Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I always get up in this place and talk about how amazing the people are in the electorate that I get to represent. I am no prouder this week than I am on any other week, but in two weeks time The Haven-Nepean Women's Shelter, which I launched last year at the International Women's Day event that I held, will open. It will open for many women and children in my electorate who are victims of family and domestic violence.

We put the shelter board together, and, in 12 months, the community that I get to represent provided donations, money and trades and services—they provided a home for this refuge. The refuge will fit up to six women and their children, which is much needed given that the statistics in my electorate are inordinately high and I have one of the highest rates of DV in metropolitan New South Wales.

I am incredibly proud of all of the work of everybody that's gone into this shelter. In particular, I would like to pay special tribute to the board members, Sharon Levy, Natalie Falvey, Cristina Romeo, Annabelle Daniel, Rebecca Jarrett-Dalton, Rachael Browne, Trisha Hitchens, Karen Keogh, Samantha Anderson, Adrian Dowd, Neena Black and Mike Gale, who have all put in enormous amounts of hours over the last year to ensure that this shelter comes online and is available. It is not acceptable that we have 95 women and 108 children turned away from our women's shelter in the month of February, and this shelter coming online in my community in two weeks will make a huge difference.