Tuesday, 22 February 2022

Family violence services

Dr CUMMING (Western Metropolitan) (17:27): (1744) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Prevention of Family Violence in the other place, and the action that I seek is for the funding model for family violence providers to be reviewed. Last week I met with GenWest, formerly known as Women’s Health West. They provide services to help victims and survivors of family violence and to support communities to be safe and healthy by running social, education and health programs for people who experience inequity. In 2021 they received nearly 13 500 family violence referrals from police alone. This has grown throughout the pandemic, and its increase is outpacing population growth in my western suburbs. GenWest supports nearly 5500 victims and survivors, but another 8000 are still wanting support.

The grant that they receive is restricted, and they experience chronic underfunding and inequity with other funding models, such as those for drugs and alcohol. They cannot respond flexibly to the changing needs of their victims and survivors. They cannot pay their staff a fair wage that reflects the complexity of the work that they have before them. They also cannot provide support and safety to victim-survivors at the time that they need it. They need greater flexibility in how they are funded. They also need a new costing model so they can actually pay their staff a fair wage. Additional funding of $1.7 million would enable them to reach over 110 000 community members that they should be supporting.

Victoria’s women’s health services are collectively asking for an additional $127 million over four years, and that would actually save Victoria apparently $42 billion over the same period. It seems a small cost now for a very valuable and much-needed service that will also generate a considerable cost saving. In my conversations with GenWest they said they had just rebranded because they want to help male victims and survivors as well—the whole family.