TRIGGER WARNING: This article discusses domestic violence involving physical, financial and emotional abuse. If you or someone you know is being affected by domestic violence, call 1800 737 732.
One in two women who approach crisis accommodation are turned away every day. Women’s Community Shelters have 11 crisis shelters in NSW, but there still isn’t enough scale across all services to offer a meaningful recovery pathway to everybody who needs it. To create transformational change across Australia, we need to see an investment of $1 billion a year in funding for domestic violence services and reforms to change that reality.
The NSW budget recently announced some investment into social housing. While that’s a good first step, we really need something large scale Australia-wide to make an impact.
Domestic and family violence costs the Australian economy in excess of $26 billion a year. These costs include police, justice and coroner’s responses, recovery services and lost productivity in the workforce. More than 60 per cent of police workload and at least 40 per cent of Local and District Court workload is domestic violence. So there’s so much to be gained from investing in solutions.
“We need $1 Billion a year in funding for domestic violence services to change that reality”
Annabelle Daniel OAM
We need to be working not only from the top down but also the bottom up, because people understand challenging social problems when they’re made real to them in local solutions and actions.
When I was managing a shelter over a decade ago, we had a doctor, a lawyer, an ophthalmologist and a concert pianist in the refuge at the same time. This tells a lot about preconceived ideas and expectations about the people who use women’s refuges and shelter services. They are everyday people.
Less than 1 per cent of properties across Australia are affordable for anybody, especially on a minimum wage. Many women who leave domestic violence are also victims of financial abuse, meaning their money and assets may have been withheld or extorted from them.
It’s one thing to have a safe place to go, it’s another thing to be able to afford a safe place to stay. In coastal areas that are significantly affected by Airbnb or short-term rentals, tents are being handed out to women and kids who are living in cars because there isn’t even any temporary motel accommodation that they can get them into.
I would love to be able to get to a point where I can support any community across Australia that identifies a need for a shelter. More than that, I would love to envision a point where our shelters don’t need to exist at all. But until that day, we are here to create those safe places for women and kids so that no-one is turned away.
Read more about Annabelle Daniel OAM and the other inspiring advocates and thought leaders calling for real solutions to Australia’s domestic violence crisis, here.
