This was the budget speech everyone in Australia needed to hear last night. The Project‘s Waleed Aly delivered a compelling case for funding to be delivered to a group that is not being heard. Victims of domestic violence.
#ShowMeTheMoney to put an end to domestic violence (written by Waleed & @twhittyer) #TheProjectTV #Budget2015 http://t.co/HUb9SOZyfI
— The Project (@theprojecttv) May 12, 2015
“I’d like to put my hand up on behalf of a group of Australians who might be unable to, or are too afraid to. Or when they do ask for help, they’re too often turned away,” Aly explained. “I’m talking about Australian women, who are regularly beaten, abused and killed by Australian men, usually their partners.”
“Many are women, and many are the more than one million Australian kids affected by domestic violence.”
“I’m also putting my hand up for men. For the Aussie blokes out there who settle family arguments with their fists, often in front of their kids. The guys who engage in psychological torture, and have their partners feeling trapped with nowhere to go. And I’m especially putting my hand up for the blokes out there who, since the start of the year, have murdered 24 Aussie women who were either current or former partners. That’s not one a week. It’s more like one every five days.
“I’m putting my hand up for funding for these guys, because these guys need help.”
Aly talked about Fair Agenda’s ‘What Will It Take?’ report. Fair Agenda produced this report to highlight federal funding gaps that have been leaving women at risk. They include:
- 1800 RESPECT – our national counselling service, had to let 18,631 requests for help go unanswered last year,
- Community Legal Centres (where domestic violence makes up about a third of the work) – had to turn away more than 150,000 people in 2013/14, and
- Homelessness services – a critical support for women who can’t safely stay in their own home – had to turn away 423 people every night in that same period, including women fleeing violence.
Waleed put some of these figures into context. If the hotline received $2.8 million each year it could answer every single one of those vital phone calls. It might sound like a lot but consider it accounts for 1/20th of what Australia will spend on the School Chaplaincy program.
Fair Agenda published this report to set a benchmark for assessing whether or not this budget, and this government, are doing what it takes to keep women in this country safe.
Australia has a problem with violence against women: that much is clear. It is also clear that this problem isn’t being adequately addressed. Did this intimate terrorism that has claimed 24 Australian lives this year, get more than a side note in last night’s bugdet?
It didn’t. If you agree this is unacceptable please add your name to Fair Agenda’s petition. What will it take before we take this seriously?
For support and information about domestic violence please contact The National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service 1800 737 732