Canberrans have the least sexist attitudes in all of Australia - but there's still a way to go.
New findings from the National Community Attitudes Survey reveal the rest of Australia lags when it comes to understanding gendered violence and inequality. People in the ACT are more likely to reject violence against women and support gender equality compared to Australia as a whole.
And the ACT had larger proportions of respondents scoring higher in terms of rejection of gender inequality, violence against women, domestic violence and sexual violence.
While every state and territory showed an improvement in the understanding of violence and rejection of gendered violence and inequality since 2017, the ACT had the most statistically significant increase of any state or territory.
The ACT data also shows a strong improvement in what's called the Mistrust Women Subscale, which gauges how strongly respondents trust women's reports of violence. Canberrans trust women more than anywhere else in the country.
More ACT respondents than Australian respondents demonstrated what the survey called "advanced" rejection of domestic violence and of sexual violence (51 per cent compared to 40 per cent). NSW, Queensland and Victoria all plateaued in this scale.
CEO of ANROWS Padma Raman said the states and territories report has shown positive change is occurring across Australia.
"But there is significant room to improve understanding and attitudes towards violence against women in every state and territory," she said. "Changing attitudes is a slow process."
ACT Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Education Yvette Berry said the results confirm the ACT's progressive education system and consistent work to reduce gender inequality are succeeding.
"Canberrans should be proud of our nation-leading approach to gender-based violence and domestic, family and sexual violence.
"The ACT government recognises the ongoing efforts of our partners in the community sector. They are an important partner, helping us deliver our commitment to promote gender equality as we work towards eliminating domestic, family and sexual violence in all its forms."
Lily Harrison, 21, co-chair of the ACT's Youth Advisory Council, says the highly-educated, highly concentrated nature of the territory's population goes some way to explaining why Canberrans are ahead of the game when it comes to understanding gender inequality.
She also says the presence of consent and respect initiatives by the YAC has accelerated the design of programs by young people, for young people - but she also says that the March 4 Women, focused on Parliament House in 2021, has also had an impact locally.
"Probably everyone who attended already had awareness but it was a catalyst for people to stand up and become more actively involved," she said.
Despite the ACT's progress on these issues, Harrison says the inquiry into the justice system's handling of the allegation against Bruce Lehrmann served as a reminder that in the ACT, under three per cent of sexual assault investigations result in charges being laid against an offender after 30 days, compared to over 17 per cent nationally.
"Our experiences of listening to victim-survivors about their interactions with their police reveal there is a long way to go to provide women with the dignity and care of response they deserve," she said.
She says the YAC's Youth Assembly, which begins on June 23, will host a forum on gender equality and young people's understanding.
"We want people to share their experience so we can make robust recommendations to keep leading in this space."
She wants to see an increase in awareness of technology-facilitated abuse, including stalking.
