Give Us Shelter: Why New Domestic Violence Funding Isn’t Anywhere Enough

Guest Author Uncategorized

In this post, published at No Place for Sheep earlier today, Dr Jennifer Wilson makes a scathing attack on pm turnbull’s “new” money to combat the scourge of domestic violence. Thank you, Jennifer.

The Turnbull government’s announcement last week of $100 million worth of funding to address domestic violence is better than than silence, and goes to some small way towards acknowledging the enormous problem this country has with male violence against women.

But what it does not do, and for this appalling omission the government should be unrelentingly and loudly pilloried, is fund the urgent immediate need for frontline services such as refuges and community legal centres, both of which are a woman’s first stop when she’s forced to flee a dangerous domestic situation.

What this says to me is that safe, secure, un-threatened people such as politicians have absolutely no idea what it is like to be in a situation of such extreme danger that you have to flee, or risk injury or death to yourself and your children by staying.

And flee to where, exactly?

Not only do these fortunate politicians have no idea what this situation feels like, they apparently don’t care. Neither do have they the imagination to picture such a scene, and how they might feel in it.

Legal services are outraged at Minister for Women Michaelia Cash’s apparent spin on funding cuts that will directly affect women suffering domestic violence, and will see the centres in dire financial straits by 2017.

If politicians had the capacity to imagine themselves in such a situation, they would perhaps begin to understand that providing refuges for women and children must be the first priority in any plan to end family violence, in conjunction with some of the other options funding currently covers.

As I write this and as you read it, there will be women, alone or with their children, trying to get out of a house which is not a safe environment for them because it’s inhabited by a violent male intent on doing them harm. They need somewhere to go. Right now.

This ought not to be a difficult situation for a government to remedy. Providing funding for women’s refuges and legal centres is not going to break the budget. Yet, after decades of feminist activism we are going backwards: closing refuges, threatening the funding of community legal centres, handing over the refuges that remain to religious organisations who have little or no experience with the repercussions of domestic violence, and whose workers are primarily trained to deal with homelessness, not specifically with traumatised women and children fleeing abuse.

Solutions to domestic violence can’t be a one size fits all. Some women will be able to stay in their homes. Others will absolutely not. The period when a woman attempts to leave an abusive situation is well-recognised as the most dangerous for her, and for children involved. It is when she is most likely to be murdered, or severely injured, as the perpetrator’s rage escalates at the prospect of abandonment, and loss of control over his partner. Nothing will help in such situations if first-off, the woman has nowhere to go.

This is not complicated. Why will politicians not act to save women’s lives in the most pressing, the most obvious way, by adequately funding and staffing refuges and legal centres for the increasing numbers of women and children who have to get out, and have no place to which they can flee?

448 thoughts on “Give Us Shelter: Why New Domestic Violence Funding Isn’t Anywhere Enough”

  1. Seriously, how does Cassandra Goldie manage to keep her job as head of ACOSS?
    It seems she is always prepared to give the libs the benefit of the doubt on every single issue.
    Barely raising a criticism despite the libs constant efforts to fuck over or completely ignore those she is paid handsomely to represent and fight for.
    Ive only ever heard her get passionate about her constituents getting done over once and that was when she wrongly criticised the ALP over their minor changes to single parent payments.
    Barely raises a whimper against the kick the poor libs even after their disgusting and unfair 2014 budget.
    She is totally hopeless.
    Those who rely on ACOSS to be a strong voice deserve far far better.

  3. stonyhabbott

    I saw her this morning being interviewed before the “summit” and from the gush gush assumed she was some business type until her role came up. What a sell out.

  5. Just back from a wonderful show. Will be contacting a certain chatte noir tomorrow morning.

  6. Good morning Dawn Patrollers. This will be the last Dawn Patrol for I don’t know how long as this afternoon I’ll be undergoing shoulder surgery that will require an extended period of convalescence during which time my ability to effectively use my laptop will be severely limited. An iPad is useless for the task. Anyway, I’ll be around the place.

