Victorian sexual violence survivors invited to drive future policy

The process to be used is deliberative decision-making, which usually involves citizen juries that make recommendations arrived at by agreement. It has been used across many policy areas and across the globe, but this online initiative, launched by Sexual Assault Services Victoria (SASVic) and the NewDemocracy Foundation, has extra impact, given the experience of trauma of those being invited to take part.

Sexual violence survivors are being invited to anonymously visit the YourSay website to submit ideas on how to prevent, respond to or end sexual violence. The public will then be invited to discuss, support or suggest variations on these ideas.

The long list will then be taken to a “citizen’s panel” made up of 12 or 13 people randomly chosen from those who made submissions. Panel members will deliberate for three sessions to choose one idea to present to SASVic for advocacy.

SASVic has committed to promoting that chosen idea in the lead-up to the state election, no matter what the idea is.

“Victim-survivor perspectives are key to effective action on sexual violence,” said SASVic CEO Kathleen Maltzahn. “Sexual violence takes away power and control. SASVic wants victim-survivors to influence the systems and policies that affect them. YourSay is one way to ensure that their voices are heard, respected and acted upon.”

Speaking to the Community Advocate, Maltzahn said her organisation had worked with many survivors who wanted to be involved in finding solutions to sexual violence but it had never had a suitable platform.

“I think we often talk about lived experience as if it’s a group of people who are perhaps a minority, but we know that with sexual violence, it is so pervasive with at least a third of the community, and probably most women, affected, when you think about things like sexual harassment and the way sexual violence generally impacts women’s lives,” she said.

“It can become not very meaningful very quickly to expect a small group on a committee to represent the whole community of people impacted by sexual violence.”

Maltzahn was also concerned about lapsing into the kind of routine consultation where an idea is presented and survivors are only asked: what do you think about that?

“Sometimes one survivor will suggest something and there’s no opportunity for people to really thrash things out,” she said. “Partly what attracted us with this is the idea that it could be open to, really, as big a group as imaginable for input, but then you bring the opportunity for survivors to sit down together with the best advice you can give them, and get them to mull it over and talk it over; the deliberative side.”

To show how intent the organisation is on respecting the process, SASVic has committed to campaigning on whatever the group finally chooses as its first priority, despite having no idea yet what that might be.

“It does feel like a little bit of a gamble, but we have real faith that when people can come together with good information and talk things through, they will make good decisions,” Maltzahn said. “We’re also conscious that we often have a particular perspective on the potential reform that’s needed on sexual violence, but this is a very good way for us to test our thinking. The end result might be that the panel comes up with something we’d already thought of, so why go through it? Well, if that was the case, it means we’ve really tested it. Another possibility is that the final idea will be something we really haven’t thought about, or we’ve dismissed, and then it’s a very good way for us to be better informed about what a survivor gathering might prioritise.”

The YourSay website is open for submissions until the end of the year. Maltzahn said the project coordinators were comfortable with survivors taking their time to make submissions.

“It’s the first time we’ve done it, so we’re wanting to give a bit of time for people to know about it, and also think about it, because I think some people will just have a whole lot of things they want to suggest, but for other people, I think it might be something they want to give a bit of thought to before responding,” she said.

It would seem potentially traumatic for sexual violence survivors to have to revisit the topic and their own trauma, but Maltzahn said becoming involved in potential solutions had been proven to be empowering.

“We know strongly from survivors, and indeed from the academic research, that being involved in advocacy is a very powerful way of taking back control. Unlike in sexual assault, people will have absolute control over what they talk about from their experience,” she said. “We know that survivors consistently say they want to be able to do more advocacy.”

The only member of the panel to have been pre-chosen is Cathy Oddie, a victim-survivor as well as a family, domestic and sexual violence (FDSV) lived experience consultant, who agreed to be the face of the YourSay campaign.

“No one knows the challenges faced by victim-survivors of sexual violence better than those who have experienced these insidious crimes perpetrated against them,” Oddie said. “Therefore, centring lived experience expertise and appointing victim-survivors as representatives and decision makers on the YourSay panel is not only respectful but absolutely critical.”

SASVic’s partner in the project, the NewDemocracy Foundation, is dedicated to running citizen juries and other deliberative decision-making processes across Australia, aiming to improve democratic engagement in issues and to ensure that community voices are genuinely reflected in public decision-making.

Nominations for the victim-survivor panel remain open via the website until the end of 2025, with deliberations scheduled for February and March 2026.

More information

https://yoursay.sasvic.org.au/

About Sexual Assault Services Victoria (SASVic)

SASVic is the peak body for specialist sexual violence and harmful sexual behaviour services in Victoria. It works to promote the rights and recovery of victim survivors and to prevent sexual violence through advocacy, education and system reform.

About the NewDemocracy Foundation

The NewDemocracy Foundation is an independent, non-partisan research organisation that designs and operates public decision-making processes to improve trust in democracy.