The Morrison government has been forced to “clarify” a headline domestic violence funding announcement, after service providers began agitating for more details.
In what the government heralded as a landmark budget spend to address Australia’s domestic and family violence problems, additional funding of up to $150,000 a year to the existing 21 domestic violence services was promised.
The money was to help provide “dedicated mental health supports to women accessing their services”. In addition, ongoing funding of up to $150,000 a year was promised for another seven outreach services in rural, regional and remote Australia.
Five months on, and the money has yet to be delivered. Earlier this week, the Family Safety Branch of the attorney general’s department emailed domestic violence unit services to provide “clarification” over how the funding from the $17.1m package was to be distributed.
“We understand that communications from the department’s Family Safety Branch providing a breakdown of how funding for the measure was calculated has resulted in an expectation that each [domestic violence units] and [health justice partnership] will receive up to $150,000 through this measure, and that at least one provider in each jurisdiction will receive an additional $150,000 to provide regional outreach services,” the email seen by Guardian Australia said.
“For many providers, the division of funding will not be able to meet expectations of $150,000.”
Instead, the email goes on to report, it will be the states and territory governments who distribute the funding in line with the national legal assistance partnership (Nlap), which means it will be for each jurisdiction to decide how the funding is split.
“We appreciate that the contextual information from the Commonwealth may have given rise to expectations which may not ultimately reflect the funding allocation decisions by state and territory governments in practice,” the email says.
“We extend our apologies for any inconvenience. We acknowledge that this may have created difficulties for service providers in forward planning and in your engagement with the states and territories. As we work through the early days of the operation of this budget measure, we will be mindful of ensuring clarity in our communications with you going forward.”
Asked for the need for the clarification, and whether or not the federal government had over-egged its original May funding announcement, a spokesperson for attorney general Michaelia Cash said it was a matter for the states.
“States and territories are best placed to determine how to allocate funds to best meet legal need in their jurisdictions, as they are closer to service providers and the communities they support,” the spokesperson said.
Some states, such as Queensland, are working on providing the promised amount to providers, but the timetable for when the funds will be released remains unclear.
Meanwhile the Morrison government released the draft national partnership plan for domestic violence to the states and territories last Friday, five months after it was first announced. But with only a draft plan, the “landmark” package, which included the $1.1bn for women’s safety, won’t see funding released until an agreement is reached.
With each jurisdiction only now having been given the plan, releasing those funds could take several more months. The federal government has also insisted on providing four equal payments across four years for its funding, while service providers had wanted more certainty, proposing two years in advance.
In order for that goal to be obtained, the individual states and territories would have to forward funds out of their own treasuries.
Still, services just want to see the money start flowing. Michael Smith, CEO of the Eastern Community Legal Centre in Melbourne said demand had only continued to increase during the pandemic.
“We are seeing women and their families in more complex and difficult situations because of the pandemic,” he said.
“Job losses and the withdrawal of programs like JobKeeper are putting households under financial pressure and lockdowns have made it much harder to access critical legal advice and support.”
On average, one woman a week is killed by a current or former partner. The last budget estimated violence against women cost Australia $26bn a year.