    Turnbull kicks a goal here – not to mention kicking sand in the face off Abbott and Hockey.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/unions-and-employers-hail-inclusive-malcolm-turnbull-as-national-mood-lifts-20151001-gjz7pa.html
    And here we go again in the Land of the Free! Another mass shooting. The death toll is now 13 and possibly rising.
    http://www.smh.com.au/world/umpqua-community-college-massacre-shooter-opens-fire-at-school-in-rural-oregon-town-20151001-gjzil8.html
    Naughty surgeons! It’s the power game every time.
    http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/royal-australasian-college-of-surgeons-ignored-sexual-harassment-complaints-20150930-gjyc87.html
    Campbell Newman has a spit in his book. I can’t bring myself to read the article about the odious character but here, you have a go!
    http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/premier-newman–the-final-days-20151001-gjzhne.html
    Latika Bourke fills us in about the radio interview from the non-sniping, non-whingeing, non-wrecking, non-undermining ex-PM Abbott. Don’t you love that term “ex-PM Abbott”! He never trusted Turnbull apparently.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-pleads-the-fifth-amendment-when-asked-if-hes-forgiven-malcolm-turnbull-20151001-gjypw9.html
    “View from the Street” continues on in this vein and has a good dig at Abbott.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/view-from-the-street/view-from-the-street-tony-abbotts-still-going-on-about-his-dumping-then-20151001-gjzav3.html
    And Mark Kenny reckons that it’s not all over yet for Abbott in politics.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/so-thats-it-for-abbott-in-canberra-dont-bet-on-it-20151001-gjyx45.html
    Adele Ferguson with the next chapter of the 7-Eleven saga.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace-relations/7eleven-to-face-franchisees-with-everything-on-table-including-store-hours-20151001-gjz11v.html
    In a very good article Adele Ferguson explains how worker exploitation destroys the economy. Kate (Mouth for Hire) Carnell please note!
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace-relations/worker-exploitation-destroys-the-economy-20151001-gjz2sn.html
    The ACCC warns VW that it could be in for a very tough ride in Australia if defeat devices are found in its products here.
    http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/oct/01/australia-says-volkswagen-faces-legal-action-if-defeat-devices-found

  7. Section 2 . . . including Cartoon Corner

    This letter to the SMH editor calls for a Royal Commission into wage fraud.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-letters/7eleven-scandal-exploitation-of-workers-needs-full-investigation-20151001-gjyzwu.html
    Sydney University staff call on Turnbull to act on “asylum seeker torture”.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/crucial-test-450-university-of-sydney-staff-urge-turnbull-government-stop-asylum-seeker-torture-20150930-gjykfp.html
    Andrew Robb has a whinge at Obama over the stalled TPP negotiations.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/trade-deal-has-hit-hurdle-of-barack-obamas-making-says-andrew-robb-20151001-gjyrq0.html
    A detailed briefing on our Syrian engagement from Alan Moir.

    Ron Tandberg serves it up to the hapless Eric Abetz.

    MUST SEE! David Pope takes Abbott (with compatriots Abetz and Andrews) back to “war”.

    An ominous contribution from John Spooner on Syria.

    And from Bill Leak.

    MUST SEE! David Rowe invokes Narcissus as Abbott fades away. There’s so much in this cartoon!

  11. Ah well…good luck, BK…on the bright side..there’s all those bed-baths to look forward to!…: ” ooo!..I think you missed a bit..!”

  14. puffytmd

    Thanks for the reminder re ACOSS. I remember getting “not happy Jan” during the Howard years over the change that saw so many charity heads turn into very well paid CEOs as Howard farmed out more and more work. The usual excuse for the pay hikes ,the need to attract the “right sort of person”. It would be an attractive gig. Good money and the mantle of saintliness.

  15. BK

    As you prepare for temporary “one armed bandit ” status some I finger typing ‘inspiration for you.

  17. BK,
    I hope that the surgery goes well and that you recover quickly.
    I noted your remark about not wishing to face Campbell Newman’s whinge. Paradoxically, he seemed to be making similar criticisms as Bushfire Bill has so eloquently and trenchantly provided here, with just the change of location and personalities, even down to references to the reality show manner in which contemporary politics is reported.
    For Newman’s Brisbane and Queensland media read Canberra and the PPG; for Palasczuk read Abbott; for Gillard(Rudd) read Newman.
    As with Abbott’s risible complaints about the media campaigns against him (wtf), Newman’s grievance rings hollow.

  18. PJF,

    Serendipitous to see you here this morning.

    On Wednesday your wonderful friend took vast quantities of my mother’s possessions to the house.

