Having listened to the fine words of Malcolm Turnbull at a number of domestic violence events in Parliament House since he became Prime Minister, I was quietly optimistic about what the mid-year budget update would bring.
So it was a real let down to go through the budget update papers when they were released on Tuesday.
What I was really hoping for was new money for domestic violence services and prevention. We know that’s what we need to put an end to this national crisis that kills at least one women a week.
But the budget papers were devoid of any new funding, and what’s worse, they locked in existing funding cuts made under Tony Abbott.
The $44 million cut from the construction of new women’s shelters in the 2014 budget has still not been reversed.
And community legal centres, which devote much of their time on domestic violence cases, are still facing a $12 million funding cliff in 2017, with the budget update failing to extend their funding.
The budget papers also revealed that the $20 million for Indigenous women in the Women’s Safety Package is not new money; rather it is being taken from the Indigenous Advancement Strategy.
So the Women’s Safety Package is really an $80 million package, with $20 million taken from another worthy program.
Nonetheless the Women’s Safety Package, announced in September, is very welcome. It includes training for professionals who can help women escape domestic violence, such as police and social workers.
It also funds home security devices to protect women and in some cases their children in their own homes. However, for many women, staying at home is not safe, regardless of security measures.
For too many women being at home is so life-threatening that, presented with no other option, they choose instead to sleep on the streets or couch surf.
Domestic violence is the biggest cause of homelessness in Australia. Clearly, government funding can change this.
Women’s refuges still have to turn away women, as do legal centres, while calls to crisis lines still go unanswered.
Front line staff work tirelessly. But there aren’t enough to them and they don’t have enough resources to help women at that very dangerous time when they reach out for help, for survival.
Every day, women are falling through the safety net of government-funded services and back into violent, fatal hands.
We can save these women by closing the gaps. We need enough government funding so that no woman who reaches out for help misses out on the shelter and legal advice she needs to protect herself and her children.
It’s a matter of priorities.
The government could raise billions in revenue by ending unfair tax breaks for the wealthy.
Limiting superannuation tax breaks for high income earners; ending the capital gains tax discount; ending negative gearing for new investors; and ending fossil fuel subsidies would save $38 billion over four years.
Measures to cut unfair tax breaks for wealthy companies and individuals would have far more chance of getting through the Senate than the cuts to health and paid parental leave proposed in this week’s budget update.
Malcolm Turnbull needs to decide what’s more important, letting millionaires minimise their tax, or leaving women to die.
The National Sexual Assault, Family & Domestic Violence Counselling Line – 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for any Australian who has experienced, or is at risk of, family and domestic violence and/or sexual assault.