Seven Hunter domestic and family violence services state their election priorities
Port Stephens Examiner
March 12 2023 – 3.00pm
Seven Hunter-based domestic and family violence services have banded together to call on the state election candidates to make commitments arounds its top priorities.
In the lead up the March 235 election, representatives from Port Stephens Family and Neighbourhood Service, Domestic and Family Violence, Jenny’s Place, Nova for Women and Children, Carrie’s Place, Newcastle Women’s Domestic Violence Court Advocacy Service, Family Support Newcastle and Got Your Back Sista will meet with candidates and seek a commitment on its three priority areas.
Suellyn Moore, manager of Newcastle Women’s Domestic Violence Court Advocacy Service, said the priorities centre around improving the rights of women and children in accessing “safe housing and to live free from domestic and family violence”.
The first priority is temporary accommodation where a woman (often with children) is unable to secure crisis accommodation in a refuge, so they are funded to stay very short term in a motel, hotel, caravan or hostel.
“We are already living in a housing emergency, a financial crisis, and on top of that Domestic and Family Violence assaults across our electorates continue to increase,” PSFANS assistant manager Ann Fletcher said.
“Link2Home is meant to support already traumatised women and children to access safe accommodation, but the system is failing them.”
She said temporary accommodation is not always safe, and is never a long term solution.
Property and Land audit is also a top priority with the domestic and family violence (DFV) services calling for an audit of all state government owned and managed properties in the Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Port Stephens LGA’s that can be retrofitted for safe, short term accommodation, houses for families and social housing for DFV victim-survivors.
“Every DFV refuge in our region is at capacity, rental properties are non-existent or unaffordable. We know there are women living in their cars, sleeping on a friend’s couch, or returning to a perpetrator,” Sue Hellier, CEO of Family Support Newcastle, said.
A third priority in the upcoming state election for the services is state and federal government collaboration and coordination.
The seven services are calling on all candidates in the electorates of Port Stephens, Newcastle, Charlestown, Swansea, Wallsend, Lake Macquarie and Maitland to commit to its top priorities.