    It was a most successful afternoon: I also took my mother’s two breast prostheses to an organisation that sends them to Fiji – most of the women there who have mastectomies cannot afford prostheses. Then, that evening, I took almost the last of the books to a friend who will keep some and dispose of the rest to a suitable charity.

    The flat is nearly empty.

  19. Wonderful outcome, Fiona. I’m so pleased that it’s come together. Kevin is the salt of the earth, a genuinely good man.

  22. kaff,
    Yes, and if you look I reckon ‘the right sort of person’ would have been men moving into areas where previously women ran things on the smell of an oily rag, paid 20 hours pw and doing 40, with no corporate car.

    It is a just a guess, no research backs my opinion up, but it is just the change I notice now,

  23. Kaff
    Not saying that it is the men’s fault, just that rather that men had better CV’s at running organisations so the new cashed up NGO’s were easy pickings.

  24. I cannot stand Campbell Newman, I believe that he should be up on crimes against humanity for introducing laws that were guaranteed to cause the deaths of aged, disabled. mentally ill and other vulnerable people.

  27. Something you didn’t know about Mal Brough

    When he went into parliament his nickname among the pollies was ‘Captain Decore’, referring to his army career and his other job – hair product salesman. It would have been around the time this ad was clogging up our TV screens.

    Brough refers to this work as ‘running a small business’ and has never admitted to having the nickname.
    http://malbrough.com.au/about/

  30. puffy

    I quite agree with you. It was one of the things that raised my eye brows when the trend was on during Howie’s days. Some of the salary packages that being done were amazing. So of course the usual corporate bizoid types rushed in and many of those who had run the operations on the smell of an oily rag trampled under foot.

    I noted that several people involved in HoJo and Arfur’s problems were also involved in non profit + charitable organisations at management/board level. Oh and yes they were all “chaps” .

  31. Grandiosity, paranoia, the Republicans, and donald trump:

    When individual psychopathology becomes a collective filter for understanding the political world, we see—as we do in the rhetoric and vision of today’s GOP—a pathological set of values guaranteed to lead to pathological policies. If I were to try to list the essential psychological dynamics underlying grandiosity and paranoia in the patients I see, and you were to simply replace the personal pronoun “I” with “America” or “the American people” and “you” and “them” with one of the scapegoats demonized by the GOP (e.g., people with darker skins, the wrong religion or different sexual orientation), the symmetry between crazy individuals and crazy politics becomes clearer.

    http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/psychologist-puts-trump-and-gop-couch?akid=13536.1084000.UjId7Q&rd=1&src=newsletter1043311&t=2

  32. The White House warned Russia that its military actions in Syria risk prolonging the four-year-old conflict in the country as the US and Russian military leaders spoke about “de-conflicting” the situation.
    On the second day of air strikes by Russian planes in Syria, US president Barack Obama’s spokesman Josh Earnest described the actions of the Russians as “indiscriminate”, saying that they risked drawing Moscow further into the conflict.

    http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/middle-east/us-warns-russia-over-dangers-of-military-action-in-syria-1.2375216

    I wonder if Russia is willing to take in some of the thousands of refugees who flee Syria and other countries affected by its strikes.

  34. Zoomster is in Adelaide next week. Any excuse for a knees-up, emails have gone out to the SA Chapter with possible meet-up times.

  35. Some good news, and possibly a small slap in the face for Turnbull.

    A soccer journalist sacked by SBS for criticising jingoistic Anzac Day celebrations will get his “day in court” after a tribunal rejected the broadcaster’s bid to block his unfair dismissal case.
    The judicial officer presiding over the hearing also reminded those who wanted to stymie Scott McIntyre’s case that many Australians had died to protect “rights and freedoms” such as access to a fair legal hearing

    http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/public-service/scott-mcintyre-free-to-challenge-anzac-day-twitter-sacking-after-tribunal-criticises-sbs-20151001-gjzhyu.html#ixzz3nLngwAdg

    Without Turnbull’s confected, publicity-seeking outrage and interfering this might all have been avoided.
    http://www.crikey.com.au/2015/04/27/turnbull-dobbed-in-sacked-sbs-reporter-over-anzac-tweets/

  43. gigilene

    “The White House warned Russia that its military actions in Syria risk prolonging the four-year-old conflict in the country”
    .
    Given their track record in the ME the White House is about the last place to go to for advice. I think the US is more worried the Russkiys will succeed where they failed.

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