk assessment, not just a general supportive conversation.
The service takes calls from people experiencing violence, from professionals seeking advice about a client, and increasingly from family members concerned about someone they know. In recent years, Safe Steps has also expanded its text and online chat options to accommodate people who cannot safely make a voice call — a recognition that voice calls are not always possible when an alleged perpetrator is in the same room.
The Orange Door: how Safe Steps fits in #
One of the most significant structural changes to emerge from the Royal Commission was the creation of The Orange Door — a network of integrated hubs designed to bring together family violence services, child and family services, and perpetrator interventions under one roof (or at least one access point).
Safe Steps and The Orange Door operate as complementary rather than competing services, though the relationship has taken time to clarify. Safe Steps remains the statewide after-hours crisis response — The Orange Door hubs are available during business hours and are embedded in local communities. When a hub closes for the evening, Safe Steps becomes the active crisis point.
In practice, this means Safe Steps workers frequently refer callers to their local Orange Door for follow-up case management, and Orange Door practitioners refer clients back to Safe Steps when after-hours crises arise. The integration has also extended to risk flagging — Safe Steps can, in appropriate circumstances, share risk information with Orange Door hubs to ensure continuity of response.
The Orange Door network is not yet available in every part of Victoria. Regional and rural access to hubs remains uneven, which places additional weight on Safe Steps as the consistent statewide touchpoint regardless of where a person is located.
The resourcing reality #
Despite the reforms, the gap between demand and capacity has not closed. Family violence is a volume crime — Victoria Police responds to a family violence incident on average every six minutes, according to Victoria Police’s own annual crime statistics data. That volume flows through to crisis services.
Safe Steps and sector advocates have publicly noted that crisis accommodation — particularly for women and children who cannot safely return home — remains critically short. Funding a specialist phone line does not create beds. Callers who are assessed as being at serious risk can find themselves in situations where the appropriate safe accommodation simply does not exist, or is not available in their location, or cannot accommodate their circumstances (including where a woman has older male children, or where pets are involved).
Workforce retention has also been raised as a concern across the sector. Family violence work carries significant vicarious trauma risk, and specialist workers are in high demand. The post-commission investment created new roles but also increased competition for qualified practitioners, particularly in regional Victoria.
Successive Victorian government budgets have continued to allocate funding to the family violence system, including through the Family Violence Rolling Action Plan. Sector bodies including Domestic Violence Victoria have continued to call for sustained, indexed funding tied to demand growth rather than fixed envelopes.
What has not changed: the courage required to call #
The systems change since 2016 has been real and substantial. But for the person sitting in a parked car at midnight wondering whether to make a call, the infrastructure behind the phone line is less important than the knowledge that someone will answer, will listen, and will help them think through what is safe to do next.
Safe Steps workers and the family violence sector broadly operate from a framework that centres the safety, autonomy, and lived experience of the person seeking help. That philosophy — hard-won through decades of advocacy — has not changed. What has changed is the capacity to act on it.
If you or someone you know is experiencing family violence, specialist support is available now.
Support contacts #
- Safe Steps (Victoria’s 24/7 family violence response): 1800 015 188 — phone, text, and online chat available at safesteps.org.au
- 1800RESPECT (national sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling): 1800 737 732
- Sexual Assault Crisis Line (Victoria, 24/7): 1800 806 292
- Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14
- Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636
- 13YARN (24/7 crisis support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples): 13 92 76
- Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000
