By LAURA WAKELY
AN INCREASE in funding for services and programs, training for councils and a whole of government approach is needed to tackle family violence, according to groups in the West.
Organisations and individuals made submissions to the Baillieu Government’s action plan consultation framework for addressing violence against women and their children last month.
The plan sets out how the Government will tackle family violence against women and children over the next three years.
The Government spent $75 million in the 2011-2012 financial year, with $70 million spent on responding to family violence and sexual assault, $2 million on early intervention programs and $4 million on prevention activities.
Women’s Health West (WHW) revealed the organisation provided telephone support, information and referral to 1882 women and face-to-face support to 361 women affected by family violence in 2010-2011.
This was a 50 per cent increase on the previous year and WHW’s report stated the Government should be prepared for an increase in the demand for services.
The submission called for a number of initiatives including that the Premier lead the action plan, a statewide rollout of a court program dealing specifically with family violence and more funding for women’s health services.
“As it stands, family violence intake services are not funded. Rather, funding is reallocated from case management to crisis response – an unsustainable model at a time of rapidly increasing referrals,” the submission said.
One program WHW requested funding for was for a currently unsupported 24-hour crisis response program, which had 2362 referrals from Victoria Police in the past financial year.
A Star investigation last year found Victoria Police recorded 7394 incidents of domestic violence from July 2010 to June 2011 across the northwest.
The Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) made a submission calling for more funding for council programs and activities to address the issue of violence against women and children.
The submission said “unequal distribution of power and resources between men and women, challenge adherence to rigidly defined gender roles and broader cultures that support violence”.
Keilor MP Natalie Hutchins also called for funding for councils so they could identify victims of family violence as well as more resources for police and education extended to primary and secondary schools.
“All levels of the community must understand domestic violence as an unacceptable and punishable crime,” Ms Hutchins said.
