Family violence
Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (18:59): (1763) Tonight I rise on behalf of women and children in Victoria who have been placed in danger not by chance but by the choice of the Allan Labor government – a choice this government has made to cut more than $200 million from domestic violence prevention and housing support. That figure is not just a line in a budget. It is the difference between a mother sleeping safely in a refuge centre or trembling in fear inside a motel room. It is the difference between a child having a fresh start and rebuilding their life or returning to an abuser. The Premier tells this Parliament she stands with victim-survivors, but her government has delayed critical crisis housing projects and defunded an Aboriginal refuge centre in the Wimmera. Meanwhile Safe Steps has been left without the resource it needs to open 28 high-security crisis shelters – shelters that are already built and ready to protect almost 1000 women and children every single year. Instead victim-survivors are being warehoused in short-stay motels, where 93 per cent of critical incidents now occur. They have been turned away from services that were once their lifeline. If the Premier truly stands with Victorian women, she must fund the services that stand in the gap. The action that I seek is that the minister urgently restores the $200 million cut from domestic violence programs and housing supports and recommits to delivering the refuge redevelopments and crisis accommodation this government promised and then abandoned.