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Perth's domestic violence services stretched thin amid 'national crisis' of gendered violence

2024.04.29

· In short: The CEO of a domestic violence support service in Perth says the extent of the crisis is the worst she has ever seen.

· Starick chief Leanne Barron says the situation is being exacerbated by the housing affordability crisis.

· What's next? An urgent national cabinet meeting will take place on Wednesday to address what the prime minister described as a "national crisis" of violence against women.

As thousands of people rallied against the scourge of domestic violence over the weekend, some of Perth's under-pressure women's shelters were forced to turn away women who were at risk of being killed.

"We had three women requesting support, two of those had children with them, and we weren't able to support them because our emergency room was full," the CEO of domestic violence support service Starick, Leanne Barron, said.

One of those women managed to find alternative accommodation, the second remained in hospital due to the severity of her injuries, while the third had no option but to return home.

"They're women who come through crisis care … and they have a number of red flags which show they're at very high risk of imminent harm, serious physical injury [or] potentially death," she said.

Ms Barron has worked in the family and domestic violence sector for decades and said the current situation was the worst she has seen.

She said it had been exacerbated by the housing affordability crisis.

"One of the problems is that women come into the refuge and then they can't move on into longer-term housing because there's no housing options available for them," she said.

"The other group impacted by the housing crisis are women who are living with perpetrators and want to leave, but they can't leave because they can't access accommodation."

'National crisis'

An urgent national cabinet meeting will take place on Wednesday to address what Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described as a "national crisis" of violence against women.

Over the weekend, tens of thousands of people around the country participated in rallies against gender-based violence, including hundreds of Western Australians who took to the streets on Sunday.

As the Perth rally was taking place, a 35-year-old man was charged with the murder of a 30-year-old woman in Perth's south.

Her death takes the number of women allegedly killed by males so far this year to 27 — almost double the number who died in similar circumstances by this time last year.

Premier Roger Cook did not attend Sunday's rally but said he was keen to discuss WA's GPS-tracking laws for repeat domestic violence offenders during the national meeting.

He wants to "collaborate and co-operate" with other state governments to streamline laws to help track perpetrators who move around the country.

"Creating greater uniformity around laws as perpetrators of family and domestic violence move from state to state may be one way that we can all work together to get better understanding of members of the community who come from other states and are serial offenders," he said.

Cook defends WA's record

Mr Cook insisted "no government is doing more" than his to reduce family and domestic violence as he dismissed questions about whether he would be attending the next rally in Perth.

He reiterated his government was "investing strongly" in the sector through the announcement of $96.4 million of funding in next month's state budget.

More than half the money will go towards expanding family and domestic violence response teams to operate seven days a week.

It will also include funding for the Department of Justice to consult on creating a scheme to allow people to find out whether their partner has an abusive past.

"I know, for some of the governments on the east coast, this has come as all of a big surprise for them, but we've been investing strongly … [this] has taken our investment since 2017 to $422 million," Mr Cook said.

"On a per capita basis, no other government in the country is working as hard as we are to reduce incidents of family and domestic violence."

Funding not enough

While the funding has been welcomed by organisations in the sector, some claim it doesn't go far enough to address the growing crisis.

Jolene Ellat, director of the Domestic Abuse Resource and Training Group, told ABC Radio Perth a multifaceted approach was needed.

"We need a co-ordinated model that targets multiple levels and forms of risk simultaneously," Ms Ellat said.

"Money itself alone will not create this change and there's a number of ways that we can address the risk and reduce that recidivism through a multifaceted approach."

She said that included a national review of all domestic abuse deaths while the accused was on bail or under a domestic violence order.

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Bail reform, tougher policing needed to tackle violence against women, expert says

"This will give us a greater and accurate view of the extent of the issue," she said.

She's also calling for a "nationally consistent bail reform" and monitoring of domestic abuse offenders under community-based orders.

Additionally, she wants to see changes to the court system and police education, saying police need to respond more strongly when breaches of orders occur.

"This includes when abusers continue to coerce and control through systems abuse and play within the grey lines," she said.

"This requires evidence-based expert training to police in order to respond and greater legislation for them to respond.

"We also need to see greater regulation on the industries that reinforce violence against women, such as problem gambling, pornography, social media and the alcohol industry."