Zoe Daniel (Goldstein, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the social services portfolio, specifically in regard to violence against women, because the family violence prevention sector wants answers as to why there wasn't any new funding for frontline services in the budget. Given violence against women and children is a national emergency, it was reasonable to expect more money for the services that keep women and children safe. As author and educator on coercive control Jess Hill said in this place last week, 'Violence against women and children is the most corrosive social issue of our time.' It is an uncomfortable truth, but family and domestic violence is gendered. The family home is statistically the most dangerous place for a woman to be. It should be a safe and secure place for everyone who lives in it, not a place of fear, danger and sometimes death.

So on behalf of the sector I ask: where was the new funding for family and domestic violence frontline services, and, if not now, when? Women's legal services turn away an estimated 52,000 women every year due to lack of capacity. If it doesn't receive any more funding, Southside Justice that services my electorate and south-east Melbourne will have to reduce its family law and family violence free legal services.

It is self-evident that domestic and family violence services are not funded to meet demand for their vital case management services. Sexual violence trauma counselling services have dire waiting lists around the country, and many victim-survivors have to wait months. Frontline services need sustainable, consistent and certain investment. Women and children escaping violent men need 24/7 wraparound services. If these services aren't available, women are forced to go back to their violent partner, couch surf or live in the car. This is happening to women in our country, this is happening to women in my electorate, and this is a disgrace.

We know that family violence is the leading cause of women's homelessness in Australia. I'm pleased the government will provide an additional $1 billion to the National Housing Infrastructure Facility, targeted toward crisis and transitional accommodation for women and children fleeing domestic violence. But my question to the minister is: when and where will we see the $1 billion for crisis and transitional accommodation, and what will be the oversights to make sure this is delivered by the states? Each night, more than 200 women and children are being sent to motels across Victoria by Safe Steps because there aren't enough crisis accommodation places available. When victims-survivors are placed in motels, there's no on-site security, monitoring or support, and motels carry significant risks for victims-survivors, including suicide, suicide attempts and easy access for perpetrators. Women escaping violence face homelessness, poverty and financial insecurity.

Where was the income support in the budget to stop women from going back to danger? The $5,000 leaving violence payment will not prevent this. More than 200 women leaders wrote to the Prime Minister in the lead-up to the budget urging him to provide economic security for women leaving violence by raising the rate of JobSeeker. This did not happen. The government has increased Commonwealth rent assistance by 10 per cent, but this is only $11 a week for a single mother with one or two children. The government expanded eligibility for the single parenting payment at the last May budget, helping 82,000 more single parents remain on higher rates until their youngest child turns 14, but this payment remains inadequate to ensure single parents and their children do not live in poverty. Women should not have to choose between violence and poverty.

We know from the findings of the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence that perpetrators use the justice, health and finance systems to continue their control. Where was the recognition of perpetrators weaponising these systems? The Women's Economic Equality Taskforce and Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee reports both recommended delinking child support from family payments. This is a tool of financial abuse, and the loophole that allows child support and family payments to be used as vehicles for enacting financial abuse must be closed.

In conclusion, to drive down rates of violence urgently, our response must come from all angles, and everything needs to be on the table. We must also focus on prevention and perpetrators. We need to hold industries and institutions that continue to promote harm to account. Online porn and gambling spring to mind. This is the moment for comprehensive action, for solutions and for working together to address this national emergency.

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