David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week I marched with local organisations Rotary, Zonta, Amnesty, DVCS, Vinnies and other frontline organisations calling for an end to violence against women and for more support for frontline services. Sixty women and children have been murdered so far this year, more than one per week. Heading into Christmas, with households already under pressure and experiencing housing stress, the rates of family and domestic violence are only expected to increase. Will the support for these organisations increase as well?

Our frontline service providers are stretched to breaking point. In 2018-19 DVCS provided safe crisis accommodation to 230 clients. In 2022-23 that had almost doubled, to 414. Two years ago, they were averaging around 850 clients per month on the crisis line. For the last two months, that figure has been up around 1,100. Over at Women's Legal Centre, their funding has failed to keep pace with Canberra's strong population growth and increases to CPI. This huge pressure on the already stretched budgets of these organisations in the face of increasing demand needs to be dealt with by state and territory and federal governments.

I'd like to thank the many frontline service organisations here in the ACT who work tirelessly for our community—the organisations who run food pantries, and the thousands and thousands of volunteers who are there to support their fellow Canberrans. We know that, around Christmas, it's a time to be looking out for each other even more.