On a busy weekday in the Blue Mountains recently, domestic violence victim Mary Smith* rang a new statewide hotline, Link2home, desperately seeking refuge. Hoping to be efficiently shepherded into a service, she was instead directed into a men’s homeless shelter.
This kind of dysfunction was one of the issues discussed at the domestic violence round table set up by Blue Mountains MP Trish Doyle, whose powerful maiden speech to Parliament last year set the tone for what she hoped to address during her tenure.
Domestic violence services had a shake-up 18 months ago, critics say now only about 14 out of a previous 80 centres, solely work on domestic violence cases and the centres were “all at capacity”. In some cases homeless women (who may suffer from mental illness and whose needs may be vastly different) were being sent to the same places of refuge as those fleeing abuse. Some victims were also being directed to well known motels and caravan parks where their abusers could easily find them.
Two weeks into her new role, opposition spokeswoman for the prevention of domestic violence, Kate Washington, said she and Ms Doyle hoped to organise meetings with NSW Minister Pru Goward with some of the frontline staff, and also give the minister the field workers’ submissions from the day. They would also encourage Ms Goward to organise similar events around the state, she said. Ms Washington had been instrumental in helping save a women’s service in her hometown of Port Stephens.
Manager of Penrith-based West Connect, Sharron McKinnon, was one of about 50 professionals working in the field who attended the gathering at Springwood’s Hub on Tuesday January 9. Representatives from four local government areas – Blue Mountains, Penrith, Lithgow and Hawkesbury – attended. Ms McKinnon said they had taken over services for the Mountains, as well as Blacktown and Baulkham Hills with $1 million less funding.
Ms McKinnon said they had become an “agent for the Department of Housing”. She hoped information from the event would lead the minister to take more notice of frontline issues.
“It’s only a matter of time before someone ends up dead and we will be fronting an ombudsman enquiry. They won’t be looking at the system, they will be looking at why we weren’t able to save that particular woman and her children.”
“We are often seen as troublemakers because we identify what’s not working. I think, hopefully there will be a bit of a shift. The minister will be more informed.”
Labor spokesperson for Macquarie, Susan Templeman, who was part of the panel, said that some of the problems lay in the failure by the Attorney-General George Brandis to promptly replace retired Federal Court judges, including at Parramatta.
“These judges hear complex family custody battles which often involve family violence victims, with interim hearings now taking more than a year.
“With one vacancy still in the Family Court and eleven Family and Federal Circuit Court judges hitting retirement age in the next two years, we need a better process for appointment.
“And if Senator Brandis believes what he said this week that judges were hard to recruit because they are not offered a pension, his excuse that there is not enough money in his portfolio shows his true colours around how domestic violence is treated by this Liberal Government.”
*Not her real name. Link2Home assists those at risk of homelessness
