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TRANSCRIPT:
In 2024, rallies were held across the country calling for action on what seemed like an epidemic of violence against women.
This woman spoke to SBS at a Melbourne protest.
"I'm a survivor of domestic violence. And in the three decades since then, nothing has changed."
Independent MP Allegra Spender represents the electorate of Wentworth, in Sydney's eastern suburbs.
She says the problem of violence against women remains a major concern.
"People look around at the different parts of the country and think, oh it doesn't happen here. But when I speak to the police in my local area, up to half their time is focused on domestic violence."
Tiffany Carlson is the CEO of the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre.
She says her work has shown her the extent to which women's safety is still at risk.
"As a worker who works in a frontline sexual violence service every day I see the reality behind the statistics: one in three girls is a victim survivor of child sexual abuse. And one in five women is a victim survivor of adult sexual assault."
Sue Webeck runs the Domestic Violence Crisis Service in the ACT.
She says there is significant unmet demand.
"Phone calls are going unanswered. That means that we don't know who is at the other end of that phone call and what type of support or help they might need."
For Renee Carr from advocacy group Fair Agenda, these experiences show Australia has an ongoing crisis when it comes to the safety of women.
She says not enough resources are being put towards helping them.
"Women are being murdered and yet our domestic violence services still aren't funded to meet demand. We have rape survivors who are waiting outrageously long times to access counselling support. If any of us called for an ambulance or a fire service we would expect it to respond in a timely manner. Women who are impacted by domestic violence or sexual violence should be able to have the same expectation of a timely response."
Kate Chaney is the Independent MP for Curtin in Western Australia.
She says there are serious delays in many places.
"In Western Australia, people wait up to a year for sexual violence support services. And this is really unacceptable."
Tiffany Carlson shares similar concerns.
She says more funding - and a better system for ensuring the money is sustainably delivered - will be better for everyone.
"Services like mine provide a continuum of care for victim survivors across crisis response, counselling, education, and legal and medical advocacy. And we know from all of the research that specialist early intervention leads to better outcomes for individuals, and a lower cost on legal and medical systems downstream."
On Wednesday, Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek announced additional funding for the sector.
It was announced alongside a stand-alone plan for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to address family, domestic and sexual violence.
"We're announcing an additional $218 million of funding that will begin to flow from the first of July into communities around Australia. That extra funding will deliver new services, for example, helping women trapped in small, remote locations get to safety if they need to leave a violent relationship, or working with men and boys who are at risk of using violence to change their behaviour, or working with young parents to connect them to supports to get the wisdom of elders in playgroups so that they can raise their children strong and happy and healthy in community."
Kate Chaney says it's nowhere near what is required.
"The government's announcement only really addresses indexation of the commitment that has already been made so that those people can be kept. It doesn't add capacity. And what we know is that demand massively outstrips supply for these services."
Sue Webeck says the main issue apart from a lack of substantial money is the way that funding is delivered, which forces them to spend money on administrative costs.
"We aren't talking just about money. We're talking about the sustainability of funding, so that we are no longer using endless resources having to respond to government procurement programs for something that we know is desperately needed."
Sue is frustrated, saying frontline services like the one she runs are not being listened to.
"We have a fundamental misalignment between announcements from the Commonwealth to action from states and territories. The Commonwealth is making resources available, but the states and territories become responsible to passing that on to frontline service agencies and creating the environments where people land when they're experiencing domestic, family and sexual violence."
Adjunct Professor Muriel Bamblett stood alongside Tanya Plibersek during the unveiling of the standalone Indigenous plan for domestic violence, and the announcement of additional funding.
She says she is hopeful that the wide approach it will take will bear fruit.
"Systems have to change, the court processes, the policing, the way that justice is implemented, the way that housing and homelessness, child protection system - all of those things need change... Our Aboriginal communities are sick of violence, and men are coming to us and saying, let us be part of the solution, we know that we are part of the problem at the moment, but we want to be part of the solution. The plan hopes to be able to work with men, to be able to work with LGBTQI+, to be able to work with organisations... I think we have to address this terrible issue that's killing our women."
For Renee Carr, these are all positive measures.
But she says much more funding is needed.
"There's a lot that the Albanese government can be proud of when it comes to significantly improving women's position in Australia. But women's access to safety services isn't yet one of them."
[[If you or someone you know wants to talk about family or domestic violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or call Lifeline on 13 11 14. In an emergency, call 000.
For culturally appropriate Indigenous support call 13 YARN.. a 24 hour national telephone helpline on 13 92 76 which provides support across a range of issues including mental health. https://www.13yarn.org.au/
Embrace Multicultural Mental Health supports people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
The Men’s Referral Service is operated by No to Violence, and can be contacted on 1300 766 491.]]
