Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

In a cost-of-living crisis, the women in this country demanded and deserved bold action from this new government. Instead, we got more of the same half-measures and more of the spin that we saw in the October budget. One of the most heartbreaking things in the budget last night for me as the Greens spokesperson on women was that the government continues to ignore the calls from front-line domestic and family violence response services for enough funding so that they don't have to turn people away who seek their help. The government is continuing to ignore those calls and the sector has been making those calls for nigh on a year. They have been calling for $1 billion every year so they don't have to turn away people who seek their help.

The funding shortfall that was delivered last night will see one in three women not able to get the help that they need. Women, children, people fleeing from violence—one in three of them will not be funded to get the help they need. Those services will be underfunded, and while Labor continues to underfund those domestic and family violence support services, and while victim-survivors continue to be turned away from crisis accommodation or told by the legal help line, 'I'm sorry, we just don't have enough staff to advise you,' one woman is murdered every 10 days in this country. The government has spoken about difficult choices in the lead-up to the budget, but many women are now facing an impossible choice: stay in an unsafe home or leave and put themselves and their kids at risk of homelessness. Women are choosing between violence and homelessness, and this government had the opportunity last night to fix that. Instead, it kept $254 billion in tax cuts to wealthy white blokes while women and children fleeing violence are not going to get the help they need to keep them safe. That was an active choice by this government and I was absolutely gutted to see that they refused to give those front-line prevention and response services the funding they need to save women's lives. What can be more important than that?

Now, it is not just the Greens who are saying that, so too do a number of media commentators and all of the fabulous feminist advocates and women's safety advocates, including Renee Carr from Fair Agenda, who says, 'We welcome the $723 million but it still falls short of the $1 billion we need. Many women will be left without the support they need to be safe and recover from violence.' She says, 'We know specialist services can make a life-saving and life-changing difference to women trying to escape violence or recover from sexual assault but they need to be resourced.' Well, you had your chance. How dare you condemn women into poverty, violence and homelessness while dishing out money for submarines, fossil fuels, wealthy white guys and property investors.