Kerry Vernon, Sydney

Domestic violence victim Adele Lynch and her son, Mason, may be alive today if domestic violence resources had been available. The Campbelltown area in NSW has the highest incidence of metropolitan domestic violence in Australia.

Lynch and her son were incinerated sometime at the end of January in her house at Glenfield by her male partner. A coronial inquiry and internal police investigation is underway.

Domestic violence has dramatically increased across Australia over the past 10 years. According to Julie Stewart in the Australian Domestic and Family Violence Clearinghouse (Issues Paper No. 10, 2005), it has become a growing social problem. Over the past eight years, there has been an

alarming increase in the recorded rate of domestic assaults, with females the majority of victims (71.1%) and males the main offenders (80.4%).

Figures released by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) in October 2005 show that between 1997 and 2004 the recorded rate of domestic assault in NSW increased by 40% in the Sydney area and 50% across the rest of NSW. The areas with the highest incidents per head of population were Bourke, Walgett, Coonamble, Campbelltown, Blacktown and Sydney city.

Police records indicate that 36% of all domestic assaults were alcohol related. This January 1, half of all domestic assaults were alcohol related.

Female victims are more likely to be abused by a current or former partner, and male victims by another family member, according to the BOCSAR report. Almost half of all victims under 15 years were abused by a parent or guardian. Indigenous Australians were identified as being more likely to be victims of domestic assault or offenders compared to non-Indigenous

Australians.

Domestic violence, along with sexual assault, has been on the increase while most other crimes are decreasing, according to BOCSAR. The recorded rate of sexual assault is now 132 times

higher than 1990. Police reports show a higher percentage of domestic violence where there is a higher percentage of Indigenous residents, male unemployment, sole parents under 25 years and public housing tenants.

In other words, where resources are minimal, such as in Campbelltown, the incidence of domestic violence increase.

Problems with helpline

In July 2005, the Howard government re-launched its anti-domestic violence advertising campaign, "Violence against women, Australia says no", spending $23 million on a Helpline, TV, cinema and radio advertisements and a national mail-out. But there were no additional funds for services. Up to 300 women and children escaping violence are being turned away from refuges every night around Australia according to Labor MP Tanya Plibersek.

Crisis phone services for domestic violence and sexual assault victims already exist in all states and territories. The Howard government began its new national helpline with little or no consultation with the relevant state and territory domestic violence or sexual assault peak bodies about its effectiveness. The helpline contract was initially given to Lifeline without a public tendering process.

Lifeline had its contract extended for six months until a new public tendering process by the federal Office for Women started in December 2005.

Plibersek said complaints were made to a Senate estimates committee hearing in May 2005 about the federal government's helpline. They included: inappropriate referring of clients; insufficient training for counsellors; little evaluation of helpline or assessment of the demand for services; no official complaint mechanism; inappropriate use of the $100 referral bonus for services; and that women were often asked to call an additional non toll-free number after ringing the helpline.

The Howard government has also refused essential funding to a program that funds accommodation and support for women and children escaping domestic violence.

Women's refuges and other agencies dealing with homeless people, including the Australian Institute of Health

and Welfare, have warned that the joint Commonwealth and state support program for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness (SAAP) desperately needed a 15% increase in funding.

Refuge demand up

The NSW Women's Refuge Resource Centre is campaigning for a funding increase of at least 15% for SAAP to keep up with the greater demand for refuge and accommodation for the homeless.

The severe shortage of women's refuges was exposed by Adele Horin in the November 24 Sydney Morning Herald. Women and their children were being housed in caravan parks, cheap motels and hotels with little or no counselling or support.

Women's refuges are under severe pressure from greater demand: one in two women escaping domestic violence is turned away from refuges every day according to a September 2005 report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. This is because women and their children are staying longer at refuges and because of the general lack of public housing or appropriate support services.

According to Catherine Gander, executive officer of the NSW Women's Refuge Resource Centre, in February and March 2005, 11 metropolitan and country refuges turned away 367 women and 436 children. A new Women's Safety Survey Report, to be

commissioned, will compare the situation today with the 1996 report. Gander told Green Left Weekly that the 1996 report found that only 20% of women experiencing domestic violence reported it to a service provider.

Last September, the federal and state governments signed a new five-year funding agreement for women's refuges and other crisis services. The federal funding share was not increased despite an independent evaluation recommending that a 15% increase, at least, was needed to maintain services.

The federal report, Women's Refuges, Shelters, Outreach and Support Services in Australia, commissioned in 2004 and released in late 2005, pointed out that the lack of refuge accommodation and support services for women meant that they and their children are being forced to go back to dangerous situations. Unsurprisingly, the report recommended that unmet demand and the shortage of crisis accommodation warranted much greater funding.

[For details of the Women's Refuge Resource Centre campaign for funding, go to <http://www.wrrc.org.au>.]

Domestic violence on the rise

Kerry Vernon

In 2002, PM John Howard's government removed $10 million from women's programs. In 2003, the PM cancelled the "No Respect, No Relationship" anti-violence campaign, despite it having been developed over two years and having received international recognition for its sensitivity. More than six months later, the revised federal campaign simply referred people to get help after an assault. The original message about preventing violence had been removed.

Yet, sexual assault is on the rise. From April 2003-2004, 10,100 women were sexually or indecently assaulted in NSW, but by December 2003 only 2707 females had reported their assault to police. This means that only 20-27% of sexual assaults make it onto police records. Of this, only 5% end up with a proven charge and conviction, according to Jillian Meyers-Brittain of the Hunter Regional Violence Prevention Program. Victims are reluctant to report to police and are more likely to report to a crisis service, she said at last October's Reclaim the Night rally in the Hunter Valley.

The rise in reported domestic and sexual assaults may also be a response to changes to the way it is reported, improved police attitudes, and reporting requirements and new child protection laws which make it mandatory to report child abuse. The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research indicates that

rising public concern about child sexual assault and domestic violence may make witnesses such as teachers, doctors, welfare workers and neighbours, more willing to report.

From Green Left Weekly, March 8, 2006.
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